Question

Want to earn a little extra cash? Businesses use focus groups and surveys to make better marketing decisions, and they might pay for your participation Visit <www.PaidFocusGroups.com.au and <www.myopinions.com.au>, then review the opportunities available for research participation. Find two more websites that recruit research participants. Write a brief report of what you found, and discuss the implications or companies conducting marketing research when researchers recruit participants this way. (Learning Objectives 2 and 3) (AACSB: Communication; Use of IT; Reflective Thinking) 2

Answer 1

I have put together my thoughts below. Please go through them and develop your answer.

Two more websites that recruit research participants:

https://www.focuspeople.com.au/

https://au.jora.com/Paid-Research-Participants-jobs-in-Melbourne-VIC

There are many others. You may add any other site that you may have come across.

Brief report of what I found?

1. These websites recruit market research participants for petty cash. The conditions for recruitment is bare minimum. There is some background related information asked for but I am not sure how they are evaluated?
2. On being registered, access is given to the surveys and opinion writing. Besides petty cash, some points are also given to the participants that be redeemed for the gift of their choice.
3. The process is quite simple and lucrative. It can be a good source of revenue generation for those who don't have anything better to do in life.
4. They do have very attractive and eye catching websites.

Implications for companies conducting marketing research based on this type of recruitment:

1. No survey or sample for survey can be adequate and accurate to figure out the correct choices and preferences of your consumer. Every survey and sample used for survey and opinion will be flawed, the degree of flawedness may vary. In this kind of marketing research the degree of flawedness will be high.The people who will be joining such paid websites will specially be those who are in need of money and not necessarily the ones who are your potential customers. There is clearly a sampling error built in here.
2. The opinion of such people will be flawed. There is no guarantee that they would have used, tried and tested your product and services before providing feedback on them. Their primary motive is to complete the feedback and surveys to earn money. The quality of feedback gets compromised.
3. Such a sample may not be the right reflection of cross section of your potential customers base. In fact most of your judgements based on such surveys will be distorted.