The emergence of panel research

Editor’s note: John Lo is the director of marketing intelligence at the University of British Columbia. 

Over the past 20 years, panel research has transformed the market research landscape. We’ve seen the emergence of technology companies offering specialized platforms, tools and workflows for online panel management and survey administration. Some DIY survey platforms have even expanded their system features to get into the panel research game.

Some traditional market research companies have built their own market panels or launched spin-off companies to provide access to market panels. Today most public opinion polls are conducted with respondents recruited through market panels – and some are more accurate than others. 

The benefits of leveraging market panels for market research suppliers are obvious, including:

• readily available access to a pool of respondents;
• rapid deployment, quick to market and timely feedback;
• higher response rates (presuming a well-managed panel with active panelists);
• efficient data collection – pre-screened, pre-collected profiling data; and
• more economical, especially in the long-run. 

Whether they are using home-grown or purchased enterprise solutions, thousands of companies worldwide have also built their own custom panels comprised of existing and/or prospective customers. These are typically referred to as insight communities. 

Why are so many companies investing in their own branded panels? And what are the pros and cons of doing so? 

Benefits of insight communities

Consumer connection with the brand

The process of engaging customers to solicit their feedback and input can shape their perception of the company. As such, marketing research is arguably an important brand-defining touchpoint. What is asked, how it is asked and, most importantly, what is done with the information that is collected shows the company’s commitment to listening and how much they value their customers’ input.

Yet traditional survey research can be a one-way transfer of data. A best-practice when managing an insight community is to close the loop for respondents, typically in the form of periodic newsletters or even real-time, report-backs on survey results. This creates a sense of connection and ownership over the initiative or strategy being researched. The transparency breeds trust and reinforces engagement among panelists and acts as a differentiator. The consumer then becomes part of a community and not just another survey respondent.

Quick-to-market and less expensive

Panel research is a quick-to-market approach to collecting data and insights. Surveys can be deployed around the clock without having to recruit or extract sample each time. For customer panels, surveys can be programmed in-house, without the need to engage outside consultants and service providers, which would typically add cost and stretch out timelines. As such, data can be collected on-demand and insights produced in a matter of hours and days, rather than weeks and months. Generally, surveys can be executed in half the time and at one-tenth the cost of traditional online marketing surveys.

Insights across the customer lifecycle

Opted-in insight communities are survey ecosystems, within which all completed surveys can be connected to build a robust and fulsome profile of customers’ entire relationships. For example, when feedback from customers across all interactions and experiences are viewed collectively, key moments of truth can be identified across the customer lifecycle. In this way, customer panels afford insights to manage the entire customer lifecycle, and truly build affinity and advocacy.

Are insight communities right for your business?

If insight communities offer so many benefits over traditional survey research, why aren’t companies investing in their own?

As with any voice of the customer program, there are some investments and barriers to consider before jumping in. 

Cost

Building an insight community requires upfront recruitment activities to solicit and sign-up panelists. This initial recruitment could involve significant promotional and incentive costs that can add up quickly. Once on-boarded, there may also be on-going costs to maintaining panelist engagement, such as incentives and/or rewards for survey participation. One way to minimize this cost is to offer monthly prize draws, rather than individual payoffs for every survey.

Importantly, panel management tools are typically licensed cloud-based SaaS technology. This essentially means recurring subscription costs that management may need to account for in their annual budget requests.

Ongoing commitment

The most frequent piece I share about starting a panel is to look at panel research not as a survey project but rather as a research program. Insight communities are living entities that need to be continually fed and nurtured – and they can be hungry beasts. Not only are resources needed to program and manage surveys, but new and relevant survey topics need to be constantly sourced to keep panelists engaged – and it is best that these topics come from across the organization. In short, when you start a panel research program, it is a long-term proposition for both the organization and the panel members you recruit.

Not suitable for all research topics

There are valid concerns that opt-in panelists may not be representative of broader populations because they have self-selected into the company’s insight community. It is true that panelist respondents tend to skew more positively in terms of their perceptions and opinions of the company. As long as you know when going in, you can factor this understanding into your interpretation of the data and findings.

If you accept this characteristic of panels, you will also be mindful that insight communities may not be best for: 

• collecting performance metrics;
• awareness tracking;
• demand estimation;
• institutional program evaluation; and 
• research that presumes random probability-based sampling.

That said, there are plenty of applications that insight communities are perfectly well-suited for, including: 

• strategy consultation, definition and refinement; 
• ideation and co-creation;
• concept validation;
• product feature development; 
• service quality improvement;
• program/campaign refinement; 
• longitudinal awareness tracking (within sample); and 
• recruiting customers for focus groups.

Long-term needs

Before setting up your insight community, consider the on-going costs and human resource commitments. Consider also the limitations of panel data and research contexts which may not be suitable. Last but not least, understanding the long-term needs of your insight community program will ensure its sustainability and relevance.