Does Declining Research Projectability Matter?

Conventional wisdom holds that online panels are inherently problematic in supplying projectable findings to the general population — online and offline. Critics assert that online panels aren't representative and that new types of dirt in the data — such as professional survey takers — erode the accuracy of projections. However, it's hard to find any substantive marketing decisions that have gone awry due to using online panel-based research. Why? Because good online panels actually deliver as much accuracy as they give up. Market research professionals should leverage what online panels are good at — speed, cost, and new analytic approaches — and at the same time hedge risk by mixing data collection modes, expanding their analysis framework to create "what if" models, and understanding that sometimes speed of result trumps accuracy and cost.