“We have relied too heavily on the same respondents for too long, and we need to embrace innovative and new ways to understand people.”
– Dan Foreman, Past President of European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR)
Mexico City and Toronto, April 14, 2015 −
Can decision-makers trust surveys that rely on frequent survey-takers to make informed decisions? A new report by global Web survey and risk measurement company RIWI Corp. casts doubt at surveys – used daily in the finance, consumer packaged goods, advertising and politics sectors – that rely on a narrow spectrum of voices online.
The RIWI GRIT Consumer Participation in Research report (GRIT CPR), published by GreenBbook and released today in Mexico City, shows that frequent survey respondents answer survey questions very differently than fresh survey respondents online.
Using its proprietary Random Domain Intercept Technology (RDIT™), RIWI was able to survey over 50,000 random Web respondents in 55 countries, with 72 percent of the respondents reporting they had not taken a survey in over a month or have never taken a survey (i.e. “fresh”).
The report outlines the challenges in relying on frequent respondents and the potential for inaccuracy in results. This has implications in the fields of business, government, risk, politics and healthcare − and for every other sector that makes key strategic decisions based on public opinion research.
“We see major differences in the data that should give pause to any digital campaign manager or brand manager,” says Grant Miller, VP of Innovation and Integration for RIWI and a co-author of the report. “Imagine the impact on assessing true online purchase intent in Indonesia where only 15% of frequent responders express concerns about purchasing online versus 36% of fresh responders?”
The RIWI study strongly suggests there may be a measurably different ‘type of person’ who is a frequent responder, not only in terms of survey response behavior, but also related to various attitudes and behaviors.
For example, RIWI data reported in the global study found a large difference in frequent and fresh responders on the question of fairness in elections. Frequent responders were much more likely to deem their elections free and fair. Fresh responders were much more likely to be critical of their nations’ electoral process.
“Just some of the people who should pay close attention to this report are the electoral teams in the US and UK elections,” adds Mr. Miller.
“The data compiled by RIWI is truly game changing for consumers of public opinion data,” writes Donny Furst, President of First International Resources. “To finally have actionable data from a population that hasn’t answered survey questions in the past allows for a more complete picture of public sentiment. RIWI’s ability to survey these respondents, previously thought to be unreachable, can provide a boon to marketing professionals as well as anyone else who is interested in understanding public opinion,” Mr. Furst writes.
Download the GRIT CPR report at: http://www.greenbook.org/grit/cpr
Contacts:
Eric Meerkamper
President, Global Operations and Chief of Staff, RIWI Corp.
eric@riwi.com
+1 416 205 9984
Grant Miller
VP, Innovation and Integration, RIWI Corp.
grant@riwi.com
+1 416 205 9984
