Methodological Overview

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Darcy Norris
8 years ago
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1 Methodological Overview Gorkana Surveys is an entirely self-serve method of conducting quantitative market research. Our simple to use, real time, cost effective approach to asking questions, enables Micro Surveys (maximum five questions) to be completed (with sample sizes of anywhere between 50-3,000) within minutes and for a fraction of the cost of traditional approaches. The intuitive survey wizard guides users through the process of asking questions, targeting the appropriate audience and scheduling a survey. Questions are then answered within a potential participant s current digital footprint where our dynamic sampling system (DSS) ensures that they are seen only by the online audience a user wishes to target. Results are immediately available via our powerful online reporting tool, enabling users to meet any deadline or make decisions instantly. There are four separate components to Gorkana Surveys: Survey design wizard Dynamic Sampling System Partner network Online reporting capabilities Survey Design Wizard The survey design wizard guides users through a simple process with three main steps that can be completed in minutes.

2 Step 1 Designing questions Gorkana Surveys enables users to ask single answer, multi answer, open ended or image based questions. Potential participants can be screened out based on their answer to a question thereby ensuring only the appropriate participants give their opinion. Anywhere between one and five questions can be asked in a single survey. Step 2 Targeting potential participants Users have the ability to target questions at a specific audience, e.g. only males or participants aged etc. This is done without the need to ask these demographic questions, though these details are included in our online reporting tool. Step 3 Scheduling Questions Surveys can be scheduled either immediately or in the future and either as one off surveys or ones that can be repeated at regular intervals; daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. Dynamic Sampling System Central to Gorkana Survey s approach is our proprietary Dynamic Sampling System, which enables users to sample potential participants according a persistent (anonymous) ID that has been established when potential respondents visit partner sites. The DSS will only serve the questionnaire when someone from the required demographic group is recognised. This ensures that the questionnaire is only seen by the desired audience.

3 Partner Network We do not maintain a panel of paid respondents where surveys are completed for cash; instead questions are seen on our network of partners sites, sites which internet users frequent regularly. Our partner network of websites enables us to serve Micro Polls to upwards of 4 million unique individuals each month. We have partnered with a variety of sites from charity and free ad sites to local newspaper sites engaging with audiences from all over the UK to specialist sites covering hobbies as diverse as boating and biking. Currently we have approximately 1 million requests for surveys each day from our partner sites and using our profiling algorithm we are digitally fingerprinting a little over 5,000 new respondents every day. Maintaining a network of partner sites has a number of significant benefits over maintaining a panel of paid respondents. Speed Asking questions on our partners sites enables extremely high completion rates (often above 20%). This results in very fast project turnaround times. One thousand interviews can be complete in two hours. Questionnaires are more likely to be answered because: a) The questions are asked on a trusted website within a potential participant s current digital footprint. b) Potential participants do not have to leave their normal surfing pattern to answer a questionnaire. c) Respondents are not asked to join an online panel and register their details. d) Surveys are short - limited to a maximum of 5 questions. Cost Users are able to ask questions for as little as 10. This is a fraction of the historical costs of conducting market research. Costs can be kept to a minimum with a DIY solution precisely because we do not maintain a panel of respondents that need to be recruited, managed, incentivised and replaced when they churn. The cost savings achieved by not maintaining a panel are passed on to our users enabling organisations of all sizes to conduct market research.

Online reporting capabilities Results are available instantly so that deadlines can be met immediately. Findings are available online and can be interrogated using our reporting tool.

4 Online reporting capabilities Results are available instantly so that deadlines can be met immediately. Findings are available online and can be interrogated using our reporting tool. Data can be viewed either in the form of bar graphs and line graphs (for continuous data) or tables. Demographic filters enable users to view the results based on user defined groupings, e.g. males The system will then automatically generate relevant comparison with other data that may be interesting, in this case females 18-39, males 40 + etc. Alternatively questions can be used to create more complex reporting, using the answers to one question (i.e. brand of phone owned), to filter other questions in a survey.

5 Interviewing principles We have therefore developed some specific principles to ensure that all potential participants are treated fairly and are equally able to respond. Questionnaire Our questionnaire policy ensures participants are treated as individuals not just respondents, where their time is respected and they are given maximum opportunity to respond. This means that potential participants continue taking surveys. We prefer to think of participants not respondents. Our surveys are as easy to complete as they are to skip. Surveys run to a maximum length of 5 questions. All surveys need to be realistically completed in 60 seconds. Anonymity All participants are anonymous always. We take anonymity extremely seriously and never collect any personally identifiable information. To ensure participant anonymity, survey results are never passed to our partners. The only data that are passed to / from our partners to our survey tool is a randomly assigned identifier for each participant that links to their demographic profile. Participant Exclusion Following completion of a survey participants are excluded from being approached to do a follow up survey for a period of seven days (or the same survey ever). This is to ensure that intrusion on an individual s internet experience is kept to an absolute minimum. For more information please contact: support@gorkanasurveys.com

ESOMAR 26 Questions to help research buyers

ESOMAR 26 Questions to help research buyers The use of internet access panels for sampling and questioning is a relatively new research technique. It will take some time before uniform quality standards