Yes, we did what we promised we’d do, live and in full view of the market research industry. Breaking “MR’s equivalent of the sound barrier,” as we somewhat facetiously had put it when we announced today’s little showcase of our MFourDIY^®.  

Starting today at noon, Pacific, we geolocated members of our million-member all-mobile active panel just as they left 7-Elevens across the nation, and sent them a short survey about their shopping experience.

It took just 2 hours and 19 minutes to land the 200 completed surveys we vowed to fetch in no more than five hours – or suffer public humiliation. We did it with MFourDIY, the first all-mobile do-it-yourself survey platform. Many thanks to those who signed up to watch the data come in on the study's real-time project tracker.

As you’ll see in the chart below, we drew this rapid data from a demographically diverse group that included nationally representative proportions of Hispanics/Latinos, African-Americans and other racial and ethnic groups. And we were particularly successful in collecting interviews from Millennials, a smartphone-centric consumer demo that only all-mobile research can reliably reach.

Today's test was a 5-minute survey, but MFourDIY^® can handle lengthy ones, too. With a 15-minute LOI, you can expect a completion rate of 90%.  

But the point of this exercise wasn’t for MFour Mobile Research to puff out its chest over the unique, proprietary research technology and uniquely responsive market research panel that enabled us to pass the test. It’s to show the market research industry that we’ve entered a new, all-mobile age, and that embracing that fact is the solution to the documented problems of traditional online surveys in recruiting enough participants to collect quality, demographically representative data.

Click here to learn more about MFourDIY^®.

How awesome would it be if you, the market researcher, could get answers from hundreds of shoppers at the exact moment they’re standing in the exact aisle of the exact retailer needed to extract the exact kinds of data you need? And fast?

It would be incredibly awesome. Which is exactly why MFour Mobile Research has made this kind of research possible – make that not only possible, but easy and affordable -- by introducing MFourDIY™ --  the nation’s first do-it-yourself survey-building platform for all-mobile research.

An ongoing series of webinars is introducing the industry to what MFourDIY will let you do, and how to do it.

The topic Thursday morning was Building GPS-Enabled Surveys: A Thousand Completes at Walmart Today.” In 27 minutes, 19 attendees representing major firms and brands learned how to add this powerful survey-building platform to their research arsenals and pinpoint those thousand particular panelists

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MFour’s Chief Product Officer, Michael Smith, started with a brief overview of why MFour’s product – advanced, highly-engineered conduits for fielding surveys strictly to smartphone users – marks a leap ahead for survey-based market research. In a nutshell, because the smartphone has eclipsed desktop and laptop computers as the public’s favored information and communications device, MFour can deliver the panel you need with far more speed and demographic range than any method that’s not fully mobile.

In Smith’s words, MFourDIY clients get “the largest panel” (one million active members, all via mobile devices) with “the most detailed demographics” (including complete, rapid responses from otherwise hard-to-reach groups such as Millennials and Hispanics).

Smith walked the webinar attendees through two actual examples to show how they can build a GPS-enabled survey. MFour had conducted the two surveys within the previous two days, testing its guarantee that you can, in fact, get “A Thousand Completes at Walmart Today” -- or at myriad other retail chains or other business venues on a list we’re adding to all the time.

It starts with having the right advanced technology: a proprietary process MFour calls “GeoValidation”®, which, Smith said, goes several steps beyond other GPS-enabled survey systems. MFour paints a locator bullseye right on the store, verifying that respondents are in fact at the store. That triggers a push notification on their smartphones inviting them to take the survey either on the spot or soon after they’ve finished shopping.

Smith noted that competing location approaches are no more than a tenth as accurate as MFour's GeoValidation®. Others will tell you whether an individual is within about 100 to 150 feet of the store; ours certifies that the person is right at the entrance. You don’t have to ask respondents whether they’ve recently been to a Walmart. You know for a fact that’s where they are right now.

In our test surveys we sought 1,000 completes from members of our mobile panel who’d been GeoValidated at Walmart stores. We were looking for 200 to respond while they were still shopping, and another 800 to answer questions after they’d finished shopping and left the store.

The survey included instructions guiding both groups to the products and displays we were focused on. Some questions tapped into the multimedia capacity of smartphones – researchers can send pictures, video or audio as the basis for questions, or ask respondents to take photos or make audio or video recordings to enhance their answers.

We captured our thousand-respondent quota easily. The average completion time was less than 13 minutes for the in-location survey, gathering 200 in-store interviews within four hours; for the after-visit survey, we landed the 800 responses we needed within 7 hours – even though we’d told those panelists it was OK to take up to 48 hours.

In-Store and After-Visit surveys are just one facet of how MFourDIY is democratizing mobile research. Take advantage of a special introductory discount at mfourdiy.com, and register for one or more of our upcoming webinars, including MFourDIY: Getting Started on May 4 and 18, and Mobile Panel 101: Reaching Millennials and Other Elusive Demographics on May 10.

Click here to learn more about MFourDIY™

NextGen DIY mobile design means no more Monkeying around with antiquated panels and platforms

Dive in at mfourdiy.com

MFour Mobile Research launched MFourDIY, the next breakthrough in fast, accurate, reliable, easily accessible consumer survey data. It’s a new, cost-efficient way to field all-mobile, do-it-yourself surveys by exploiting the vast capabilities of the phones hard-wired to consumers’ hands. MFourDIY extends the unrivaled clout of Surveys on the Go® to anyone who needs excellent market research that can fully include hard-to-reach demographics such as Millennials, Hispanics and African Americans.

Clients can create a free account, design sophisticated surveys and access more than a million consumers via the Surveys on the Go®, mobile smart phone app. Check out the platform by visiting mfourdiy.com

MFour DIY arrives already vetted by forward-looking brands and researchers who’ve stepped up to field mobile surveys during the platform’s Beta-testing. Their experiences speak for themselves.

• “Easy to program and field.” Derek Turk, Vice President of Ratings & Research, Lionsgate Entertainment Inc.

• "The best DIY research.” Micah Mack, Shopper Insights Marketing Manager, PepsiCo

“We’re democratizing all-mobile research. We’ve got the only all-mobile platform and it’s getting rave reviews,” St. Hilaire said.