Using mobile interviews to conduct product evaluations

Abstract

Innovation may not necessarily be about doing something new. Often it is a case of simply doing something better, perhaps using new technology. This paper discusses the nature of innovation in market research before outlining a new approach to conducting product evaluations, both shelf tests and in-home usage tests. Simply by asking participants to take the survey using their mobile phones changes the location of the test to better match the real consumption occasion and by asking participants to undertake a shopping mission, one makes the shelf test real. Moving closer to reality is, in the opinion of this author, a means to obtaining better data.