On the consultancy and advisory side of Decipher, we have often had some serious bones of contention with how your average consumer survey or tracker goes about measuring things such as take-up of devices, ownership and behaviour. We are consistently irritated with the banality and surface level nature of the questions which are asked in said trackers….not mentioning any names of course! We have long stressed to survey providers and quantitative research companies that with the fast moving nature of TV tech it simply is not enough to ask questions such as ‘Do you have a Smart TV?’ without enquiring as to its make or model. Likewise it is insufficient to ask questions such as ‘How often do you use iPlayer?’ without also discovering whether this use is in home or away from home, what device it is through and a multitude of other crucial but slightly weird questions. It might seem like we’re nit-picking here, but going deeper than surface level when asking these questions is vital in any serious attempt to put together a true picture of consumer behaviour with regard to this world.
Finally, Decipher has its own Tracker!
December 18, 2012