Transcript Document

Why Buy the Fish When you
Can Own the Fishing Rod?
Leveraging Custom Panels
MRIA, Prairie Chapter
January 2006
Presented by Michael Rodenburgh
VP, Consulting Services
Why Buy the Arctic Char When you
Can Drill Your Own Hole in the Ice?
Leveraging Custom Panels
MRIA, Prairie Chapter
January 2006
Presented by Michael Rodenburgh
VP, Consulting Services
Vision Critical Overview
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Tech firm dedicated to the research industry since 2000
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Focus on MR tools that simply, enrich and empower
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60+ custom panel installs in the past 12 months:
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Services limited to our core expertise - online panels
US teens, Air travelers, Radio listeners, TV viewers,
Canadian women, Canadians 18+, Magazine readers,
Financial Advisors, Loyalty Card holders, Runners
Partnerships with key sample providers (SSI,
eRewards, etc.)
Online Research
 Current value of the North American research
industry: $7 billion
 33% of all quantitative research is being done
online currently
 Value of online research market set to triple in
the next three years, reaching $4 billion by 2008
 In three years that number will be over 66%
online
 As a result, the use of Internet panels will
continue to see explosive growth for the
foreseeable future
“the availability and use of panels has
‘democratized’ the…research scene”
“end clients are more and more convinced of the
reliability of results”
“consumers can share their opinions…in a less
intrusive, more respondent-centric way”
“To put it simply, panels are hot!”
ESOMAR Conference Chair,
Worldwide Panel Conference March 2005
Budapest, Hungary
“Within 3 years, online panels will be the
mechanism by which 50% of all primary
research is done, across industries.”
EVP Marketing,
$10 Billion B-B Technology firm
Types of Panels
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Large national consumer
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Large national B-B
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Industry or demographic specific (public)
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Multi-client/syndicated
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Proprietary
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Blind
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Customer panels
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Recruited from national panel/database
Recruited through industry sources, lists, internal sources
External and internal recruiting sources
Affinity-build
Product design help
Customer councils
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Smaller
B-B
Brand champions
Customer Panel Landscape
Target Market (30m)
• Monitoring, CRM, Email
Customers (3,000,000)
• EFM, CRM, Email
Panel Advisors (30,000)
• Panel+
VIP Communities (300)
• Bulletin boards
• Consolidation likely LT
• Pressure from both sides
Custom Panels vs. Syndicated Panels
Today’s syndicated panel is the ‘telephone omnibus’ of
tomorrow
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“Rent” access to the panel for ad hoc surveys
Custom panels are those that are proprietary to one client
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Respondent contact information and data is typically ‘owned’ by the
end-client
While syndicated panels are useful, many are not perfect
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Rate of professional survey taking inside syndicated panels
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Ease of joining many online panels is creating many professional
survey takers
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Comscore Networks reports that:
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30% of all online surveys are taken by only 0.25% of the Internet
population
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These heavy survey responders each took an average of 80
surveys per quarter in 2004 – that’s about 1 a day!
Drivers of Custom Panels
Why are Custom Panels becoming popular?
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14% of consumers and fewer business decision makers are
accessible by phone – CASRO
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The average response rate of opt-in email lists for surveys is 1.5%
(DMA)
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The most costly components of low incidence consumer and B-B
online surveys today are sample and incentives
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Demand for more, faster, agile intelligence sources
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SPAM and telemarketing backlash
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Desire for client control
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Our prediction is that growth in online panels will outstrip
syndicated panel growth in 2006
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Upcoming research conference in San Francisco will have FIVE speakers
all speaking about some component of custom panels
This All May Not be Good News for
the Research Industry
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An ESOMAR study conducted 5 years ago
regarding how the industry is perceived by senior
executives suggested that the operating model for
the MR industry would change very soon
Research Supplier
1999
Client
Respondent
2009
And it’s happening now…
 Research is going direct to the
buyer…consultants are being cut out of the
equation
 Look at the proliferation of ‘do it yourself’ web
survey tools online:
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Zoomerang.com
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Surveymonkey.com
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Websurveyor.com
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Panel+
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Etc.
 Why, you ask.....?
Custom Panel Benefits
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Cost Savings
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Fast Turnaround
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Information is becoming a commodity, and panels are more cost
effective
Usable results can be gathered in a matter of days
Sampling flexibility
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Strategic segments in the panel can be isolated for specific studies
among low incidence groups
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Longitudinal analysis
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Unlike ad hoc studies, panels allow for tracking behavior over time
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Ownership of panelists
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Clients like the idea of control - nobody else burning out their
respondents, and it utilizes their in-house databases for on-going
research
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Visual stimuli
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Ability to assess still images and/or video formats
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Shorter interviews
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Eliminating common questions from each survey shortens average
survey length, keeping response rates high
Other Panel Benefits
 Provides better information vis-à-vis cause and
effect relationships
 More easily managed on an on-going basis (no
more fighting fires!)
 Reinforces market focus throughout the
organization
 Allows you to conduct research when you
would otherwise not conduct it
Is a Panel Right for My Organization?
Yes, if…
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Sample is difficult to find, low incidence, stringent screeners
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There is a need for ongoing, continuous feedback;
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6 or more surveys of the group will be done within a year
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Cost of tapping third party list brokers or competitive customer
databases are significant-need to cut long term costs
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Desire to build an own your own corporate market intelligence
asset
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Turnaround is needed quickly
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Behavioral or attitudinal data should be tracked across time
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Would like to understand the “why” of CRM/transactional data
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You have an easy, low cost means of recruiting panelists
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Web site links
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Accurate in-house email lists
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Large phone survey that can be piggybacked on to recruit panelists
Separating Research from Panel Mgmt
“online panels require input from many
disciplines outside normal market
research practice…”
ESOMAR Conference Presenter
Worldwide Panel Conference 2005
 The panel manager needs to be:
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Part researcher
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Part advertiser
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Part respondent advocate
The Need for Technology
 A panel is more than an email list and a web
survey
 You need to consider all of the components
required to make the panel work:
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Panelist portal
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Survey authoring & hosting
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Sampling management
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Email deployment
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Online qualitative (online focus groups)
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Real-time reporting
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Panel management
So, you want to build a panel?
Develop Panel Plan & Recruiting Plan
Customize Panel+
(Incl. branding and skins, etc.)
Recruit
Profiling Survey
Ongoing
Panel
Maintenance
Ongoing Research
Quarterly Panel Health Assessments
Panel Plan
 Successful custom panels have a plan that
outlines:
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What the optimal panel size is, based on:
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# of studies
Sample sizes required for each study
Response rates expected
Incidence of segments
Expected churn rate
Panel usage (new product only vs. ad testing vs. customer sat)
 Next , the plan determines the criteria for
representation
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Specific segments required
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Required quotas or subgroups
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Age/language/Region, any others?
Panel Plan
 The panel plan also lays out criteria for:
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Anticipated research program
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Frequency of Contact
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Response rates
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Purge Rules
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Incentives
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Newsletters
 Finally, the plan provides estimates for
recruiting timelines & costs (if appropriate)
Should the Panel be Branded or Blind?
 Branded advantages:
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Clear and real connection to the panelist
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Able to dig down into the relationship between yourself
and your customer
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Much less expensive to recruit
 Blind advantages
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Able to research competitive space without concern for
bias
 Panels can be both blind and branded at the
same time!
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Blended strategy combats source bias and decreases
recruit costs
Panel Recruitment Best Practices
It should be treated it like an advertising campaign –
with a theme and creative direction
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Think about engaging your marketing department, including a
creative director and copywriter
Recruitment method depends on nature of panel, but
can include one or more of these sources:
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Direct mail invitations to customers (branded)
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Telephone recruitment for high value - hard to recruit target
segments (branded)
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Purchased double opt-in email lists (blind)
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Viral marketing and member-get-a-member (blind)
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Media purchase on appropriate business websites (blind)
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Banner/pop-up recruitment from client website (branded or blind)
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Magazine advertising (branded or blind)
Multiple sources is usually highly recommended to
obviate any bias
Panel Composition
 Bigger isn’t necessarily better
 Size of panel is dictated by minimum
sample sizes, anticipated usage,
response rates to each study
 Panel doesn’t need to be representative,
in fact it may NOT be representative on
purpose
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You only need to have the capability of drawing
rep samples from the panel
Optimal Usage
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Panel usage should emphasize frequent, short surveys
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Past experience has suggested optimal number of
survey invitations is between 12 and 24 per year
How big does it need to be?
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Sizing can be based upon anticipated usage of the
panel
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Easy way to estimate required panel size:
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Lower limit: ((number of surveys * sample size per
survey)/12/average response rate)
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Upper limit: ((number of surveys * sample size per
survey)/24/average response rate)
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Therefore, if we planned to have 20 studies at 1,000
completes each, and ran an average response rate of
35%...
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Lower limit: 2,381
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Upper limit: 4,762
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These calculations assume equal distribution of surveys across all
demos, etc.
Panel Sizing – Another Approach
 Minimum sample size for each study in specific
segments
 Example:
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A company has 8 target segments
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400 is considered an acceptable sample for analysis
within any group
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Panel should be able to hold a 35% response rate
without aggressive purging (conservative estimate)
 We can therefore calculate 8 segments*400/0.35
= 9,142 rough panel size
Panel Profiling & Composition
 After recruit plan complete, recruiting and
panelist profiling commences
 Profiling survey becomes the criteria against
which respondents are qualified
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Demographics
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Firmographics
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Category participation
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Lifestyle and values
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Profiling survey can automatically de-duplicate
respondents based on email address
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Profiling survey must include a double opt-in!
Incentives
 People join panels for 3 reasons:
1. Connectors: they want to be part of the
decision making process
2. Pay to Play: they want to be rewarded for their
time
3. Mavens: they want access to the information
collected
 Incentive programs, especially B2B, must
consider all 3 motivations and plan
accordingly
Incentives
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We recommend a 3 pronged incentive plan:
1. Affinity:
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Emphasize the elite nature of the panel
Identify client action items from information collected
2. Rewards:
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Rewards don’t have to be complicated to be effective
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free conferences, magazine subscriptions, free LD, Amazon.com, gift
certificates, charity donations or IT gadgets, prize draws, etc.
3. Information:
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A quarterly newsletter (or a report for B2B panels) written
specifically for panelists using information gathered during
the research reinforces interest in participating
The Case Study - WomensVoiceOnline
WomensVoiceOnline
 WomensVoiceOnline:
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TV viewers (obviously women!) 18 to 54 yrs
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N=2000 (approx) across the country
 Panel used to assess:
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Viewing behaviours
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Movie reviews
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Advertiser studies – shopping behaviours, etc.
 Recruited from a combination of online
advertising, mainstream media (TV ads), and
double opt-in email lists
The Case Study – WomensVoiceOnline
Respondent
Log-in
Panelist
“Lobby”
The Results
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They averaged roughly 1 survey per month
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Key is ability to get results quickly – 48 hour
turnaround is not unusual
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Very high response rates – usually 40% or higher,
sometimes as high as 65%
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Low proportion of non-responsive panelists
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Allowed the network to address sales opportunities
that would not have been otherwise addressable due to
turnaround time
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Provided important insight into the correlation between
viewing patterns and product usage – allowing them to
alter programming accordingly
Only 10% of the
panel have never
responded to a
survey.
Only 182 have
opted out of the
panel since
inception last year.
What’s Ahead for the Future?
 “Respondent for life”
 Sample fodder evolves to respected advisor –
the general public are not ‘lab-rats’
 Panels and councils become function and
industry specific, customized by size, sponsor
affinity, and level of interaction (feedback,
profiles collected, transaction, promotions)
 Integration with CRM, blogs – research turns
into Feedback Marketing
Democratizing Customer Feedback
Can Research Harness this Power of Online
Customers?
 Internet democratizes the consumer
environment
 Can a panel harness the power of the
internet to be both marketing and
research?
 37,000 downloads:
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Tiny Machine
 2.2 million downloads:
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iPod’s Secret
Thank You!
For More Information:
Michael Rodenburgh, VP Consulting Services
[email protected]
(604) 647-3563