consumer research 101          

Alright, here's a quick run-down on what's ACTUALLY happening with "paid surveys online." There's obviously more to it than we can expound on here, and if any of this stuff really interests you, you can always get lost for weeks on end learning about it. Polling in America began in 1790 during the first census. Consumer research actually started after the Great Depression and World War II. Click here to read more on the subject.

Before any company spends millions of dollars to manufacture, advertise and provide the next greatest thing to spend your money on, they spend a few thousand dollars to figure out what kind of and how many consumers are willing to part with their hard-earned cash for it. There are no exceptions, test marketing always always always happens first!.... Always!

So, after someone figures out they may have invented the next greatest thing since sliced bread, a market research professional is contacted, and the TRUE potential of the products success in the real world is tested through a variety of methods.

(proceed to next tab)

There are different types, or "methodologies" or ways of executing consumer research studies, some of which include:

• Qualitative Studies: Higher response observation quality, generally to answer the question "why?" Offers a more personal, elaborate, in-depth, and detailed observation regarding attitudes, opinions, beliefs, and feelings that quantitative research can't.

  • Focus Groups - A group of people who are brought together to informally discuss a market-research question. These individuals are usually contacted by a marketing research company, on behalf of another company.

   

  • Clinical Trials - set-up by physicians or patients advocate groups, these research trials are for people who suffer from any number of ailments. People that have been diagnosed by a physician can volunteer to participate and further the studies of medicine. Patients usually qualify for expenses, prescriptions, and other compensations, but every study is different. (These are not a money-making opportunity! These are serious scientific research projects, and only those with the specified ailments and proper ethical motivation should even consider these. They are NOT an opportunity to "cash-in".)

   

  • Face-to-face Interviews - more personal than focus groups, an individuals responses can be more accurately observed, providing an even more in-depth analysis. Some kinds of issues are best discussed with one person at a time.

   

  • Bulletin Boards - a straightforward, in-depth inquiry over several days, or they can be ongoing in nature. With online bulletin boards, a discussion is initiated for a few days, respondents can then take time off to use a product or service or complete some “homework,” and return to the bulletin board on a later date to participate in follow-up research. Each day a group of pre-determined questions are posted. Respondents agree to visit the board a predetermined amount of times a day, and to watch for follow-up questions throughout the discussion. A moderator visits frequently to assess participation and to post additional probes.

     

  • Usability Testing - just like the name implies, "ability to be used" easily or as intended for the target consumer group. Oftentimes, consumers are recruited to take products home and use them according to instructions. While testing, they'll fill out questionnaires and return them after they complete the study. This testing provides more of a "real life" test than when products are tested at the testing center.

    • Product evaluation

    • Software ease of use

    • website analysis

     

  • Ethnographies

    • In-home Studies - research conducted in the respondent's environment.

      Companies can benefit from watching you shop for or use a product in your accustomed setting. The moderator—often accompanied by a notetaker and/or videographer—may come to your home, drive in your car with you, or walk through a store with you. Please remember that if you agree to in-home research, you should learn up front where in your house the moderator would like to go and what they expect of you. Please do not agree to anything that makes you uncomfortable or you'd rather not do.

       

    • Shop-a-longs

• Quantitative Studies: As the name implies quantity, involves larger sample sizes, is structured, and provides statistical data to predict, project, and plan. Quite a few of the "surveys for money" fall into this category.

  • Internet Studies - answers gathered online

  • Telephone Studies - standardized questionnaire given over phone

  • Direct Mail Studies - answers gathered via mass mailings targeted to users

   

• Hybrid Studies

  • A combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

    • The two types of research work well together, and experienced marketing research analysts develop an understanding of which issues are best served by each methodology.

Stay tuned as we continue to expand this section. Your patience is appreciated.

code of ethics

As a trusted resource for honest answers for these free online surveys, you should be bound by the following guidelines. If you want reputable research firms to take you seriously and consider you for future studies, you'll need to earn a good reputation, which includes your standards of behavior. Honesty in everything is the basic bottom line. It's not a quiz, and there are no right and wrong answers in consumer research, just observed responses, so just be yourself!

• NEVER EVER attempt to register with a company more than once, with multiple email accounts, under multiple aliases, or any other means of data manipulation or falsification!

• You will be found out, kicked out, and most likely black-listed as a "professional survey respondent", per industry standard best management practices, from ever registering with any other panels! Any evidence of tampering with results, fraudulent registrations, or the like, will not be tolerated by legitimate businesses. It's wrong, so just don't do it. This is pretty much the practice that has caused more problems, on both sides, than any other. Lots of unscrupulous people are trying to take advantage and maximize their income from surveys, fraudulently. Then survey companies have to establish dedicated anti-fraud practices. Which costs them money. Which is passed on to respondents in the form of lower payouts. So who ultimately pays for fraud?

• Honesty is the ONLY policy. Do not give the answers you think they want to hear, answers you think will better your odds at completing that survey, or pattern responses.

• HONEST answers are the ONLY answers any survey or researcher is looking for. There are no right and wrong answers in consumer research, just observed responses. You can and will skew the results with bogus answers, and could even disqualify yourself from participation in future studies. Oftentimes, red flags from certain answers, deemed out-of-synch with your demographic or the previous surveys you've taken from them, will prompt a review of your answers, and you may be deemed unsuitable for participation in any more surveys. If you're not completely honest, paid surveys online are a lose-lose for everyone.

 

• You may think you've got the survey figured out, but rest assured, you'll never know, and they'll figure you out. Just don't do it. There's enough control measures and redundancies to catch the fibbers. Even if you complete that survey, it may or may not have been the survey they were looking for you to really take. Just because it said "Congratulations and thank you" at the end doesn't mean there wasn't another, different, better paying survey for you, or that you necessarily completed their mission for you. Just be yourself, answer the questions honestly and see where it takes you. That's YOUR mission!

• Give real contact and background Information.

The only way that you'll benefit as a cog in this machinery of market research is if they can identify you. Most survey results are aggregated, or mixed and sorted and anonymous, so rest easy.

• Worried about privacy? Most reputable market research firms will state clearly that your personal information will never be divulged or shared, per industry guidelines. If you're that worried, you can always get a P.O. Box.

 

• Nobody cares that John W. Smith III, living at 1234 Mockingbird Lane in Cincinnati Ohio, earns $68,978 a year working for AT&T, married to a woman named Sandy with daughters Brandy and Mandy, drives a 2008 red Porsche Boxxer, has a Nakamichi DVD player, and spends $193 a month on boutique specialty popcorn. All they care about is a man, in the 40-48 year old demographic, making somewhere in the $65-75K range working in the communications industry, is married to a woman and has two kids, who rents and doesn't own his own home in zip code X, drives a sports-car not an SUV, watches movies more than TV, and spends a decent chunk of change on brand Y microwave popcorn with or without extra butter or salt or cheese or whatever.

 

• If you're 55, don't tell them you're 18 because you think they want the "hip-happening-new-generation" opinions over yours. For new video games, you may not be high on the list for opinions. For big-ticket items, real estate investments or retirement funds, who do you think they want to hear from?

 

• Spell your name correctly, or at least use proper initials, and give a proper mailing address. The only thing worse than getting a check with a name other than your real name that you can't cash or deposit, is NOT getting that same check because you didn't tell them your real mailing address.

• Don't rush

• Trying to make the highest hourly rate by whipping through every surveys for cash offer is both counter-productive to the whole process and completely frowned upon, please don't do it. Read the questions carefully. Inevitably you'll miss the word "not" and make mistakes, give half-correct-answers, short-change yourself, and again, affect the survey results in a negative way. Making pretty patterns in the answer boxes or just randomly answering with nonsense because it's quick is rude. Researchers and the companies who hire them spend a lot of energy and resources creating online surveys - just as you don't want people wasting your time, don't waste theirs by giving a less than sincere effort.

• Give the BEST Answers you can

• Some online paid surveys will remind you of this before you start - taking the time to give thoughtful and the most correct answers (as they apply to you) is very important to the accuracy of the study. You may think that "they" don't need to know if you have a DVR machine or electric razor in your house, or who you're using to refill your ink-jet cartridges, but it all matters to them. Statistics are drawn from every single answer you give, and the better the answers, the better the quality of the study. The better the study, the better the company that asked for the survey can meet the needs of its consumer, which is ultimately YOU!