Customer Reviews

The Handbook of Online Marketing Research: Knowing Your Customer Using the Net

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is packed with good information. I saw the review in Wired,
and couldn't agree more. I've been using the resources identified in
the book and on the companion website. My company did a little
research with some free web survey technology, which wasn't very
useful. Not only does this book explain why (in a way I can
understand and explain to my managers) but it also explains how to do
it right. Lots of good examples thrown in as well. We're gearing up
to run some surveys, and so far, all is well. ... -- I suppose this
book isn't for statisticians, but then, the authors say that up front.
All in all, this is one of the better "how to" books I've
seen for the web.

If you are a professional market researcher this book is far too elementary. For instance, you probably don't need standard deviation explained to you.

If you are a web developer, the examples seem downright amateurish. For instance, the authors provide some Javascript code for selecting website visitors at random, with the instruction that you will need to change variables for it to work for your purposes. That's what functions that accept parameters are for: then you can leave the core code alone and re-use it as often as you want.

Worse yet, the authors refer to "Tickle" as an alternative to ASP or CGI. It would seem they have not done their research. It's "Tcl", or Tool Command Language. Yes it is pronounced "Tickle", but the fact that they don't know how to spell it would seem to indicate they have only heard about it and haven't read anything about it, which is further supported by their assertion that Tcl/Tickle needs to run on Windows. This is patently untrue: like Perl (not "Pearl") it was originally developed for Unix and only more recently has been ported to Windows.

This book is especially at its worst if you have both market research and web development experience. For instance, the authors suggest using cookies and javascript for randomizing sample to avoid bias. However, they never mention that users can turn off both of these features. Excluding people who turn off cookies and Javascript would introduce a similar bias as not reaching unlisted numbers in telephone research.

Now that I've bought this book, the only value I can see that I will get from it is for examples about how not to do web surveys.

At best this book is a very general overview of market research concepts that are not even specific to online surveys. For instance, don't "lead" the respondent.

Its best isn't very good though. For instance, the authors repeatedly refer to Excel as a bona fide analysis tool. No professional worth his or her salt would use such a tool for this purpose.

At its worst this book is full of misinformation about web development. Before I bought this book, I wish I could have read the review that points out the authors' total misconception about Tcl, or "Tickle" as they call it.

Even more incredibly, there is an entry for "Tickle" in the index!

If you are at an intermediate level or higher in either market research or web development, this book is completely worthless.

Finally, someone has come out with the bible for how to do intelligent, well researched marketing and customer analysis online. Having worked for several online ventures, I only wish that their marketing department had had the benefit of reading this text. Grossnickle and Raskin provide examples based on real-world experience, and insight as to how to effectively conduct research and get useful data from that research. Each chapter carefully examines how to approach the various ways of conducting online market research, and how to get the most from that data, in a very clear, very precise manner.

This book should be required reading for any company trying to figure out who their audience is and understanding the space that they are in.

I found this book to be very helpful in understanding a number of methodologies for devloping online products, and written in an accessible manner. In addition, the book provides the reader with the abilty to conduct their own online research. I also checked out the companion website to the book, provided by the authors, which I found very useful. It gives online access to updated research resources described in the book.

If you are a marketing professional, you most likely leverage the power of the Internet in some form for research. This book brings forth the broad tactics (from segmentation to targeting) in a digestible format. If you haven't used the power of the Internet to drive your company's research strategy -- you're missing the boat. Make sure to pick up a copy of this book to jump start your learning process.

This book is an essential tool, not for anyone who wants to conduct web surveys, but for anyone who wants to conduct them well. Grossnickle and Raskin impart hard earned knowledge in a manner easy for a layman to understand. Call it simplistic if you will, but these 2 have been in the web from the start (read their bio). This book helped me to answer questions I didn't even know I needed to ask.

There is some good information in this book but for the most part it is far too simple. For instance, almost no attention is paid to the critical topic of validating user data. I've heard this should at the least be done on the server, and possibly on both the client machine (using Javascript) and the server.

Again, no useful information is presented on the matter of preventing respondents from going back and changing data once they have entered it. These are a couple of issues that have been encountered by market researchers who have already managed a web survey or two.

While this book cannot be all things to all readers, it does claim to be a handbook. Handbook means reference, and I expected these topics to be covered better.

Amidst the socks, razor blade, underwear, and ties under the tree, Santa also left me this very useful (and enlightening book). As a full-time internet product manager and part-time Web site inventor, the timing of this book's publishing and the latest round of online shakeout couldn't have come at a better time.

By reading this book, I've realized that I can prove a concept, test the market, and make sure that my strategies are well-timed and my money well-spent. When I first saw the title, I was a bit intimidated, but I've been happy to find that most of the research techniques described in the book are understandable and able to be done by the entrepreneur with half-a-brain and some initiative. I'm working on my first survey as I write this.

I've worked in enough startups (belly-ups?) to know that even a casual perusing of a book like this could have saved hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars wasted on poorly-formed ideas and off-the-cuff marketing plans in half of the ventures I've worked for or consulted on. While it may be too late for some, there are still millions of great ideas out there, and this book can go along way towards giving them the fighting chance they'll need to succeed now that the great internet party is over.

I bought this book after reading a favorable review in the February issue of Wired Magazine.

I was charged with conducting a Web survey for my company. Reading the book really helped me structure the study, write the questionnaire, and find the right company to collect and tabulate the data .

My results are due back this week.