Simon Jones: Our survey said

Call me a cynic, but when an email lands in my inbox promising details of ‘alarming new data’ or similar, I’m not as immediately excited as I once was.

It used to be the case that any new survey would get the journalistic once over to check out things like sample size and the profile of the demographic that took part, but increasingly, I find myself having to examine just who commissioned the research and what they might want data to show.

As consumer research becomes easier, cheaper and faster to undertake, it makes sense that more businesses and associations will look to leverage the power of its results, but with that comes the risk of diluting the data’s impact.