Marketing research using multimedia technologies

This article aims to: • Review the impact of applying multimedia technologies to classic marketing research problems. • Present the different types of marketing research activities about the Internet as the most prominent application area of multimedia technologies. • Discuss the use of multimedia in online surveys in comparison to the traditional paper-and-pencil approach. The main contribution of the article is a discussion of advantages and challenges provided by innovative multimedia and network technologies for marketing researchers. Moreover, we present cues for improving the quality of surveys. The remainder of the article is structured as follows: First, we present examples of the application of multimedia technologies to illustrate the impact of multimedia on classic marketing research tasks. Subsequently, Web logmining, Web usage mining, and Web content mining are introduced as common marketing research fields directly concerned with research about the Internet. Then, benefits and challenges of online surveys are reviewed. Thereafter, we discuss response errors and ethical questions as crucial issues for the quality of data gained by onIine surveys. Finally, we draw conclusions and provide a spot on future developments.