Online research Italian style – ASSIRM Congress in Milan (10.11.09)
Visiting the very first Italian congress about online market research gave me a “back to the future” feeling.
On the one hand, having experienced the weight of CAWI research in Northern European countries, you can sense how the Italian market still has a long way to go in this respect – approximately 7% out of the national quantitative market research turnover was generated online in 2008 versus 20% and beyond in other countries such as UK, Germany and The Netherlands (source: ASSIRM – Italian market research industry association).
On the other hand it would be too superficial to think that online research in Italy will develop the way it has in other European areas, since the initial conditions are considerably different if compared to 5-10 years ago. Italy is approaching the online research method in a time when web communities such as Facebook are counting millions of members, when tools like online focus group and tailor made proprietary panels are concretely being used and when CAWI research has already shown its shady sides (panel proliferation paired with quality decline and price dumping).
The ASSIRM Congress has been a great occasion for Italian market researchers to discuss about these topics and – hopefully – to put healthy foundation walls to the future Italian online market research.
Personally I really enjoyed the speeches of Franca Ferrari (Doxa) and Federico Capeci (Duepuntozero Research) about brand insight through text analysis on the web and the one by Michele Casula and Alberto Stracuzzi (Makno & consulting) about problem solving through online sampling. The workshop schedule was very tight though, maybe too tight, and I wish next time there will be more room for networking!
Silvia Assirm
