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In Tuesday’s FT Chet Henderson of Unilever Insight (the multinational’s research arm) discussed with Carlos Grande why the company had taken the decision to move 80% of its market research to the web. “Internet response are more honest than those gained by traditional methods,” Henderson observed. The article points out that the market researchers hope to save 10% to 20% of the cost of traditional methods. Grande estimates Unilever’s annual market research budget at €400m (£272m) which represents a big endorsement for the credibility of web-based research methods. The article appears to be talking only about focus-group work. There is a lot to be said for such methods, and companies like Baldo Faieta’s Synthetron have some interesting solutions for establishing focus groups online.

Unilever could also consider making use of the data that consumers volunteer themselves online in blog, messageboards and review sites. The advantage of using consumer-generated content to generate insights as to consumer tastes is that it really does give you an honest view of how the consumer feels – as the opinion has not been elicited by a leading question from a market researcher. The companies who use our reporting are somewhat shocked by how rude consumers are online, but once they have recovered from their immediate defensive recoil, they find the honesty of great value – and of course the same consumers are just as rude about the competition! [hat tip to Flemming for spotting this!]