"Thank you VERY much for pulling together the summary for my new Home Décor business. The information provided was very detailed and insightful. Your efforts on our behalf will certainly help us as we enter a new business category.”
How Careful Respondent Screening Assures Quality Research
In a typical client meeting, we often have the following experience. After discussing the problem/topic/challenge we ask, “So who should we interview to explore this subject? How do you define your consumer?” That question is nearly always met with silence. After some time has passed, vague answers such as “Millennials” or “people who cook” or “everyone” are offered. Those answers can be correct, but clearly they aren’t very specific, not nearly so for research purposes.
Strong research starts with the CORRECT respondent base. You can have a great survey, ask all the right questions to get to your objectives, but the answers will be meaningless if you address those questions to the wrong audience. Regardless of the type of research we are conducting we always screen for a carefully qualified target audience. If we’re talking about a cookware product, for example, we might screen as follows (note that all studies are custom and have unique screening):
Age: Must be 18-65. (We go to 65 because we like to include a readable sample of Boomers in most housewares studies - Boomers remain a significant age cohort with very high disposable income (and very different needs!). They likely own whatever product we’re researching but that doesn’t mean that they won’t buy again -- perhaps when downsizing, for second homes, for new homes, for gifts, etc.
Gender: Males and Females (because males make up 15% of all single US households and because males are cooks/decision makers on cooking purchases at high incidence levels)
Household Income: Depending on the product category and depending on the products you are testing or your brand positioning, we will generally try to deliver a household income sample that approximates a hypothesized target. Thus, if we’re seeking an average income of about $50,000, we’ll usually start at $25,000 minimum, which will deliver around a $50,000 average. For an average approaching the national average household income of $65,000, we’ll start at $35,000 minimum.
Product Category Eligibility: We typically include a question that asks something like this:
Which of the following products do you personally use or have a role in the purchase decision of?
- Cookware
- Dishes
- Barware
- Groceries
- Cleaning Supplies
- Home décor or furnishings
- Electronic equipment
Followed by: Which of the following have you purchased in the past three months?
- Cookware
- Dishes
- Barware
- Groceries
- Cleaning Supplies
- Home décor or furnishings
- Electronic equipment
For a cookware study, respondent have to check the cookware box in both questions to participate. Note that the order of the list would be rotated and that high levels of prospective respondents are kicked out of our studies because they have failed to qualify on one or both of these questions. The harder our screening is the lower the study incidence, but the higher the study quality because we are delivering a reliable and valid audience.
Note also that you can’t guess your way into one of our studies. There is no way to know what the topic is because we disguise the topic by asking about a number of product categories. If you are not active in the category we’re focused on, you are thanked and dropped. This assures both the quality and security of our studies.
Other demographic screening that we might include:
- Household Size
- Household Composition
- Educational Attainment
- Race/Ethnicity
- Homeownership status
- Neighborhood (urban/suburban/rural)
- Region of the country (Note that we often include Canada in addition to the US)
Other lifestyle screening that we may include:
- Cook meals at home X # of times a week
- Entertain others in the home an average of X times a month
- Likes to try/explore new foods, new recipes, new cooking techniques
- Health enthusiast
The bottom line is don’t spend good money on running a survey with the wrong audience. Take the time and effort to start your study with a statistically reliable and valid respondent base.
Call 609.869.1108 or email us today (Rick@designres.com Janine@designres.com) to learn more about how we can generate great insights from and about your customers and target audience!