Abstract:

This paper outlines the concept of X-efficiency and how it applies to marketing research. It then explores one deceptively simple data collection method that exhibits X-efficiency by utilising the Internet in an innovative way. This method provides a more efficient way of capturing and evaluating consumer ideas using their own words. We believe that this method offers 'sneak preview' of the future of Internet research since it is not a direct replacement of any current research technique. It is an efficient process since it captures consumer opinion, identifying high priority ideas quickly and efficiently, without extensive data processing. This is all undertaken by placing relatively little burden on the consumer, helping to ensure the quality and integrity of the collected data. The approach is based on the notion that clients are most interested in ideas which have the greatest levels of support from substantial proportions of the consumer population. It enhances the survey process from the respondent perspective since it gets consumers involved in volunteering ideas and in the evaluation of ideas that others have proposed.