by Ian Buchanan

Created on: April 09, 2009

It's not really new, but it's sure a theory that's now widely practiced. Market research has been around for a long time, and in the present age there seems to be a huge potential for people to become professional survey panelists: many Helium contributors write about the ups and downs of the online survey business.

Survey companies come in all shapes and sizes, from the rudimentary to the sophisticated, but the enticement to have panelists sign up is the lure of huge rewards. Cyberspace is full of adverts that say you can earn up to $150 an hour for your opinions, and especially in economically difficult times, thousands of folk do sign up. You're just going to see it written here again, "if it sounds too good to be true"

People sign up because they want extra money the easy way, and by the time they realize the majority of surveys are next to worthless, the companies have used them to garner information that fulfills a commercial contract with a client. Apart from that the survey world is inundated with scams intent only on stealing identity information and email addresses for spam.

Television infomercials really play the economic behavior game to the hilt. High power presentations claim products can perform miracles. Stains will vanish, abs will be things of beauty, hooks will secure 200 pound masterpieces, and a whole range of fanciful products that are only available by telephone for a short time will come screaming through the airwaves. The inevitable "But wait, sign up now and we'll double the offer" tagline has now become part of our language.

What is different is how the internet allows consumers to comparison shop for products and take advantage of competitive pricing. A recent experiment sought the best price on a computer scanner. The most expensive offer was from the manufacturer at $250 plus shipping and handling, and the lowest was from a wholesaler at $165 plus shipping and handling. The experiment actually recommended Amazon which listed the unit for $174, shipping included because the purchase exceeded their threshold $39 for free delivery. Who would have thought of shopping at Amazon for a product like this? More people compare products online before even considering a visit to a store, and often complete the entire transaction on the internet.

The bottom line is that it's not really new behavioral marketing, it's behavioral purchasing that's new. The consumer now identifies a product category and search engines produce a list of suppliers based on what they have on their websites. Any supplier who is not online today simply shows they are out of touch with the modern world. Ultimately the consumer can make an economic decision without all the hype and pressure of commissioned sales staff and the drudgery of driving around from store to store in six feet of snow or driving rain.

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