Mercury: Romanian online research lacks infrastructure

While online research increased by 14 percent worldwide in 2006, Romania registered a rise of 1-3 percent, according to Mercury Research Romania, a major local market research agency.

“The current research industry development trend is towards less expensive environments, such as that online. In Romania, as in the rest of the world, it is becoming increasingly expensive to gather data, and companies must find innovative solutions to remain competitive,” Ingrid Lambru (photo), Client Service Director of Mercury Research, told Business Standard.

In most European countries, the share of face-to-face research is dropping in favor of digital survey, online or telephone. Romania is just beginning to develop the necessary infrastructure for such an evolution. Online surveys are registering a superior response rate, according to Kestionare.ro, a local market online research service.

The average response rate for online studies on employee satisfaction are at least 75 percent, compared to 65 percent with the traditional “pen and paper” method. Comments made by participants in online studies tend to be twice as long as responses in the “pen and paper” version, 66 words versus 33. The highest figures are registered in high-tech companies as well as in small-sized enterprises.

“Digital research has multiple advantages in terms of costs, either time or money related. The most important aspect is increasing the penetration rate of internet services,” said Mercury’s representative. In Romania, the penetration rate for this kind of services is about 20 percent.

The value of the global online research market amounted to €2 billion in 2006. In terms of costs, the largest and most expensive online research market is North America, where the average cost of a project is some €20,000. The most attractive region based on costs continues to be Africa, which also registers the lowest gains in this segment.