Why The Internet?

The future of marketing research belongs to the Internet. Internet research system, Decision Analyst has developed marketing panels to prepare for the future.

American Consumer Opinion Online

American Consumer Opinionâ„¢ Online is a Global Internet panel of more than 2.5 million consumers from the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Membership is large enough to conduct surveys in over 100 different countries around the globe, with over 50,000 individuals added each month. Consumers can sign up to become a member in seven languages including, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, or Japanese. Complete demographic profiles are maintained for each household:

Age and Gender

Family Composition

Education

Marital Status

Occupation

Employment Status

Ethnic Background

Type of Dwelling

Household Income

Technology Advisory Board

Technology Advisory Boardâ„¢ is a worldwide Internet panel of information technology and information systems professionals, engineers, scientists, and other technology professionals. Background data on each panelist includes:

Education

Age and Gender

Number of Employees

Type of Industry

Specialization

Job Function

Products and Services Purchased

Contractor Advisory Board

Contractor Advisory Boardâ„¢ is an international panel of general contractors and subcontractors from all segments of the building and construction industry, including remodeling, retrofit, and new construction in residential, commercial, and industrial markets. Information maintained for each contractor includes:

Age and Gender

Number of Employees

Contracting Specialties

Markets Served

Job Title

Ownership

Organizational Structure

Annual Sales

Number of Offices

How Are The Panels Recruited?

Panels are recruited by a combination of online and offline methods (telephone, mail, banner advertising, print advertising, and publicity). The recruiting is designed to make each panel as representative of its target population as possible. American Consumer Opinion™ Online is linked to over 1,000 other Internet sites to provide a steady stream of new panelists. The other panels are recruited by carefully controlled direct methods to ensure that only qualified panelists are enrolled.

Icion™ Sampling

Sophisticated sampling is key to successful Internet Research. With Icion software quota samples can be designed representative of target populations. The software can simultaneously balance samples by variables such as geography, gender, age, income, and ethnicity, with random selection of respondents within each sample cell.

Logician™ Questionnaire Programming

Any type of online questionnaire can be created with Logician programming software, which features algebraic and Boolean logic.

Real-Time, Online Results

The Decision Analyst webserver has an assigned security code where questions and answers can be viewed as respondents submit their results.

Why Use Internet Panels for Research?

Internet panels are better quality than telephone surveys or mall-intercepts according to the company.

Respondents take an Internet survey at a time of their own choosing.

Participants see (not just “hear”) the questions and answer choices.

Every interview is conducted precisely the same way, without interviewer bias or error.

Individuals can take as much time as they need to think about the answer to a question.

Pictures, sounds, and video can be incorporated into the online questionnaire.

Panelists are diligent in answering survey questions because they are paid fairly for their time.

Internet questionnaires can be longer and more detailed than telephone or mall-intercept surveys because of the incentives offered.

How Are The Panels Managed?

Here are some of the things done to help sustain health and growth of panels:

Panel members are compensated for completing surveys: the longer the survey, the greater the cash incentive.

Members' privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity are always protected.

The usage of panel members is monitored and limited. The average panelist participates in only three or four studies per year.

Panel members are entitled to special benefits, services, and links available through our panel websites.

An online help desk provides "live" assistance to respondents during surveys.

Out-of-date e-mail addresses are cleaned from each panel weekly.

All non-responders are systematically removed from the panels.

New panelists are constantly added to keep each panel "fresh";

Recruiting goals are adjusted monthly to keep the panels balanced and representative.

For more information contact Decision Analyst, Inc. at 604 Avenue H East, Arlington, TX 76011-3100; 817-640-6166 or 1-800-ANALYSIS; www.decisionanalyst.com.

Publication date: 05/14/2001