Influx

The Internet has become a much-used tool to distribute and administer market research surveys. Everyone likes the speed, flexibility and the cost savings that they allow for, especially when compared to the telephone.

However, there is one overlooked downside, your strategic planning leaking out to those who you wouldn’t want to see it.

Today, popular gaming blog, Joystiq posted details of a survey that Nintendo was running to explore new directions for games. It’s probably fairly harmless and not that damaging for Nintendo.

However, it’s very easy to imagine something worse. The combination of nameless respondents searching for surveys to complete, copy and as a worst-case scenario, give to competitive companies, or even send to popular bloggers, is a scary thought for the market research industry and its clients to contemplate.

Perhaps the answer here is for us all to be less focused on the bottom line and to pay more attention to quality. To insist for some control and responsibility from suppliers, perhaps then we will get the results we want, without the worry that our sensitive surveys are falling into “enemy hands.”