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The Consumer Panel Reinvented

Early this February, Marketing News selected consumer panels as this issue’s hot topic. And it’s easy to see why. Today’s consumer research panels have evolved to be faster, more efficient and cost effective – costing almost half as much as traditional telephone surveys. Research panels are quickly becoming the favoured method of research.In the '50s and '60s consumers and marketers met face to face. The '70s brought self-completion methods like mail questionnaires. The '80s capitalized on the telephone but times changed when telemarketers posed as researchers and created a hostile audience. With the internet a new door has opened, respondents have greater control when to participate. This control leads to higher participation in studies and what some might say is more open and honest feedback without the influence of a researcher listening on the phone or watching your every move in a focus group. Researchers are however, augmenting the panel research by using some of the old methods, such as the phone, to conduct more in-depth interviews.

Technology today, [such as Panel+ƒ,› from Vision Critical] has made collecting, caring and maintaining panels much easier and quicker. Consumer panels are made up of people (usually into the tens of thousands) who have consented to participate in research inquiries. For those research die-hards concerned about the accurate representation within a panel, the make-up is controlled to ensure a fair sample from various audiences. If one segment is less responsive, it can be augmented to gather more data and collect a properly representative yield.

It's taken time to evolve from mail questionnaires and telephone surveys to a multi-channel consumer panel, but researchers agree that it all comes back to the desire for efficient primary research.

Posted on February 21, 2007
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