Fieldwork Assistance Ltd

Panel and on-line surveys ~ service description

Using panel surveys to assess brand perceptions, market size, market penetration, competitor positioning and much, much more.

Panel surveys are coming of age as we get to grips with the potential of the internet in market research. Local government has relied on a version of panel surveys - Citzen's panels - for a number of years for consultation purposes, retail has long been an advocate to try to keep pace with fast changing fashions. But can the technique make a contribution to other areas of business and commerce? We think so and have recent experience to support our case.

Consider this scenario. We were approached by a food manufacturer - UK based, turnover in six figures (just) so hardly Nestles, weak regional distribution, no market information - to see if we could come up with a methodology to determine:

• market size
• market penetration
• consumption patterns (size, regional bias, frequency of purchase)
• preferred retail outlet
• brand perceptions
• newspaper, magazine and radio consumption
• product development ideas

There are many companies which would sell their souls for half of this!

Their preferred methodology was focus groups coupled with street interviews but we argued strongly for a panel survey as a better means of obtaining this information.

Panel survey methodology

An invitation to participate in the survey was sent out by email to the 70,000 members on our selected panel all of whom fitted the required demographics: age, gender, location were the main quota requirements. By clicking on a link in the email the panel members accessed the main survey and were then further screened for annual spend. Respondents completed the survey which consisted of both open and closed questions and showed images of various competing brands. As the surveys were submitted we were able to remote limit the number of responses by region/town so that we had an even sample across the UK. The findings were downloaded direct into our analysis software and we were able to boost the survey for areas where there were insufficiant responses.

The outcomes

Ten days after going live the survey was closed (compare that with the time it takes to complete a street interview programme of 400 interviews!). Within the same day the findings were tabulated and sent to the client. Fast, effective and relatively inexpensive!

From this data, it is perfectly possible to draw conclusions about market size and penetration and - this was an unexpected bye-product - it was also possible to refine the marketing strategy to concentrate on a different selection of retail outlets.

There are disadvantages of course. The panel is self selected in that members have elected to join. This is overcome by the sheer number of members as 400 responses out of the 70,000 will be representative of the population of the UK as a whole (see our sample size calculator). And, of course, they must also have internet access so the over 55 age group may be unrepresentative. But if you can live with these limitations the advantages may outweigh the disadvantages. These include speed (you may get raw data back within a week) and control of costs in that you can close the survey as soon as you have enough sample.

There are also advantages shared with some other forms of research such as street interviews. One is the ability to present visuals to the respondent and so get qualitative comments. Logos and packaging can all be displayed on-line.

If you need help working out how many interviews you need to produce statistically reliable findings, have a look at our sample size calculator.

Updated 20-02-2012