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A New Era in Customer Driven Marketing - Part Three

Two Interrelated Panel Options...

Branded Panels:
The branded panel, as the name suggests, are those where the members/ respondents know the identity of the end client and have some affiliation with this entity because they buy their products or services, shop at their stores or - in the case of an association - are a member. The advantage of these panels is that they are generally inexpensive to recruit and have high levels of cooperation because respondents or members are anxious to share their views with a service or product provider that they use.

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES:
A national retail chain in a "high involvement" category such as fashion, electronics or food sets up an internet panel of consumers using invitations either at point of purchase or (if they have a reward program) via direct mail. Panelists can be "rewarded" for their participation through coupons, contests or "points". Very large panels can be assembled for relatively little cost and used to track everything from store level satisfaction to attitudes towards new promotions and products.

A consumer electronics manufacturer adjusts its online warranty registration program to include a customer satisfaction questionnaire. In addition every 100th new customer is invited to join their ongoing customer advisory council. This panel grows over time and is used to longitudinally track Retailers - satisfaction with service and support, provide feedback on new products, and examine new advertising concepts. Panelists are rewarded with draws for products and through a coupon program.

Manufacturers - An association in a major disease category such as Diabetes builds a panel of members in order to gauge opinions on breaking issues and evaluate attitudes towards association communications. The association sells access to the panel to pharmaceutical companies active in the category thereby providing needed information and a revenue stream.

Associations - A national courier company creates a panel from a sample of its customer base in order to track levels of customer satisfaction and examine attitudes towards new product offerings and pricing plans.

Business Services - An international hotel chain catering to the lucrative but often hard to poll business travel market builds a panel of frequent stay customers and provides an incentive to join (and participate in individual surveys) via its reward/ loyalty program.

Human Resources - A fast food restaurant chain wants to better understand its employee base - most of whom are young and work part time. An internet panel is the optimal solution since it allows for a quick reading of employee sentiment (including reaction to HR communications).

Media - A prominent daily newspaper builds a panel from existing subscriber lists combined with website visitors into order to gauge reaction to major news stories, examine new editorial features and assist its sales department by providing panel access to key advertisers.

Total Market Panels: So called "blind panels" or "total market panels" (TMP) are constructed such that members/ respondents do not know the identity of the ultimate user. Typically they allow for successive snapshots of an entire market category rather than just the users of a particular product or service. Although typically more expensive to build and maintain on a per panelist basis, the TMP provides a wealth of ongoing information on the behaviour and attitudes of both a client's customers and those of its competition. These panels are usually significantly smaller in size than branded panels since much of the detailed location specific information needed in branded applications isn't necessary for most TMP applications.

Access to TMP type panels has been available from major market research companies for many years. Many buyers have complained however about the high cost of using these panels coupled with the uncertainty about what other surveys respondents may have participated in that could bias their responses. Prior to the development of the internet building most clients could not afford to build and maintain their own TMPs. But now that's changing.

TMPs can now be developed by end clients and their research suppliers in a wide range of high involvement categories. Some examples of TMPs include:

• Consumers involved in fitness
• Cat owners
• Retail level security investors
• Frequent Travelers
• Cruise Ship users
• Computer gaming fans
• Golfers
• Gardeners
• Cigar smokers

In fact it's possible to build a TMP for just about any area or market activity. Recruitment approaches vary widely, from the many opt in lists currently available through web companies, to partnership arrangements with publications and media outlets heavily involved in these categories. Indeed some of the Branded Panels discussed earlier become ideal TMPs for other users - often providing a separate revenue source for the Branded Panel owner.

THE ULTIMATE BENEFIT: PANEL OWNERSHIP
For all but the most sophisticated end users, market research has always been a tool that depends heavily on outside contractors who design surveys, carry them out using their extensive telephone facilities and issue voluminous reports of their findings. Indeed the fundamental business model of telephone based research heavily favours outsourcing; phone centers are expensive to operate and, like airlines and hotels, are most efficient when approaching peak capacity. And since this type of research is expensive, access to this resource is closely guarded with the number of surveys kept to a minimum and only used for the most critical issues.

But in the new world of internet research panels an entirely different equation emerges - one that lessens reliance on outside contractors and makes consumer and customer feedback a regular part of day to day operations. New software solutions now provide end clients with the tools to build their own panels, quickly deploy individual surveys and instantly analyze the results.

Consider the case of a beer company which decided to build its own TMP. In the old world weekly requests for marketplace feedback from brand managers, advertising agencies or public affairs were carefully aligned in relations to cost and timing considerations. At $20,000 plus and at least several weeks for implementation for an individual tactical study, marketing personnel would constantly be forced to deal with the cost/ reward balance. Major providers of these tools include GMI, MarketTools, and Vision Critical.

Today a beer company which invests $100,000 in a national beer oriented TMP (or even less in a branded panel) can have an in house asset which depending on study length can accommodate twelve to twenty studies per year. For the cost of five old world telephone studies the beer manufacturer can investigate its market on specific issues four times as often. The added benefit is that most of the beer companies customers would prefer this form of interaction and can react immediately to video and other images embedded in panel surveys. Also with most panel software it's not necessary to continue asking demographic and other background questions in each successive survey. Most good panel software systems "remember" every answer to every question.

Nowhere is the benefit of Internet research more apparent than for clients who choose to own their panels. Now clients can contract for help on questionnaire design or the analysis of their data only when the require it, while leaving the new software solutions and the power of the internet to do the expensive heavy lifting. In an age where getting "close to the customer" is the mantra of management gurus and business schools this value equation is difficult to ignore.

	TELEPHONE SURVEYS	INTERNET PANEL SURVEYS
RESPONDENT COMFORT	Low - must be at home/work deal with complete stranger	High - complete on own agenda, no need to re-ask demographic questions
ACCURACY	Increasingly problematic with 80% plus refusal rate	Rapidly improving with growing Internet penetration
SPEED	Slow - most surveys take three to four weeks	Fast - results usually available in a few days
FLEXIBILITY	Very limited - only the spoken word is communicated	Unlimited - pictures, video and simulated shopping
COST	$20 plus each to complete	Inexpensive - Internet panel survey cost as low as $1 each
ANALYSIS OPTIONS	Limited - crosstabs from current study	Extensive - time series and logitudinal analysis

Reprinted with permission from Angus Reid. Read the full article at http://angus-reid.com.

Posted on November 28, 2004
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