Implicit mobile research can minimize response bias in Asian markets – published in MRMW

Marketers are realizing that the rapidly changing digital landscape requires new methods to accurately assess how today’s consumers think and behave. To evoke everyday uses of mobile technology, these new methods would be entertaining, replacing fact-based questions with fast-paced intuitive exercises. Implicit mobile research also reduces response bias prevalent in Asian cultures, providing a more accurate representation of consumers’ true preferences.

Published in the Market Research in the Mobile World (MRMW), we talked about how our new mobile approach was found to mitigate the bias produced by Acquiescent Response Style bias in the three Asian countries when compared to traditional methods such as rating and MaxDiff.

The effects of the new mobile methods on the response bias of interest

“Many Asian cultures are characterized by high context effects. In other words, in social settings, much is unsaid. Acquiescence and embeddedness are also prevalent in these societies and can distort survey findings through Acquiescent Response Style (ARS) and Socially Desirable Responses (SDR). ARS is the tendency to agree with propositions in general, regardless of their content, while SDR is defined as the propensity of respondents to answer questions in a manner that they expect will be viewed favorably by others. These effects are particularly strong when explicit judgements are sought and questions are administered by an interviewer who is physically present.

To determine the effects of the new mobile methods on the response biases of interest, a study presenting claims about shampoos was conducted with samples from India, Singapore, and the Philippines, representing variation across Asian cultures, and Australia, a more Western culture where response biases were expected to be less pronounced.

The shampoo category was used because of its universal appeal and high penetration across markets. Claims were selected to represent product characteristics that could trigger different responses across cultures. All were presented in English, commonly used in each of the countries, to maximize the comparability of the results and minimize any effects of translation. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that…”