{"id":3188,"date":"2020-01-17T19:08:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T19:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/?p=3188"},"modified":"2025-06-17T06:58:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T06:58:39","slug":"misperceptions-of-digital-online-research-and-how-these-are-overcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/misperceptions-of-digital-online-research-and-how-these-are-overcome\/","title":{"rendered":"Misperceptions Of Digital Online Research, And How These Are Overcome"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>\n<p><em>Digital online research is without doubt the optimum way to gather research and uncover insights in the African continent. Yet it is taking time to gain traction. Ejaz Mirza of\u00a0Borderless Access\u00a0discusses some of the misperceptions that exist around the industry &#8211; and how progressive service providers are addressing these.<\/em><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the greatest misperceptions about digital online research is that its only benefit is speed. Of course digital research usually entails a time advantage, but it has become wrongly associated with simply being a faster way to access insights. This often leads end-users to choose it for sub-optimal reasons (such as tight deadlines) rather than because it is the methodology that will best answer their research question.<\/p><\/br>\n\n\n\n<p>In many cases and across categories, digital online research provides a far greater depth of<a href=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> market research insights<\/a> and highly improved data quality. Out-of-home snacking is an excellent example of how much more is recalled by respondents when using this methodology.<\/p><\/br>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"637\" src=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/digital-online-research-provider-1024x637.webp\" alt=\"Digital Online Research Provider\" class=\"wp-image-3195\" title=\"Digital Online Research Provider\" srcset=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/digital-online-research-provider-1024x637.webp 1024w, https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/digital-online-research-provider-300x187.webp 300w, https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/digital-online-research-provider-768x478.webp 768w, https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/digital-online-research-provider-1536x956.webp 1536w, https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/digital-online-research-provider-2048x1275.webp 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>N = 287, 25 to 34 years: 46%&nbsp; 35 to 44 years: 39%&nbsp; 45 to 54 years: 15%&nbsp; Only females<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Digitisation has also led to an increase in offerings springing up, often from providers with technical know-how but little to no research experience. This necessitates the end-use having to invest time in identifying partners of repute.\u00a0<\/p><\/br>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"267\" height=\"177\" src=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/oresti-atricios.webp\" alt=\"Oresti Patricios\" class=\"wp-image-3196\" title=\"Oresti Patricios\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Oresti Patricios, CEO of<br>Ornico and board member of PAMRO (Pan African Media Research Organisation), comments,&nbsp;<em>&#8220;In the digital space there is so much happening that clients have to dig deeply to establish the difference between good and really great data partners.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Borderless Access was delighted to win the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.borderlessaccess.com\/borderless-access-wins-the-pamro-2019-partner-paper-award\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PAMRO (2019) Partner Paper Award<\/a>&nbsp;for best agent to affect industry change. With the abundance of players operating in the digital space, an endorsement of this nature is invaluable in signifying repute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Oresti Patricios I CEO Ornico<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pamro-2019-partner-paper-award.webp\" alt=\"PAMRO (2019) Partner Paper Award\n\n\" class=\"wp-image-3198\" title=\"PAMRO (2019) Partner Paper Award\" srcset=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pamro-2019-partner-paper-award.webp 900w, https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pamro-2019-partner-paper-award-300x225.webp 300w, https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pamro-2019-partner-paper-award-768x576.webp 768w, https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pamro-2019-partner-paper-award-60x46.webp 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>PAMRO (2019) Partner Paper Award<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Borderless Access has assessed limitations that the digital method poses, and has put in place steps to overcome these:<\/p><\/br>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a perception in the market that people have shorter attention spans on their phones than they do in person. However, the data indicates differently: Bev Tigar, LeadBusiness Development Consultant, Africa, Borderless Access, notes that,&nbsp;<em>&#8220;Respondents actually engage for longer on digital than traditional methodologies, spending an average of 12 minutes versus 9 minutes on a survey. Borderless Access is device agnostic, meaning that respondents can utilise mobile, laptop, tablet or whatever digital device suits them best. This enhances the quality and reach of engagement, and can also increase its length.<\/em>&#8220;<\/p><\/br>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"774\" height=\"318\" src=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/genera-data-protection-regulation.webp\" alt=\"General Data Protection Regulation\" class=\"wp-image-3199\" title=\"General Data Protection Regulation\" srcset=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/genera-data-protection-regulation.webp 774w, https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/genera-data-protection-regulation-300x123.webp 300w, https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/genera-data-protection-regulation-768x316.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 774px) 100vw, 774px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Naturally a caution exists around ensuring the privacy of digital data. Borderless Access\u2019 Ejaz Mirza addresses this,&nbsp;<em>&#8220;We are extremely careful about how the ownership and privacy of data is handled. We validate and verify all of our data with relevant compliance bodies such as ESOMAR, which is considered the gold standard in the industry. We are&nbsp;<strong>ISO certified<\/strong>, as well as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>Digital online research is without doubt the optimum way to gather research and uncover insights in the African continent. Yet it is taking time to gain traction. Ejaz Mirza of\u00a0Borderless Access\u00a0discusses some of the misperceptions that exist around the industry &#8211; and how progressive service providers are addressing these. One of the greatest misperceptions about digital online research is that its only benefit is speed. Of course digital research usually entails a time advantage, but it has become wrongly associated with simply being a faster way to access insights. This often leads end-users to choose it for sub-optimal reasons (such&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-methodologies"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.1 (Yoast SEO v22.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Misperceptions of digital online research &amp; how these are overcome|BA Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Online digital market research in Africa The advantages, misconceptions, misperceptions\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/misperceptions-of-digital-online-research-and-how-these-are-overcome\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Misperceptions Of Digital Online Research, And How These Are Overcome\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Online digital market research in Africa The advantages, misconceptions, misperceptions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/misperceptions-of-digital-online-research-and-how-these-are-overcome\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Market Research Insights -Borderless Access Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-17T19:08:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-17T06:58:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/misperceptions-of-digital-online-research.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"955\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cindy Bowdan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cindy Bowdan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/misperceptions-of-digital-online-research-and-how-these-are-overcome\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/misperceptions-of-digital-online-research-and-how-these-are-overcome\/\",\"name\":\"Misperceptions of digital online research & how these are overcome|BA Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-17T19:08:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-17T06:58:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7cef99a161a6dc7f1d93f063980cd0fd\"},\"description\":\"Online digital market research in Africa The advantages, misconceptions, misperceptions\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/misperceptions-of-digital-online-research-and-how-these-are-overcome\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/misperceptions-of-digital-online-research-and-how-these-are-overcome\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/misperceptions-of-digital-online-research-and-how-these-are-overcome\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Misperceptions Of Digital Online Research, And How These Are Overcome\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/borderlessaccess.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Market Research Insights - Borderless Access Blog\",\"description\":\"Gain fresh perspectives and insights on global trends for your business growth. 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