Published on the 25/09/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
A free smartphone app with the potential to significantly disrupt market research – and provide a cash fillip for charities at the same time – has been released by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers…
PricewaterhouseCoopers set up its Australian innovation squad of 110 people with the express intention of exploring market disruption and new revenue models, often in partnership with its clients.
According to Sammy Kumar, managing partner for strategy and transformation at PWC, the organisation understands that it needs to continue to innovate or risk being eclipsed by nimbler rivals.
One of the first fruits of this initiative is the newly released smartphone and tablet app AskU which has been designed with the intent of disrupting the consumer survey market.
Developed in collaboration with The Australian Charities Fund (ACF) the app allows organisations to pose questions to consumers for 20 cents a question. Ten cents of the fee paid for every question answered – essentially the profits available after running the service according to PWC – goes to a charity selected by ACF.
Free on iTunes and Google Play, the app is available for iOS or Android smartphones and tablets. People who download the app can be asked a range of general (unpaid) questions which will help build a profile of the individual user and the AskU community. According to PWC this will allow companies using the service to accurately segment a cohort of people for market research.
Companies can then use the app to pay for specific questions to be asked and answered. They can choose whether to ask the entire AskU community, or a specifically defined subset who would be provided with a unique log on to access the questions.
AskU community members are rewarded by knowing that every time they answer a question a donation will be made to a charity nominated by ACF.
PWC claims that the approach will be much faster and cheaper than conventional market research. Also because the app sits on people’s smartphones or tablets it will be possible to push out market research questions at specific times in order to gauge immediate consumer response to an issue or event.
