“This is the beginning of a renaissance in marketing research as well as the media industry following the emerging middle class, the next generation, ageing citizens and the advance of communication technology, Jerome Hervio told The Nation.

Hervio added that this would be a turning point because of the online/social media era. When it came to the marketing research, he said, research companies and consumer brands needed to change their mindsets as consumers’ purchasing patterns had changed.

Following this trend, he said face-to-face research was moving online and to the mobile-phone platform to tap the new generation – Gen Y and Millennials – who made up about 60 per cent of the total workforce.

However, Hervio said that implementing effective data collection from new media was an incredible challenge due to limitations. For example, long questionnaires do not appear to be suitable for online respondents. Therefore, a company should design each question simply but the question must lead to the right answer – truth and real insight.

“The three key concerns are data accuracy, proper interpretation and privacy. Despite having changes in the research approach, the researchers must keep well balanced between research and commercial objectives,” the research expert said.

He said that online research was playing a key role in the market. From what he had witnessed, the online research conducted by brands and marketing research firms was on average less than 5 per cent of total budgets but within the next two years, this proportion could reach 60 per cent.

To gain better insights and better tap new trends in marketing research in this new era, the TMRS will hold its “What Is Coming Next?” forum on Thursday at Pullman Bangkok Grande Sukhumvit.

The event will focus on the changes that are affecting international and Thai markets and societies in order to identify how marketers, advertisers and researchers can adapt to these changes and take advantage of them.

The TMRS expects the event to attract some 300 participants from the marketing, market research and advertising media industries.