Fieldwork
For research on location and in-home, IvoMar has its own fieldwork complement of approximately one hundred and forty female or male interviewers. Because the fieldwork is partly determined by the quality of the survey, we feel it is very important to retain control over this ourselves. Therefore; we continuously fine-tune quality, and train our own interviewers through a program developed in-house.
Other features of our fieldwork system:
1. for these surveys we work with "fresh" respondents who are selected on the spot, i.e. we don't use a panel;
2. we have interviewers and locations spread across the Netherlands and have the capability of carrying out research in more than forty towns and cities. Surveys are typically conducted at several locations in the Netherlands to ensure a representative distribution is obtained;
3. we ensure personal selection and training of interviewers;
4. there is continuous quality control of the fieldwork. In every survey, for example, at least 15% of respondents are called back later and asked questions including what they thought of how the research was conducted and their opinion of the interviewers;
5. we do not work with students or temporary workers, because these groups tend to want work for a shorter period;
6. refusal to participate in site surveys, after the selection questions have been asked, is less than 10%;
7. the response of a written in-home survey is at least 70%.
Panel members
IvoMar has its own Internet panel, the IvoMar iPanel ®, to perform online research, such as concept testing or in-home product testing. The IvoMar iPanel ® has nearly ten thousand members and is still growing.
The IvoMar iPanel ® has three unique features which distinguish it from other panels:
1. Panel members are recruited in other surveys by IvoMar: during site surveys or in-home surveys, respondents are asked if they wish to join our panel. This means we know exactly who is becoming a member and that the respondents are motivated to participate in our type of research. Our approach is not to buy address databases via general web sites to obtain the largest panel possible, as this reduces the quality of the panel and signs up many professional respondents.
2. IvoMar deals only with concept and product research and therefore our panellists are only involved with this kind of research. We know that this kind of investigations are perceived by the panellists as a fun and interesting experience, as opposed to a comprehensive survey into insurance, for example. As a result, our panel members remain motivated to participate in our surveys.
3. We know a lot about all the panellists concerning their product and brand usage. We know, for example, which potato chips are eaten in the household, how often, which brands and which flavours. This makes it much easier and faster for us to assemble all kinds of target groups / selections for surveys, and therefore to select more specific target groups too. We can do this because IvoMar only deals with concept and product research activities.
