A Disguised Survey

There are many ways to do market research. While many approaches are traditional, there are several that are a bit more unorthodox. That is the case here with this marketing research conducted by Sony Music. There are several companies now using "gamification." This methodology is simple. It is administering surveys that are disguised as a game. Sony recently did a survey on a new music album but the format of the survey was a quiz.
It is clear why this tactic would be necessary and effective. It is important to get a high response rate on many surveys. People don't really like taking surveys unless they have something to gain from it. By making a survey more entertaining and interactive, more people will want to take it. This will obviously result in a higher response rate. In fact, "gamification" has the potential of being so entertaining some individuals don't even realize they are taking a survey.
We know that one of the main pros for a survey is the low cost. It is important to note that with "gamification," there can still be a low cost because it is really easy to tweak the surveys so they have a game-like format. For example, the article says by rewording a survey question it can be a quiz question.
This new research method is not yet prevalent. It will be interesting to see if it is effective and ultimately becomes a very popular method on the internet.