The meinungsraum.at Opinions Online Panel

Transcription

1 The meinungsraum.at Opinions Online Panel Our panel, which covers the whole of Austria, satisfies the most sophisticated quality criteria and is extended on an on-going basis. In this way, we can provide you with the respondents/samples you need quickly and easily. Panel size (January 2015) N = 30,000 Response rate 45% Sex % Male Female Age % years years years years years years years or above 1.20 Austrian Land % Burgenland 3.10 Carinthia 6.50 Lower Austria Upper Austria Salzburg 5.20 Styria Tyrol 5.60 Vorarlberg 5.20 Vienna Household size % 1 person persons persons persons persons persons and more 2.70 Children % Yes No Net household income % Below 1,250 EUR ,250 to 1,750 EUR ,750 to 2,500 EUR ,500 to 3,250 EUR ,250 to 4,000 EUR Over 4,000 EUR Marital status % Married Unmarried, with partner living in the household Unmarried, without partner living in the household Divorced/widowed, with partner living in the household 5.00 Divorced/widowed, without partner living in the household 7.50 Highest level of education % Primary school/lower secondary education/junior grammar school/ special needs school Senior grammar school/vocational school with or without higher education entrance qualification/oneyear polytechnical school Matura (approx. A levels), higher education entrance qualification Other education 6.60 No general school leaving certificate/ no vocational training (yet) 1.10 Highest vocational training % Apprenticeship with final examination Apprenticeship without final examination 4.40 University studies with graduation University studies without graduation No vocational training (yet) OOP Opinions Online Panelservice GmbH 1

2 Gainfully employed % Working full-time (30+ hours per week) Working part-time (up to 29 hours per week) Apprentice 1.40 Pupil 5.20 Student 9.70 Occupational re-training 1.00 Currently unemployed 5.20 Retired, formerly working full-time 8.30 Not working (homemaker) 6.70 OOP Opinions Online Panelservice GmbH 2

3 Our answers to the 28 ESOMAR questions that research buyers should ask providers on the quality of online samples and online panels Company profile 1. What experience does your company have in providing online samples for market research? meinungsraum.at is a full-service market research institute focusing on online market and opinion research. Traditional methods both in terms of qualitative and quantitative research are also part of the portfolio of the institute founded by Herbert Kling in The team of market researchers, psychologists and economists accompanies clients from conceptual design of the study up to presentation and interpretation of the results. The development of innovative interview solutions, such as SujetInsight, SpotInsight, WebInsight, Facial Action Coding and Pageflip, emphasises the institute's leadership in terms of topics among Austrian online market researchers. meinungsraum.at disposes of a panel of some 30,000 registered participants all over Austria. Dropouts are replaced through permanent multi-channel recruiting, thus providing for an optimal panel mix. One special quality feature is the constantly high response rate of around 45%. Sample sources and recruitment 2. Please describe and explain the type(s) of online sample sources from which you get respondents. Are these databases? Actively managed research panels? Direct marketing lists? Social networks? Web intercept (also known as river) samples? Our recruiting process focuses on the two key drivers of the Internet: curiosity and the need to talk. In surveys on subjects from the spheres of society, health, sports and culture, the survey participants are invited to visit specific websites depending on their respective interests to participate in a survey. These surveys are published on subject-specific cooperation sites on the Internet. Through this procedure we find our future panel members wherever they are on the Internet: on special interest sites, forums, in communities. Since everybody has already participated in an online survey before registering with Opinions Online, they all know what to expect. This way of procedure reduces panel mortality while increasing the response rate. The Opinions Online Panel is actively managed. However, it is no community, since the respondents do not interact with each other. Actively managed means: o Active recruiting: the members cannot join the panel by self-selection via the website. Registration is only possible through targeted measures and after thorough examination of the potential participants. o Targeted recruiting: we exclusively address persons who are interested in participating in surveys on a regular basis. That means, we avoid recruiting channels that attract bargain hunters and professional testers. o The panel members enter into a legal relationship with us (GTC). They know that we expect them to participate in earnest, and we know that our panellists expect fair treatment and quick support. o We are in a position to delete the majority of unreliable/untrustworthy panellists before they participate in their first external survey. o By recording the IP address of the panellists, employees of certain companies can be excluded from surveys (e.g. market research & marketing, certain branches of industry). 3

4 3. If you provide samples from more than one source: how are the different sample sources blended together to ensure validity? How can this be replicated over time to provide reliability? How do you deal with the possibility of duplication of respondents across sources? In 78% of all studies carried out by us, the respondents are taken from our own online Access Panel, where we continuously check the quality and identity of survey participants. In instances where we not only use our own panel as the source, we cooperate exclusively with partners of long standing that were selected according to stringent quality criteria, that have their own online panels themselves, applying the same quality criteria as we do (ESOMAR, ISO). Furthermore, with each sample we take care that the sources are distributed evenly across all sociodemographic criteria. 4. Are your sample sources used solely for market research? If not, what other purposes are they used for? Yes, our sample sources are used for purposes of market research exclusively. 5. How do you source groups that may be hard to reach on the Internet? The pool of persons willing to participate in surveys is growing continuously through several methods: especially through traditional advertising campaigns and through member-gets-member campaigns, where existing survey participants invite new ones. However, many persons register for our online panel directly on the website, e.g. after reports in the media. For recruiting, we choose the multi-channel approach: a solid mix of sociodemographic features is provided for by a great variety of sources. 6. If, on a particular project, you need to supplement your sample(s) with sample(s) from other providers, how do you select those partners? Is it your policy to notify a client in advance when using a third party provider? Currently, we use external (third party) sources and buy samples from partner panels for 22% of all samples. This applies in particular to samples taken in countries where meinungsraum.at has no panel of its own (samples outside Austria). In such cases, we prefer to cooperate with national/local providers from the respective country, continuously monitoring their quality and reliability; with most of these partners, we have had positive experiences for many years. We advise our clients in advance whenever we require the support of other panel providers for any project. 4

5 Sampling and project management 7. What steps do you take to achieve a representative sample of the target population? All eligible persons are selected according to the target group definition. A random sample is drawn from among these persons. The size of the sample is determined by the net number of interviews to be delivered and the expected response rate. Should the response rate be lower than expected, a second sample will be drawn. If stratified samples are requested (e.g. a certain age pattern or gender distribution), a random sample will be drawn for each stratum. In order to form samples representative of the target population, the sample will be generated in line with census data. The Austrian Internet Monitor (AIM) serves as a basis of Internet-representative samples. 8. Do you employ a survey router? Currently, meinungsraum.at does not use any Survey routing software, nor is it going to resort to that technology in future. 9. If you use a router: please describe the allocation process within your router. How do you decide which surveys might be considered for a respondent? On what priority basis are respondents allocated to surveys? Currently, meinungsraum.at does not use any Survey routing software, nor is it going to resort to that technology in future. 10. If you use a router: what measures do you take to guard against, or mitigate, any bias arising from employing a router? How do you measure and report any bias? Currently, meinungsraum.at does not use any Survey routing software, nor is it going to resort to that technology in future. 11. If you use a router: who in your company sets the parameters of the router? Is it a dedicated team or individual project managers? Currently, meinungsraum.at does not use any Survey routing software, nor is it going to resort to that technology in future. 5

6 12. What profiling data is held on respondents? How is it done? How does this differ across sample sources? How is it kept up-to-date? If no relevant profiling data is held, how are low incidence projects dealt with? In our three-part registration questionnaire, which must mandatorily be completed in full upon registration, we collect some 130 basic profiling data elements on each member. Additionally, we save all entry channels or sources of the members in our panel, their response behaviour and other survey-related details as well as all data generated in the course of the survey (current as well as past surveys). Accordingly, for each panel member, we have access to more than 600 individual profiling data elements. Since panellists cannot be expected to regularly update their profiling data, our panellists are requested to fill in their profiling data anew at least once a year. At a defined date, all panellists are invited to reregister and enter all data again. In this way, we are able to guarantee that no data set is older than 365 days, on the one hand. On the other hand, it puts us in a position to check the reliability of our respondents. 13. Please describe your survey invitation process. What is the proposition that people are offered to take part in individual surveys? What information about the project itself is given in the process? Apart from direct invitations to specific surveys (or to a router), what other means of invitation to surveys are respondents exposed to? You should note that not all invitations to participate take the form of s. Recruiting for our panel is done in a transparent and fair manner. Already upon initial registration for our panel, each participant will receive precise information about the rules for participation. Participation is voluntary and may be terminated at any time by both parties through immediate and automatic deletion of all personal data. Our panel members are invited by to participate in a study. In this invitation we inform potential participants about the length/duration of the survey, the survey period and the incentive. As some surveys are aimed at panellists with specific characteristics (e.g. pupils, motorists, skiers, salaried employees,...), the respondents are selected for participation in the surveys in line with these specific criteria. That also means that not every panel member will get an opportunity to participate in each survey; accordingly, our panel does not include any right to take part in surveys. meinungsraum.at provides incentives to all its members for taking part in surveys in the form of so-called bonus points. 14. Please describe the incentives that respondents are offered for taking part in your surveys. How does this differ by sample source, by interview length, by respondent characteristics? In order to ensure the panellists' motivation and loyalty, they receive a fair and reasonable reward for their participation in the form of bonus points. As soon as you have collected at least 1,000 points, you may convert them into vouchers or donate them to a charitable organisation. 100 points are equivalent to 1 EUR. You get 1 point per minute of survey. 15. What information about a project do you need in order to give an accurate estimate of feasibility using your own resources? The more detailed the description of the target subjects, the easier it is to make a realistic estimate as to whether your request can be implemented. Ideally, the incidence rate among the population to which the relevant characteristics apply should be indicated. Example: if you want to know the success of your TV campaign in the target group of users of ground coffee over the age of 16, in order to submit a quotation, the provider would have to find out how often the characteristic user of ground coffee occurs among the Austrian population over 16. 6

7 16. Do you measure respondent satisfaction? Is this information made available to clients? The satisfaction of our panellists is measured once a year within the scope of an online survey. The most interesting results will be published in our newsletter and/or upon request made available in any other way. 17. What information do you provide to debrief your client after the project has finished? As a rule, the exact field time, average interview length and the response rate are provided. Upon request, however, detailed statistics about dropouts, median of processing duration etc. may be made available as well. Data quality and validation 18. Who is responsible for data quality checks? If it is you, do you have in place procedures to reduce or eliminate undesired within survey behaviours, such as (a) random responding, (b) illogical or inconsistent responding, (c) overuse of item non-response (e.g. Don t Know ) or (d) speeding (too rapid survey completion)? Please describe these procedures. There is no 100% protection against poor-quality data, regardless of the survey method, be it CATI, CAPI, CAWI or face-to-face. Therefore, the cooperation and honesty of the panellists is the most important condition for high data quality. For this reason, we lay great store by a fair and transparent relationship with our panellists. At least one contact per year outside the usual panel procedures is also part of the communication. From a technical point of view, we monitor the response times, the response behaviour of the participants, we carry out plausibility checks, integrate quality checks into matrix questions, check the plausibility of the number of characters in case of open questions (e.g. one character is too little...) etc., in order to reveal undesired influences. Specifically, we carry out variance checks to identify and remove patterns of random ticking (a). In order to exclude any inconsistent or illogical responses (b), we compare the answers both with other questions within the specific survey and with answers given in previous surveys and with the profiling data of the respondent. We avoid non-response behaviour (c) by demanding a mandatory answer of the respondents for each question. Open questions are checked for plausibility and consistency individually. Respondents are identified as so-called speeders (see above), if they require less then half of the average response time of all respondents to complete the survey. Respondents that are identified as speeders, cheaters or straightliners etc.... during the data check will not be invited to take part in surveys any more and will be allocated a status of non-active. 7

8 19. How often can the same individual be contacted to take part in a survey within a specified period whether they respond to the contact or not? How does this vary across your sample sources? On average, each panel member may participate in two surveys per month. For that purpose, potential respondents will be invited by to take part in a survey twice a month on average. Depending on the field time of the study, no earlier than two days later, we will send an reminder to all respondents that have not replied to the invitation yet or have not yet completed the survey in full. We will send a maximum of 2 reminders to one and the same respondent. Respondents who fail to react will be allocated a status of non-active or removed from the panel altogether: at the earliest after the tenth invitation without any response and after 12 months of complete inactivity at the latest. 20. How often can the same individual take part in a survey within a specified period? How does this vary across your sample sources? How do you manage this within categories and/or time periods? On average, each panel member may participate in two surveys per month. In order to avoid screen outs and quota cells to the widest possible extent, we take care to invite as accurately as possible based on the profiling data available for the respondents. Our tracking system enables us to store absolute and relative participation figures for each respondent, thus controlling the frequency of participation and/or invitation. The tracking data include the frequency of invitations, response rates, dropout rates, number of surveys started, number of surveys finished, recent participation history, number of surveys completed, recent invitation history etc. 21. Do you maintain individual level data such as recent participation history, date of entry, source, etc., on your survey respondents? Are you able to supply your client with a project analysis of such individual level data? Apart from personal data that each participant has to indicate on the occasion of the profiling data survey, the IP address used, the browser used, the operating system used and other survey-relevant data are also stored additionally for each survey (duration, date and time of survey start, date and time of end of survey, time required for each question etc.). Moreover, for each panel member our tracking system stores the source, the frequency of invitations, the response rates, the dropout rates, the number of surveys started, the number of surveys finished, the number of surveys aborted, the recent participation history, number of surveys with screen out status, number of surveys with quota full status, recent invitation history. 8

9 22. Do you have a confirmation of respondent identity procedure? Do you have procedures to detect fraudulent respondents? Please describe these procedures as they are implemented at sample source registration and/or at the point of entry to a survey or router. If you offer B2B samples: what are the procedures there, if any? A check built into the registration process prevents registration of mail addresses already available, highlighting participants with the same IP addresses. Furthermore, a location check is carried out at registration, only allowing registration of participants filling in the registration questionnaire in Austria. In order to prevent the registration of virtual participants (registration via so-called BOTS), a so-called recaptcha check by Google has been integrated on the registration page to block these participants. Finally, apart from confirmation of the mail address, an SMS/TAN process was also included in the registration procedure: potential members must indicate an Austrian cell phone number which an individual TAN code is sent to during completion of the registration questionnaire. Said TAN code must then be entered into the questionnaire correctly in order to be able to complete registration. Registration will not be possible using an already existing cell phone number. Accordingly, through this TAN process, we verify the authenticity of the cell phone number indicated. Moreover, respondents giving inconsistent answers in the registration questionnaire will be deactivated, survey data are regularly compared to profiling data, and the bank data of the participants are inquired in the registration questionnaire, in order to prevent any incorrect and duplicate registrations. Policies and compliance 23. Please describe the opt-in for market research processes for all your online sample sources. After completion of the registration form, the panellists receive an inviting them to take part in the profiling data survey. In the profiling data survey, the respondents must submit to an SMS/TAN procedure and indicate their cell phone number. Only upon consent to transmission of the SMS/TAN being given and upon correct entry of the TAN code transmitted, the profiling data survey can be initiated. Final registration as a new participant will only be effected upon completion of the full profiling data survey (three parts). As of that point in time, registration is deemed to have been confirmed and the participant is considered a full panel member. Accordingly, there is in fact a triple opt-in ( , SMS/TAN, completion of the three-part profiling data survey). The participants are informed that they are registering with an online panel and accordingly can take part in surveys in the field of market and social research on a regular basis. 24. Please provide a link to your Privacy Policy. How is your Privacy Policy provided to your respondents? For more information about our privacy policy, please visit Anyone registering at mein-meinungsraum.at must consent to the data privacy provisions and to our GTC ( Our data privacy provisions require and guarantee: o Honest response o Confidentiality of sensitive information o Use of personal data in compliance with Austrian data privacy law, in particular with the DSG (data privacy act), UGB (business code), ECG (e-commerce act) 9

10 25. Please describe the measures you take to ensure data protection and data security. The entire panel data, survey data, all data of our panel members and other survey-related data are stored on the servers of an ISO-certified computing centre in the Netherlands (ISO standards for IT security systems and management standards 9001, and 27001). Our software provider for panel and survey software and its data centre are also certified under ISO standards 9001 and and apply the following strict security standards: these standards include, among others, physical security measures (fencing, security patrols, external lighting of the facilities, security staff, alarm system, biometric access control...), change management (data centre follows strict change management controls), network security management (firewalls, security patches renewed regularly, monitoring tools,...). Please find all further details here: The servers are secured by daily backups (local and mirroring to servers located elsewhere) and are monitored around the clock, seven days a week. Only authorised and skilled staff has access to the data. Data access is protected through individual user names and complex passwords that must be renewed in regular intervals. Personal data contained in the panel management system and survey data are stored separately in different databases; personal data are passed on exclusively in anonymised form, using pseudonyms. The personal contact details of the respondents will only be passed on with prior consent for any specific project where these data are essential to research. This explicit consent will apply to one specific project only and must be obtained again for each further project. 26. What practices do you follow to decide whether online research should be used to present commercially sensitive client data or materials to survey respondents? meinungsraum.at disposes of a great amount of expertise and many years of experience in the field of online market research. We use our knowledge, our experience and the latest technologies in order to support our clients in protecting confidential content. For this purpose, we use among others nondisclosure agreements which our respondents consent to, or technological solutions protecting images, multimedia data or concept descriptions of our clients in the best possible way. 27. Are you certified to any specific quality system? If so, which one(s)? meinungsraum.at Online MarktforschungsgmbH works according to the standards of the Deutsche Verband für Online-Forschung (DGOF: and of the Verband der Marktforscher Österreichs (VMÖ: as well as according to ESOMAR ( 28. Do you conduct online surveys with children and young people? If so, do you adhere to the standards that ESOMAR provides? What other rules or standards, for example COPPA in the United States, do you comply with? meinungsraum.at Online MarktforschungsgmbH complies with COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), i.e. we will not invite children under the age of 14 to join our panels. Potential participants whose age is below the national minimum age will not be admitted for participation in the meinungsraum.at Online Panel. Surveys among children and young people below the age of 14 will only be carried out with the previous consent of their parents, who are the panel members. 10