Market research stays offline

Malaysia -Malaysia lags behind many of its Asian neighbours in the fast growth sector of online market research according to Pulse Group CEO, Bob Chua, speaking at the Kuala Lumpur Asia Business Forum on Consumer Insights this week.

According to Chua, the use of online market research methods were largely driven by speed and cost considerations plus the ability to track real time and include interactive features. Online methods include using SMS, online ethnography, blogs and communities, and qualitative online forms.

Referring to the ESOMAR Global Market Research Report 2007, Chua said Malaysian companies typically spent no more than between 5-7.5% on online market research as compared to the spends of ecnomies like China which spent 17.9% or all market research budget in the online space.

Near neighbour Singapore was spending about 16% in the online space while in countries further afield the spend was even higher including Australia (30%) and Japan (28%).