WO2002017186A1

WO2002017186A1 - Online website market research system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2002017186A1
Application number: PCT/US2001/025607
Authority: WO
Inventors: Harold G. Washburn
Original assignee: Washburn Harold G
Priority date: 2000-08-18
Filing date: 2001-08-16
Publication date: 2002-02-28
Also published as: AU2001284959A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of doing business and to a system for providing reliable, statistically accurate, online website marketing research information to maximize the effectiveness of the website (1) itself, or the sponsor's ebusiness or business, and, more particularly, to a quick and easy, online interviewing system that generates information output from minimal respondent input effort by linking the results of a large number of very short interviews into a comprehensive set of analytical results, thereby generating a high cooperation rate, a large volume of interviews, a sample that accurately reflects the website visitor population, and that provides comprehensive qualitative and quantitative information, continuously, in real time. The system provides a charitable donation from a charity database stored on a server (8) as an incentive for participating in the questionnaire (40).

Description

ONLINE WEBSITE MARKET RESEARCH SYSTEM AND METHOD

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present method of doing business relates to a system and a method for providing valid, reliable, statistically accurate, website-based online marketing research information to maximize the effectiveness of a website itself or the website sponsor's e-business or conventional business, and, more particularly, for providing a quick and easy, online interviewing system that provides incentives to encourage website visitor participation, and a format that generates optimal information output from minimal respondent input effort by linking the results of a large number of very short interviews into a comprehensive set of analytical results, thereby generating a high cooperation rate, a large volume of interviews, a sample that accurately reflects the website visitor population and that provides comprehensive qualitative and quantitative information, continuously, in real time. The system is particularly useful in generating information concerning the effectiveness of the sponsor's website, e- business or business with which it is associated.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

The business need for marketing research is well known; however, conventional marketing projects, which typically involve mass mailings and/or live or telephone interviews, can be relatively expensive and time-consuming, requiring several weeks, months, or longer to collect, transcribe, and interpret marketing data. Due to costs associated with the interviewing, conventional marketing research is designed to interview as few respondents as possible to obtain as much information as possible from each respondent. On-line, e , Internet, marketing research, which can be administered cheaply and accesses a vast pool of potential respondents, has generally followed the same standard approach with attempts made to glean as much information as possible from those who willingly chose to serve as research subjects. In e-commerce, the need for marketing research is more acute because of fast- changing consumer preferences and the very nature of the medium itself. E-businesses recognize that current success and future growth require an e-business's website, first, to attract visitors but, moreover, to ensure that visitors use and conduct business on the website, and leave the website with a predilection to return and continue to use the website. One of the most effective means to attract and retain visitors is ensuring a pleasurable experience on an e-business's website. If, indeed, "the medium is the message", then conventional marketing practices are inadequate for providing realtime, continuous feedback about website shortcomings. Thus, online marketing research is preferable.

The popular approach to online marketing research has generally taken traditional marketing research approaches and launched them on the web. Typically, this approach involves soliciting visitors via e-mail or on the e-business's website and eliciting as much information as possible from each visitor who responds. Moreover, online marketing research typically consists of long questionnaires with many questions in a multiple-choice, click-the-box format. Click-the-box format requires a visitor to manipulate a cursor using a mouse or similar means to a desired location on the visitor's computer screen. When the visitor places the cursor at a desired location, i.e., on the box, the visitor then depresses, or clicks, the left button on the mouse. There are several shortcomings with popular online marketing research techniques. First, the multiple-choice, click-the-box format tends to be laborious and boring. Second, multiple-choice, click-the-box questions provide only quantitative feedback, supplying no qualitative insight into the visitor's actual preferences. Finally, the expected and actual time involved in completing a long survey deters many visitors from participating in the survey. Contemporary online marketing research techniques require participants to answer a large number of questions (typically 25 to 50) on multiple pages^'. This format may be perceived by the visitor — who is used to Internet input and response that is measured in nanoseconds — to require an inordinate amount of time to complete, and in fact does require an inordinate amount of time to complete. In the case of the former, the visitor simply does not participate in the marketing research. In the case of the latter, the visitor may abort the survey after initially starting to participate. In either case, the result ranges from unacceptable to catastrophic sampling error. As a case in point, in the June 12, 2000 issue of The Industry Standard, an IDG magazine, which is incorporated herein by reference, recently conducted a study about start-ups by e-mailing to over 25,000 potential respondents and receiving exactly 408 responses, for a 1.56% cooperation rate. The only currently available alternative is to use short but unrelated online questionnaires one at a time that are not linked in any way so that producing a comprehensive study is impossible.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In this setting, it would be desirable to provide a quick and easy, online marketing research interview system that encourages website visitors to participate in the survey, producing a high cooperation rate and a large volume of interviews. It would be particularly desirable to provide such an online marketing research interview system that is valid, reliable, statistically accurate, and capable of providing comprehensive results comparable to surveys of long or even unlimited questionnaire length. Moreover, it would be desirable to provide such an online marketing research interview system that produces quantitative and qualitative information from each individual interview. It would also be desirable to provide an online interviewing system that a visitor can expect to complete and can actually complete in a relatively short amount of time to minimize sampling error, which results from aborting. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide an online marketing research interview system that produces continuous, real time sampling.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present method of doing business comprises a real-time, online market research interview system that attracts a high percentage of website visitors to participate in short marketing research interviews by offering incentives. Furthermore, participating visitors are more inclined to complete the marketing research interview, because it is simple and can be completed quickly. The combination of higher initial cooperation rates and lower drop-out rates substantially reduces sampling error. Interview questions are both qualitative, which require participants to prepare short, written opinions, and quantitative, which follow a traditional click-the-box format.

Therefore, it is an object of the present method of doing business to provide an online marketing research interview system that encourages more website visitors to participate in the survey, producing a larger, more representative volume of interviews, thereby reducing sampling error.

It is an additional object of the present method of doing business to provide an online market research interview system that encourages higher visitor participation using incentives.

It is also an object of the present method of doing business to provide an online market research interview system that a visitor can expect to complete and can in fact complete in a relatively short amount of time to reduce sampling error resulting from aborted interviews. It is also an object of the present method of doing business to provide a system of linking the results of an unlimited variety of short questionnaires into a combined, complete and comprehensive analysis.

It is a further object of the present method of doing business to provide an online market research interview system that is valid, reliable and statistically accurate and that provides quantitative and qualitative visitor information from a single interview.

It is also an object of the present method of doing business to provide an online market research interview system that provides continuous, real time sampling at a lower cost than non-web interviewing. The present method of doing business attains the foregoing and additional objects by inviting website visitors, while actually browsing a sponsor's website, to complete a short marketing research interview pertaining to the effectiveness of the website of the sponsor's e-business or other business. A small contribution, e.g., to a charity may be made on behalf of each participating visitor who completes the marketing research interview, or other special incentives may be provided. Each individual interview comprises at least two questions, but typically no more than five, that are displayed on a single, standard-size computer screen usually without a need for scrolling. Interview questions are written in a manner so that it should take a participating visitor less than three minutes to complete. Each interview includes at least two questions, comprising either click-the-box type questions or categorizable/codable open-end questions, or a combination of both. The number of questions and the questions themselves for each individual interview are selected on a rotating basis from a larger, virtually unlimited number of questions comprising the complete study. One embodiment of an interview may include two click-the-box questions for sample classification purposes to establish linkage between opinion questions and demographic/psychographic/behavior profiles for comprehensive analysis, and up to three opinion questions pertaining to the website or the sponsor's e-business or other business. At least one of the opinion questions may be open-ended, allowing the participant to respond to the question freely and in his or her own words.

Interview responses are then analyzed, using digital streaming feedback and free association imaging techniques and quantitative coding techniques for the open- end verbatim questions, and quantitatively, using fractional/factorial design and other standard statistical algorithms in conjunction with the demographic/psychographic/behavior profiles for comprehensive quantitative analysis.

Other aspects and embodiments of the present method of doing business are discussed below. Moreover, additional objects and advantages of the present method of doing business are apparent from the drawings and specifications that follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

For a fuller understanding of the nature and desired objects of the method of doing business, reference is made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figure wherein:

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the present method of doing business;

FIG. 2 is an illustrative embodiment of a website request window;

FIG. 3 is an illustrative embodiment of a charity/incentive menu window;

FIG. 4 is an illustrative embodiment of a questionnaire;

FIG. 5 is an illustrative embodiment of a thank you window; and

FIG. 6 is an illustrative embodiment of an e-mail request. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown in FIG. 1 a method of doing business that comprises a data collection phase 10, which phase comprises an invitation 20 to participate in a marketing research interview, a questionnaire 40 requiring responses to a combination of open-ended and/or multiple-choice questions, and a message of appreciation 80; and an analysis phase 200, which phase comprises qualitative, verbatim analysis of written responses and quantitative analysis of written and/or click-the-box responses. When an incentive 25 is to be offered as part of the method of doing business, the data collection phase further comprises a message 30 that completion of the marketing survey will result in the provision of an incentive, e.g., a prize or a donation to charity on the visitor's behalf.

Initially, the present method of doing business invites a plurality of visitors to a subscribing Internet website, Le., a sponsor's website 1, to participate in a marketing research interview. When a visitor accesses a sponsor's website 1 through the sponsor's server 5, which server supports and controls the sponsor's website 1, the sponsor's server 5 sends a request, e.g., a Java script request for a request window 22, to a remote data collection server 8, which services a plurality of sponsor servers, or may be dedicated to a single sponsor. The data collection server 8 first scans a data base in the server 8 to ensure that the market research interview for the sponsor's website 1 is still active, Le., that the marketing research interviewing time period has not expired. If the marketing research interviewing time period has expired, then the data collection server 8 does nothing further, leaving the visitor to surf the sponsor's website 1 uninterrupted. If the marketing research interviewing time period has not expired, however, the data collection server 8 then reads the number of visitors (N) that have previously accessed the sponsor's website 1 from a second database in server 8. If the number N is equal to the predetermined number, e.g., 500, of total desired interviews, the data collection server 8 again does nothing further, leaving the visitor to surf the sponsor's website 1 uninterrupted. N, however, must then be reset to zero to start a new series of interviews.

If the number N is less than a predetermined number, e.g., 500, then the number N is increased by one and stored again in the appropriate data base in the data collection server 8. The data collection server 8 then causes an invitation 20 to participate, appearing in the form of a request window 22 (FIG.2), to appear, or popup, on the visitor's computer screen 2 on top of any of the sponsor's web pages 1. The request window 22 appears automatically a short time after the visitor has accessed the sponsor's website 1, generally between 5 and 30 seconds. In like manner, the request window 22 closes automatically if the visitor does not respond to the invitation 20 within a predetermined amount of time, e.g., ten seconds. The means of making a message window pop-up and disappear are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

An alternative present method of doing business is to use e-mail 3 to invite a plurality of prospective sponsor website visitors to visit the website 1 and participate in a market research interview. When the e-mailed prospective visitor clicks on or types in the sponsor's special website URL, the remainder of the process is the same as described above, except that a request window 22 is shown to every e-mailed visitor over the sponsor's website 1. The request window 22 is served and controlled by the data collection server

8. The request window 22 is substantially smaller than sponsor's web page 1, which can still be seen behind the request window 22 on the visitor's computer screen 2. The request window 22 can take on any shape, and may be positioned or repositioned anywhere on the visitor's computer screen 2. One embodiment of a request window 22 comprises (i) a menu bar 23, which comprises a minimize button 23a, a maximize/restore button 23b, and a close button 23c to allow the visitor, respectively, to minimize to a bottom line box, maximize or restore to previous non-maximum size, and close the request window 22; (ii) a message 24, which invites the visitor to answer a plurality of questions that require only a short time, e_^ ., two to three minutes, to complete; (iii) an incentive to participate 25, which may appear, e.g., as a raffle, a prize give-away or as an offer to help support a charitable organization, in consideration of the visitor's participation in the marketing research interview; (iv) notice 26 that the invitation 20 is subject to an audit, preferably by an accredited accounting firm to assure visitors of the credibility and legitimacy of the invitation 20; (v) indicia of ownership and intellectual property rights 27; and (vi) a Continue button 28, which, when the left mouse button is depressed, or clicked-on, may connect the visitor to a charity/incentive menu 30 through the data collection server 8, or may go directly to the questionnaire 40. While not absolutely critical to practicing the present invention, offering incentives 25 encourages greater visitor participation in the marketing analysis survey.

In one embodiment, when a website visitor elects to participate in the marketing research interview, the data collection server 8 will cause the request window 22 to close and may access an internal charity/incentive database and cause a charity/ incentive menu window 31 (FIG. 3) to appear on the visitor's computer screen 2 on top of the sponsor's web page 1. If, on the other hand, no incentive 25 is to offered for participation, the data collection server 8 will cause the questionnaire 40, which is discussed I greater detail below, to appear on the visitor's computer screen 2 after the request window 22 has been closed.

The data collection server 8 selects a sponsor's default charity/incentive 34 from a list of charities/incentives that is stored in the charity/incentive database, which is internal to the data collection server 8. The sponsor's default charity/incentive 34 changes regularly, e_^g., weekly, and automatically. The charity/incentive menu window 31 originates from; is served by; and is controlled by the data collection server 8. The charity/incentive menu window 31 is substantially smaller than sponsor's web page 1, which can still be seen behind the charity/incentive menu window 31 on the visitor's computer screen 2. The charity/incentive menu window 31 can take on any shape, and may be positioned or repositioned anywhere on the visitor's computer screen 2. An embodiment of a charity/incentive menu window 31 comprises (i) a menu bar 32, which comprises a minimize button 32a, a maximize/restore button 32b, and a close button 32c to allow the visitor, respectively, to minimize to a bottom line box, maximize or restore to previous non-maximum size, and close the charity/incentive menu window 31 ; (ii) a message 33 offering to make a donation to a charity of the sponsor 34 or the visitor's choice 35 or provide another type of incentive upon successful completion of the marketing research interview; (iii) indicia of ownership and intellectual property rights 36; (iv) instructions 37 on accessing a charitable organization's website; (v) a Continue button 38; and (vi) an Other Charity/Incentive button 39. The sponsor's default charity/incentive 34, which is changed automatically on a regular basis, is displayed in the request window 22 or in the charity/incentive menu window 31, and may show the charity or other incentive's logo. The visitor selects the sponsor's default charity/incentive 34 by clicking once on the Continue button 38 or, in the alternate, selects his or her own charity/incentive 35 by clicking on the Other Charities/Incentives button 39, which causes the data collection server 8 to transmit a charity/ incentive listing window 60 to the visitor's computer screen 2, then double- clicking on the visitor's charity/incentive of choice 35 appearing in the charity/incentive listing window 60. Internet hyperlinks, which are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, that pass through the data collection server 8 and the world wide web to the sponsor's default charity/incentive's website or the websites of any charities/incentives listed in the charity/incentive listing window 60 may be provided to allow a visitor to make an informed choice about any charity/incentive. The data collection server 8 stores the visitor's charity/ incentive selection in an internal, selected charity/incentive database for future use in connection with the charitable donation or other incentive.

Once the participating visitor has selected a charity/incentive by clicking on the charity/incentive menu window Continue button 38 or double-clicking on the visitor's charity/incentive of choice 35 in the charity/incentive listing window 60, the data collection server 8 causes the appropriate window that is displayed on the visitor's computer screen 2 to close and, further, causes an interview questionnaire 40 (FIG. 4) to pop-up on the participating visitor's computer screen 2.

If an incentive is not used to encourage visitors to participate, when the visitor clicks on the request window's Continue button 28 the data collection server 8 causes the request window 22 that is displayed on the visitor's computer screen 2 to close and, further, causes an interview questionnaire 40 to pop-up on the participating visitor's computer screen 2.

In producing a questionnaire 40, the data collection server 8 systematically selects at least two marketing survey questions, which should not exceed about five in the aggregate, from an internal, interview question database. The data collection server 8 continuously varies the questions for the questionnaire 40.

The questionnaire 40 originates from; is served by; and is controlled by the data collection server 8. The questionnaire 40 is initially smaller than a full computer screen 2, so that the participating visitor can still see that the sponsor's website 1 behind it Clicking on the questionnaire's maximize/restore button 41b will bring the questionnaire 40 to full size, filling the visitor's computer screen 2 so that a participating visitor can view the entire questionnaire 40 or the majority thereof without scrolling. The participating visitor will be encouraged to go back and forth between the questionnaire 40 and the website 1 while answering the questions 50. An embodiment of a questionnaire 40 comprises (i) a menu bar 41, which comprises a minimize button 41a, a maximize/restore button 41b, and a close button 41c to allow the visitor, respectively, to minimize to a bottom line box, maximize or restore to previous non-maximum size, and close the questionnaire 40; (ii) an introduction 42, which thanks the visitor for participating in the marketing interview and, if appropriate, reminds the visitor that a donation will be made, e^, to a charity upon successful completion of the questionnaire; (iii) a plurality of questions 50; (iv) a notice 43 that the offer is subject to an audit by an accredited accounting firm; (v) a warning 44 that all five questions must be answered and that only one donation per participant per site visit is allowed per day; (vi) indicia of questionnaire and intellectual property right ownership 45; (vii) a Submit Answers button 46, which, when clicked-on, transmits the participating visitor's input to the data collection server 8 for storage and analysis; (viii) a Clear Answers button 47, which, when clicked-on, erases all of the participating visitor's input, allowing the participating visitor to start over; and (ix) an Exit This Page button 48, which gives the participating visitor an alternate way to close the questionnaire 40 and abort the interview.

The questionnaire 40 contains at least two questions, and preferably should not exceed five questions. The data collection server 8 selects automatically the questions 50 from an interview question database internal to the data collection server 8. This systematic selection process ensures that the combination of questions 50 is varied constantly to provide a multitude of opinion, demographic/psychographic/behavior profiles. The questions 50 preferably are written so that a participating visitor should not take more than three to five minutes to answer, and preferably less than three minutes. Placing all or most of the presented questions 50 on a single computer screen 2 and making the questionnaire 40 quick and easy to complete reduces the number of participating visitors who drop out, or abort, thereby minimizing sampling error.

The combinations of questions 50 may include any combination of multiple- choice, click-the-box, category identification questions 54, 59 and/or opinion questions 52, 55, 57. Preferably, for a five-question questionnaire 40, at least two of the five questions will be multiple-choice, click-the-box, category identification questions 54, 59 to establish demographic/psychographic/ behavior profiles of the participating visitors. The remaining questions 50 are opinion questions 52, 55, 57, which typically address some aspects or the effectiveness of the sponsor's website 1 or its associated e- business or business. Preferably, at least one of the opinion questions will be open- ended, requiring the participating visitor to enter an original opinion by typing his or her response.

The data collection server 8 permits participating visitors to change a particular response by deleting the undesired response and entering a new one. Furthermore, the data collection server 8 allows participating visitors to change all of his or her responses by clicking on the Clear Answers button 47, which clears all previously selected answers and allows the participating visitor to start over.

Participating visitors may indicate that they have completed the interview questionnaire 40 by clicking on the Submit Answers button 46. Once the Submit Answers button 46 is depressed, the participating visitor's response input is transmitted to the data collection server 8 where the data collection server 8 first checks the questionnaire for validity. If the participating visitor responds to all necessary questions 50 completely, the questionnaire 40 is valid. Necessary questions 50 are those questions that the sponsor has objectively determined that must answer in any given combination of questions 50. Incomplete or partial questionnaire 40 responses to questions 50 may invalidate the questionnaire 40. The data from invalid questionnaires 40 are dumped and typically not used, which is not to say that the data could not be useful. Indeed, useful data can be obtained if a participating visitor provides responses for at least two necessary questions 50. If the information from questionnaires 40 is valid, the data collection server 8 causes the information to be stored in an internal interview information database and subsequently analyzed. The data collection server 8 also causes, e.g., a donation to be credited to the charity that was previously stored in the internal, selected charity database, or an appropriate incentive to be activated. Finally, the data collection server 8 causes the questionnaire window 40 to close and a thank you window 80 (FIG. 5) to pop-up on the participating visitor's computer screen 2 on top of the sponsor's web page 1. The thank you window 80 automatically closes after a predetermined amount of time, e.g., three seconds.

The thank you window 80 originates from; is served by; and is controlled by the data collection server 8. The thank you window 80 is substantially smaller than sponsor's web page 1, which can still be seen behind the thank you window 80. An embodiment of a thank you window 80 comprises (i) a menu bar 82, which comprises a minimize button 82a, a maximize/restore button 82b, and a close button 82c to allow the participating visitor to, respectively, minimize to a bottom line box, maximize or restore to previous non-maximum size, and close the thank you window 80; (ii) a message 83, which again thanks the visitor for participating in the marketing research interview and reminds the visitor that a donation will be made on the participating visitor's behalf to the default charity/incentive 34 or to the participating visitor's charity/incentive of choice 35; (iii) an invitation 85 to obtain more information about the default charity/incentive 34 or the participating visitor's charity/incentive of choice 35, which includes a hyperlink to the default charity/incentive 34 or the participating visitor's charity/ incentive of choice's 35 website; (iv) a notice 86 that the offer is subject to an audit, preferably by an accredited accounting firm; and (v) indicia of ownership and intellectual property rights 87.

Valid information that is stored in the data collection server's 8 internal interview information database comes in two varieties: word input data 100 and click- the-box data 110. Word input data 100 undergo a plurality of analyses. First, verbatim analysis software 120, employing linguistic technology and statistical algorithms, which are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, performs basic word and phrase frequency analyses of the participating visitor's responses to open-ended questions. The verbatim analysis software 120 produces a complete verbatim transcript 130 of the participating visitor's responses to open-ended questions. Furthermore, the verbatim analysis software 120 identifies, e.g., words, common word roots, synonymous words, word groups or clusters, word descriptors, and phrases with the highest frequency of occurrence in a participating visitor's open-ended responses. In addition, the verbatim analysis software 120 filters out extraneous, or trivial, words such as "the", "a", "an", "of, "is", etc. to categorize and rank order the most critical, high frequency words, synonymous words, word phrases, word clusters, and word descriptors. Due to the versatility of commercially available verbatim analysis software 120, verbatim responses 100 to open-ended questions are processed to provide information in almost any format desired by a sponsor.

Secondly, the participating visitor's filtered and categorized verbatim responses are automatically coded into ASCII format by commercially available software 140, which is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

The ASCII-coded verbatim responses 150 and the click-the-box responses 110, which are already in ASCII format, then are analyzed using fractional/factorial analysis software 160, which is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, to build a complete comprehensive cross tabulation analysis 170. Fractional/factorial analysis software 160 processes and sorts responses of participating visitors using demographie/psychographic/behavior profiles that are established by the click-the-box responses 110 by a process known in the art as fractional/factorial design. In this manner, "fractional", or piecemeal, responses from a plurality of participating visitors with identical demographic/psychographic/behavior profiles can be linked or combined to provide a "complete" marketing research cross tabulation of interviews that is statistically relevant.

A common form of fractional/factorial analysis in one embodiment of the present invention is conjoint analysis, which is typically used by those skilled in the art to understand how respondents develop preferences for products or services. Each conjoint study respondent typically evaluates the value or utility of a product or service based on the presentation of a partial list of possible attributes, rather than being asked to evaluate every possible alternative attribute, which would be logistically impossible or at least impractical. Fractional/factorial analysis software 160 then provides an overall evaluation of the products or services by combining a large number of partial interviews into a comprehensive analysis 170.

Thus, a marketing research survey that comprises, e.g., fifty questions, which is completed by, one thousand participating website visitors, each answering a random five of the fifty questions, thereby producing five thousand data points, is statistically equivalent to one hundred telephone interviewees answering all fifty questions, which also produces five thousand data points. In short, a sponsor receives quantitative and qualitative information from a large number of short, online interviews that otherwise would be more costly to produce by other methods such as telephone or direct mail interviews, and provides much more accurate results than conventional online interviewing because it avoids the sampling error produced by heavy drop-out or aborting of long interviews online.

The verbatim transcript 130 and the cross tabulation analysis 170 are finally subject to conventional qualitative and quantitative analyses 180, which are well known to one of ordinary skill in the art, to evaluate the overall effectiveness of a sponsor's web page 1 or its associated e-business, or other business.

Although a preferred embodiment of the method for doing business has been described using specific terms, such description is for illustrative purposes only, and it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the following claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A system for providing online marketing research data from a plurality of Internet interviews conducted through an Internet visitor's computer, which computer has a screen, wherein the visitor's computer has accessed a sponsor's Internet website, comprising:

a sponsor's server to support and control the sponsor's Internet website, which sends graphical Internet web pages of information to the visitor's computer, which pages are suitable for display on the visitor's computer screen;

a data collection server, containing a plurality of databases, which data collection server is connected to at least one sponsor's server, wherein the data collection server controls a data collection sequence from which marketing research data is derived;

a data collection sequence comprising a request window followed by a questionnaire, having a plurality of questions;

addressable memory for storing a plurality of visitor responses to the plurality of questions appearing in the questionnaire in a plurality of temporary response files in the data collection server;

a data analysis means, to process visitor responses to the plurality of questions in the questionnaire; and

marketing research interview output, wherein the marketing research interview output provides qualitative and qualitative information about the sponsor's Internet website, e-business, and business.

2. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 1, wherein the system further comprises at least one form of incentive to participate in an online marketing research survey.

3. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 2, wherein the form of incentive is a charitable donation to at least one chosen charity, wherein any charitable donations is subject to periodic audit.

4. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 1, wherein a visitor has accessed the sponsor's Internet website in response to an email message to participate in an online marketing research survey.

5. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 1, wherein the data collection sequence further comprises:

a response validation detector, which insures that the visitor has provided a response to selected questions in the questionnaire, and

a thank you window;

which follow the questionnaire in the data collection sequence.

6. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 1, wherein the data collection sequence further comprises:

a charity/incentive menu window, from which a default charity/incentive is chosen, and

a charity/incentive listing window, from which an alternate charity/incentive is chosen;

which follow the request window and precede the questionnaire in the data collection sequence.

7. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 1, wherein the sponsor's server requests the data collection server to initiate the data collection sequence, which sends to the visitor's computer a plurality of graphical interactive messages that cause a plurality of windows to be displayed on the visitor's computer screen.

8. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 1 , wherein the data control server causes the request window; comprising:

a menu bar, further comprising a minimize button, a maximize/restore button, and a close button, which buttons allow the visitor, respectively, to minimize to a bottom line box, maximize or restore to a previous non-maximum size, and close the request window;

a message, wherein the message invites the Internet visitor to answer a plurality of questions that requires a short time to complete; and

a continue button;

to be displayed on the visitor's computer screen within about five to about thirty seconds after the visitor has accessed the sponsor's Internet website.

9. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 8, wherein the request window further comprises:

an incentive for completing the questionnaire; and

indicia of ownership and intellectual property rights.

10. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 9, wherein the incentive for completing the questionnaire is a prize.

11. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 9, wherein the incentive for completing the questionnaire comprises an offer to make a charitable contribution on the visitor's behalf.

12. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 11, wherein the request window further comprises a notice that informs the visitor that any charitable contribution made on the visitor's behalf is subject to an audit.

13. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 8, wherein the short time to answer the questionnaire is less than about five minutes.

14. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 13, wherein the short time to answer the questionnaire is about two to three minutes.

15. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 8, whereby once the visitor clicks on the continue button, the data collection server, having a charity/ incentive list file stored therein, performs a plurality of functions, comprising:

closing the request window;

searching the charity list file;

selecting a default charity/incentive from the charity/incentive list file, which default charity/incentive is changed frequently by the data collection server;

inserting the default charity/incentive in a charity/incentive menu window; and

causing the charity/incentive menu window to be displayed on the visitor's computer screen.

16. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 15, wherein the charity/incentive menu window comprises:

a menu bar, further comprising a minimize button, a maximize/restore button, and a close button, which buttons allow the visitor, respectively, to minimize to a bottom line box, maximize or restore to a previous non-maximum size, and close the charity/incentive menu window; a continue button; and

an other charity/incentive button.

17. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 16, wherein the charity/incentive menu window further comprises:

a message, wherein the message informs the visitor that, for completing the marketing research interview, the website sponsor will make on the visitor's behalf a nominal contribution to a charitable organization;

indicia of ownership and intellectual property rights; and

instructions on accessing a charity's website.

18. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 16, whereby once the visitor clicks on the continue button, the data collection server, having a survey question file and a temporary chosen charity/incentive file stored therein, performs a plurality of functions, comprising:

closing the charity/incentive menu window;

storing the default charity/incentive in the temporary chosen charity/incentive file;

searching the survey question file to produce the questionnaire;

selecting at least two questions from the survey question file to form a combination of a plurality of questions;

inserting the combination of a plurality of questions in the questionnaire; and

causing the questionnaire to appear on the visitor's computer screen.

19. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 12, whereby once the visitor clicks on the other charity/incentive button, the data collection server, having a survey question file and a temporary chosen charity/incentive file stored therein, performs a plurality of functions, comprising:

closing the charity/incentive menu window;

producing a charity/incentive listing window from the charity/incentive list file; and

causing the charity/incentive listing window to appear on the visitor's computer screen, from which the visitor may select a charity/incentive of the visitor's choice by clicking on the visitor's charity/incentive of choice;

storing the visitor's charity/incentive of choice in the temporary chosen charity/incentive file; searching the survey question file to produce the questionnaire;

inserting the combination of a plurality of questions in the questionnaire; and

causing the questionnaire to be displayed on the visitor's computer screen.

20. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 1, wherein the data control server causes the questionnaire, comprising:

a menu bar, further comprising a minimize button, a maximize/restore button, and a close button, which buttons allow the visitor, respectively, to minimize to a bottom line box, maximize or restore to a previous non-maximum size, and close the questionnaire; an introduction, wherein the introduction thanks the visitor for agreeing to participate in the marketing research interview;

a combination of questions, further comprising at least two questions;

a submit answers button;

a clear answers button; and

an exit button

to be displayed on the visitor's computer screen.

21. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 20, wherein the questionnaire further comprises:

a notice, wherein the notice informs the visitor that any charitable contribution made on the visitor's behalf is subject to audit;

a warning, wherein the warning informs the visitor all necessary questions from the questionnaire must be answered for a charitable contribution to be made on the visitor's behalf to qualify for an incentive; and

indicia of ownership and intellectual property rights.

22. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 20, wherein the displayed questionnaire is slightly smaller than a conventional computer screen, to ensure that the questionnaire can be viewed on the visitor's computer screen in its entirety without scrolling.

23. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 20, whereby once the visitor clicks on the submit answers button, the data collection server stores each response in the temporary response file.

24. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 20, whereby once the visitor clicks on the clear answers button, the visitor's responses are automatically deleted.

25. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 20, wherein the combination of questions does not exceed about five questions.

26. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 20, wherein the combination of questions requires less than about five minutes to answer.

27. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 26, wherein the combination of questions does not require more than about three minutes to answer.

28. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 5, wherein the response validation detector performs a plurality of functions, comprising:

accessing a visitor's responses stored in the temporary response file;

ensuring that the visitor has provided a response to each necessary question on the questionnaire;

discarding all responses from a visitor's interview in which a response to any necessary question on the questionnaire is lacking;

restoring all responses from a visitor's interview in which a response to all necessary questions on the questionnaire into at least one appropriate response file; and

causing the data collection server to send a thank you window, which the data collection server causes to be displayed on the visitor's computer screen.

29. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 28, wherein the response validation detector further causes the data collection server to credit a charity with a donation.

30. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 28, wherein the response validation detector further causes the data collection server to credit the visitor with an incentive.

31. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 28, wherein the thank you window comprises:

a menu bar, further comprising a minimize button, a maximize/restore button, and a close button, which buttons allow the visitor, respectively, to minimize to a bottom line box, maximize or restore to a previous non-maximum size, and close the thank you window; and

a message extending the website sponsor's appreciation for participating in the marketing research interview.

32. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 31 , wherein the thank you window further comprises:

an invitation to obtain more information about a chosen charitable organization, which includes an Internet hyperlink to a website of the chosen charitable organization;

a notice informing the visitor that any charitable contribution made on the visitor's behalf is subject to an audit, and

indicia of ownership and intellectual property rights.

33. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 1, wherein the data analysis means comprises: a verbatim analysis means;

a fractional/factorial analysis means; ar

conventional interpretation of marketing research interview data

34. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 33, wherein the verbatim analysis means includes verbatim analysis software to provide a verbatim transcript of the visitor's responses, wherein the responses are written responses to open-ended, opinion questions.

35. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 33, wherein the verbatim analysis means includes verbatim analysis software to categorize critical, high frequency matter comprising words, synonymous words, word roots, word clusters, and word descriptors, from the visitor's responses, wherein the responses are written responses to open-ended, opinion questions.

36. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 33, wherein the verbatim analysis means includes verbatim analysis software to rank critical, high frequency matter comprising words, synonymous words, word roots, word clusters, and word descriptors, from the visitor's responses, wherein the responses are written responses to open-ended, opinion questions.

37. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 33, wherein the verbatim analysis means includes verbatim analysis software to filter out extraneous words from the visitor's responses, wherein the responses are written responses to open-ended, opinion questions.

38. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 33, wherein the verbatim analysis means includes verbatim analysis software to code the visitor's responses in an ASCII format, wherein the responses are written responses to open-ended, opinion questions.

39. A system for providing marketing research data as in claims 39, wherein the fractional/factorial analysis means includes conjoint analysis software to construct a complete cross tabulation analysis of ASCII-coded responses.

40. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 33, wherein the fractional/factorial analysis means includes conjoint analysis software to process the visitor's click-the-box responses to establish demographic/psychographic/behavior profiles.

41. A system for providing marketing research data as in claims 33, wherein the fractional/factorial analysis means uses conjoint analysis design to compile a plurality of unique responses of visitors who share identical demographic/psychographic/ behavior profiles into a single equivalent interview, wherein the single equivalent interview provides statistically accurate market research interview results.

42. A method of providing online marketing research data from a plurality of Internet interviews conducted through an Internet visitor's computer, which computer has a screen, wherein the visitor's computer has accessed a sponsor's Internet website, comprising the steps of:

requesting a plurality of visitors to participate in a market research interview;

having a plurality of participating visitors complete a questionnaire, wherein the plurality of participating visitors provides responses to a plurality of questions;

validating responses to the plurality of questions; wherein the participating visitor's responses are checked to ensure that all necessary questions have been answered;

performing verbatim data analysis on the participating visitor's written responses to open-ended, opinion questions; performing fractional/factorial data analysis on the participating visitor's written and click-the-box responses; and

performing final analysis of marketing research data, wherein results from verbatim data analysis and fractional/factorial data analysis are analyzed by conventional marketing analysis methods.

43. A method of providing online marketing research data as in claim 42, wherein the request to participate is made through email.

44. A method of providing online marketing research data as in claim 42, wherein the method further comprises including at least one form of incentive to participate in an online marketing research survey.

45. A system for providing marketing research data as in claim 44, wherein the form of incentive is a charitable donation to at least one chosen charity, wherein any charitable donations is subject to periodic audit.

46. A method of providing marketing research data as in claim 42, wherein the plurality of questions includes at least two questions.

47. A method of providing marketing research data as in claim 42, wherein the plurality of questions does not exceed about five questions.

48. A method of providing marketing research data as in claim 42, wherein the plurality of questions requires less than about five minutes to answer.

49. A method of providing marketing research data as in claim 42, wherein the plurality of questions does not require more than about two to three minutes to answer.

50. A method of providing marketing research data as in claim 42, wherein a participating visitor's responses to open-ended, opinion questions are processed using verbatim analysis software to identify and categorize high frequency matter, comprising words, synonymous words, word roots, word clusters, and word descriptors.

51. A method of providing marketing research data as in claim 42, wherein the verbatim analysis means includes verbatim analysis software to rank critical, high frequency matter comprising words, synonymous words, word roots, word clusters, and word descriptors, from the visitor's responses to open-ended, opinion questions in order of frequency of occurrence.

52. A method of providing marketing research data as in claim 42, wherein the verbatim analysis means includes verbatim analysis software to categorize critical, high frequency matter comprising words, synonymous words, word roots, word clusters, and word descriptors, from the visitor's responses to open-ended, opinion questions.

53. A method of providing marketing research data as in claim 42, wherein a participating visitor's responses to open-ended, opinion questions are ASCII-coded.

54. A method of providing marketing research data as in claim 53, wherein the participating visitor's ASCII-coded responses are cross tabulated with the participating visitor's multiple choice, click-the-box responses by fractional/factorial design analysis software.

55. A method of providing marketing research data as in claim 54, wherein the fractional/factorial analysis software uses conjoint design methods to cross tabulate.