Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Polling in the Electronic Age

Ever since the 2000 election, news agencies and other groups have been reticent to conduct polls. The reason: it's getting increasingly difficult to reach people now that they are using so many disparate form of communication.

A new study by the National Center for Health Statistics found that 14.5 percent of the population lives in a household with no landline, a number I frankly found shocking low. The folks at the Pew Internet and American Life point out that those numbers are even higher for people less than 30 (30.6 percent) and Hispanics (19.3 percent).

If those numbers don't strike fear into the hearts of marketing departments everywhere, I'm not sure what will. Companies increasingly need to find their ways into new communication networks to make sure they are reaching not just one demographic, but all demographics.

And that gulf is only going to get wider thanks to Voice over Internet Protocol, Mobile Internet Devices and gadget-filled mobile phones, 830 million shipped globally by 2012, according to market research firm Parks & Associates.

As the gap widens, it's going to be paramount for companies to make sure they have a presence in various networks simply to make sure they are reaching a truly representative group.

Posted By Brad King at 06:19 PM
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