When Dave Power started J.D. Power and Associates from his living room in 1968, he would stick quarters in customer satisfaction surveys to encourage people to mail back their responses.

From those humble beginnings, the Westlake Village company grew into a giant of market research for automotive brands, consumer products, travel services and other industries.

The company, with more than 700 employees in 18 offices worldwide, is now employing new-media and social networking techniques. People take J.D. Power surveys online and are paid with gift cards or virtual currency for Facebook games. And the firm has also started gathering data from social networking websites and blogs.

“By using technology and human analysis, we can dig down deeper into the minds of the consumer and find out what’s motivating them to buy their products,” said Dave Howlitt, senior director of consumer insights and strategy. “It provides much greater insight into their purchase decisions.”

To gather information, J.D. Power looks for conversations about their clients on blogs or social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Howlitt said these posts often provide different understanding of a consumer’s buying habits than asking a consumer directly about purchasing a product.

And while Dave Power may be gone, Kevin Keegan, senior vice president of global research operations, said the company still uses some low-tech market research techniques, recalling its roots.

“We still have some surveys in the mail where there’s a dollar inserted,” Keegan said.