Mobile-first brand tracking with better sample quality
How CO-RO’s sample representation improved through mobile sampling
“Opeepl’s Dynamic Sampling approach is our opportunity as an FMCG brand to survey consumers in a situation that is closer to the state-of-mind they are in when buying our products. That and being conscientious about not driving survey fatigue through long or difficult questionnaires is the best way to ensure sample representation. As with all other sampling, mobile research and Dynamic Sampling approach requires high diligent quality reassurance and strict standards of operation, which for us is an area, where Opeepl deliver significantly above market standards for similar services.”
Jesper Kvisgaard
CCI Director
The challenge
Getting the right sample representation
CO-RO supplies high-quality fruit-based beverages and ice lollies to more than 80 countries in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Their brands include regional favorites such as Sunquick, Suntop, and Sun Lolly.
With most of their key markets being in developing economies, CO-RO faced the challenge of generating valid and representative consumer insights data from their panel-based brand trackers in countries like Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Malaysia: the insights they had did not match the consumer behavior they saw in sales data.
“It was a necessary journey for us to find an alternative to online panels: we could see that our consumers from lower income segments and less urbanized areas were not represented in the data we got from panels and for several markets we had no access at all,” CCI Director, Jesper Kvisgaard, remembers.
That sent CO-RO on the lookout for a new way to approach consumer insights that would give them the sample representation they needed, both in terms of actually reaching consumers in their target groups and geographies and capturing consumers in a way to produce more realistic survey replies. In short: improve their sample representation.
The solution
Rethinking consumer research to a mobile world
Acknowledging the different use situations respondents are met with if they have signed up to a panel versus the dynamic recruitment of respondents in programmatic sampling, CO-RO evaluated the latter approach:
“Mobile is everywhere and that is what Opeepl takes advantage of. Consumers from all social classes and in any country have a smartphone addiction these days. We all take these short, careless breaks and we will do just about anything to get out of reality,” CCI Director, Jesper Kvisgaard says, and continues:
“Only highly engaged consumers sign up to be a member of a panel. We need insights from low-involved consumers, too. And we need them to be unbiased, which is much easier to get in a sample that does not consist of experienced panelists. That is why the Dynamic Sampling approach fits so well for an FMCG brand,” CCI Director, Jesper Kvisgaard, states.
CO-RO chose us as their research partner to bring this new approach to live. Replacing their previous panel-based survey setup with our Dynamic Sampling technology, CO-RO modernized their brand tracking to get insights on key metrics on brand awareness, brand preference, and category shopping behavior more efficiently.
The tracking setup is handled by us, ensuring a representative demographical blend. Data is sampled using the exact same methodology across all markets, which guarantees easily comparable results. A custom data export has been developed to accommodate an easy data transfer to CO-RO’s internal dashboard.
Brand tracking
Brand tracking gives you continuous knowledge of how consumers recognize, associate and perceive your company, its brand(s), products and/or services.
From the data collected you will gain awareness about your brand health, on how to better shape marketing strategies in accordance with consumers’ perceptions, on new opportunities for further product innovation and on ways to maximize sales by communicating the right message and avoiding misconceptions.
The research
Rolling quarterly brand tracking in 11 markets
The CO-RO brand tracker has run since 2015 and currently runs in 11 countries researching 500 consumers per market with a 70/30 setup where 70% of the questions are fixed and 30% can be customized for the specific market, a campaign or new ideas that need testing.
The tracking is run quarterly but sampled continuously through the quarter to give the most realistic coverage and each questionnaire includes 20-32 questions. The questionnaire is translated into eight languages with up to three different languages per country:
"Opeepl offers a better representation of the consumers in the markets, which we operate in, and they are always very quick and flexible in meeting our research needs. In addition, they enable us to reach consumers in a very cost-effective manner," says Global Insights Manager, Erik Månsson.
CO-RO can follow the results live during the sampling and can download data to their internal dashboard at any time. The data feeds into CO-RO’s management KPI overview.
CO-ROs quarterly brand tracking KPI overview (blurred)
The outcome
Brand tracking insights optimize the market approach
Shifting to use our Dynamic Sampling technology meant CO-RO’s research became mobile in both the user experience respondents get and in sampling respondents. That gave CO-RO:
The right geographical reach
Better sample representation
More true-to-reality insights due to the context in which respondents are sampled.
“I was skeptical at first and tested the data against our panel data, but we quickly realized that the Opeepl data were much more in line with the other sources of knowledge and general logic of the market and category. A clear indication that they were much more representative of our consumer segments,” CCI Director, Jesper Kvisgaard, explains.
Today, tracking data is a vital part of management reporting and working with marketing KPIs. A credible and high-quality tool for monitoring performance and developments in key markets as well as conducting further investigation of potential issues to guide actions. The tracking insights are easily comparable because our Dynamic Sampling technology is global, which simplifies the analysis and makes it easier for CO-RO’s local sales organizations to optimize the market approach and identify trends in data and blend those with their strong on-ground knowledge about their markets.
In addition, CO-RO now also conducts most of their ad hoc studies using us and benefitting from our mobile programmatic sampling approach.
“We now have a modern and scalable tool for our consumer dialogue, which is consistent, credible, agile, and quite cost efficient,” CCI Director, Jesper Kvisgaard, concludes.
Learn more about panels and mobile sampling
The limitations of survey panels
For many years survey panels were brands' best option for survey-based research. But it is becoming increasingly clear that panels have out-lived their roles and new, innovative approaches to consumer research will become the new industry standard for consumer research. In this post we take a look at why panels do not work anymore and what is next for consumer surveys.
Your online survey is likely taken on a mobile device
A rapidly increasing share of quantitative market research surveys are taken via smartphones. It is a natural development in a world that is becoming increasingly mobile in every aspect.
The planning and designing of your market research studies need to take this into account.
Is this what you need right now?
Extra: Learn more about CO-RO’s journey from panels to mobile sampling
It is time to quit the mobile sampling skepticism
Greenbook blog post written by:
Jesper Kvisgaard
CCI Director
