Marketers get on board with online surveys. (Market Research Update).

With an estimated three-fourths of all farms hooked up to the Internet, online research works well in some situations. "You have to put in a lot of effort upfront, but then it can come through," Monsanto's John Mattingly notes. "You have to replenish the pool of recruited participants over time as some of them drop out, particularly during studies with multiple data collection waves."

Tara Olson of AllPoints Research Inc. says in some instances, such as for preliminary ad concept evaluation, Web-based interviews have replaced traditional in-person focus groups.

Web-based interviews can be less expensive than telephone, depending on the type of sample. "If you're going for a specific number of respondents that meet very specific requirements, then you may have to conduct telephone screenings to find those respondents," Olson says. "If you want to send an e-mail blast to the general grower population, Web-based interviewing can save you quite a bit."

Marinus Van Dijk says the AgriFood Division of Ipsos-Reid has done numerous focus groups online. "Testing ad concepts and having discussions about farmers' purchasing decision process have worked well."

He says the process works like this: contact a dozen or so prospective participants initially by phone, as e-mail addresses may be outdated. Get their e-mail addresses and send passwords to log onto the company's Web site at the time of the focus group. The moderator uses a pre-scripted guide but can add questions as well during the group discussion.

Van Dijk adds that clients have been happy with the results from online groups because they compare closely with the feedback obtained via in-person groups. "Farmers enjoy them, too."