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The Demographix Research Blog

Random thoughts from the team at demographix, keeping you up to date with what's new in the world of online research. Use the year and month links below to navigate the blog entries.

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Using weighted averages in survey analysis

5 Aug 2010 — Demographix has a highly flexible weighted average facility built into its analysis software. It means you can assign values to answer sets, and the system will calculate a weighted average.

For instance, if you have a set of satisfaction statements, you can assign values for each one (say "Very Satisfied = 10" through to "Very Dissatisfied = -10" with increments of 5 points). An overall weighted response of 4.33, would indicate that the respondents lean towards being Satisfied (which was given a value of 5), while a -5.6 would indicate the data set overall leaned towards being slightly more than Dissatisfied.

You are not in any way restricted in what values you assign. Demographix allows you to apply whatever values you wish to a set of statements. As examples, it could be any of the following:

Very satisfied=100 / Satisfied=75 / Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied=50 / Dissatisfied=25 / Very dissatisfied=0

Very satisfied=5 / Satisfied=4 / Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied=3 / Dissatisfied=2 / Very dissatisfied=1

Very satisfied=100 / Satisfied=50 / Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied=0 / Dissatisfied=-50 / Very dissatisfied=-100

Very satisfied=1 / Satisfied=0.75 / Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied=0.5 / Dissatisfied=0.25 / Very dissatisfied=0

...or any combination thereof.

Your interpretation of results, of course, will depend on these value sets. In the example above, the two products have been weighted precisely by the values selected (this is automatically done in selected slider questions within Demographix). The first product's average value indicates it has a far higher "excellence weighting" than Product 2.

Not only do we allow this flexibility, but value setting is also fully dynamic - you can change values after data has started coming in, and at the point of analysis. By editing the question, you can select the "Edit Average Values" option shown above, and apply new values sets. These will be used, the next time you clcik on the Analysis of Responses button.

Using Demographix for researching new products

26 Jul 2010 — Surveys built with Demographix are frequently used for research into developing new products and services. Market research techniques, such as conjoint analysis, are used to determine what features (or attributes) a new product or service should have and how it should be priced.

Researchers aim to identify the individual attributes that really matter to buyers - and what "trade-offs" buyers make. For example, when buying a pen, is the grip and feel of the pen more important than the cost of an ink cartridge refill? And what is most likely to be traded off, and what least likely, and what combinations thereof?

Demographix has several kinds of question types that researchers use to measure the importance of product or service attributes, and the relative importance respondents place on these. We'd like to highlight a couple:

1. Slider Mixing Desk questions: These allow you to create attribute scales between two opposing qualities, and ask respondents to position themselves according to their preferences. This is just one of a variety of "flavours" we offer in our "Sliders" range of question types, available as standard to all users. Here's an example:

2. Randomiser questions: Showing respondents a range of prices (or attributes) can have an inherent bias - most respondents will always pick the cheapest price, for example. Randomiser questions randomly show a value in a statement, such as "Would you pay [X] for this service?". You specify the values - such as $25, $50, $75 and $100. Respondents are asked to make a price evaluation, allowing researchers to discover if there is a crucial "breaking point" above which few will go.

Ranking question style and functionality upgrade

23 Apr 2010 — We have now upgraded our ranking question to a more user-friendly drag and drop method. Users present the respondent with a list of options and ask them to rank them by dragging the options above a separator bar.

You can choose to have the initial order of the options randomised for each respondent to prevent bias towards those at the top of the list. And you can limit how many items they rank so that if you ask them to rank their top three, they can only rank three options.

As with all the other aspects of Demographix surveys, the new-style ranking question is fully accessible which means that users who cannot use a mouse can use the keyboard or voice commands to select options and move them around. For instance, keyboard users can use the tab key to select an item, and then the up and down arrow keys to rank it.

New Panel Management tool: close and archive panels

4 Mar 2010 — Users of our panel management toolset will notice that we have started to upgrade panel management functionality to allow greater ease of use as your list of panels grows. If you no longer have a panel in active use, you now have an option on the Details tab of the panel's properties labelled: "Close panel to further surveys". Tick this option and the panel will then appear in the new management tab CLOSED PANELS.

Panels transferred to this tab have limited functionality: you cannot attach new surveys to them or create new emails, and you cannot add or delete users. However, you can view all surveys and emails, and download Excel versions of all panel participants. If you wish to re-enable a panel, simply untick the box in the Details tab on the panel's properties. Please use the Helpdesk ticket system to feedback any comments or questions you may have.

Matrix multiple choice questions with added power!

26 Feb 2010 — Here's something that we've had requests for from users, and has just emerged from our developers. You can now add a "None of these" or "No opinion" radio button option to the end of each row of a multiple choice matrix. Take a look at this example:

If selected, it will untick any previously ticked answers in the row. It works in exactly the same way as the "None of these" option at the end of a standard multiple choice question works. It is particularly useful where a matrix question is compulsory and respondents don't want to answer one, or all, of the rows. This option can also be pre-selected if desired. Please use the Helpdesk ticket system to feedback any comments or questions you may have.

New MRS Code of Conduct on Incentives due

15 Jan 2010 — The Market Research Society (MRS) is introducing a revised Code of Conduct this year that includes new guidelines on the incentives used for research projects.

From 1 April 2010, the MRS Code will specify that incentives cannot include the goods or services of a client for whom the research is being conducted.

The new code of conduct has two specific clauses on use of incentives in surveys:

• B25: Where incentives are offered, Members must clearly inform the Respondent who will administer the incentive.
• B26: Client goods or services, or vouchers to purchase client goods or services, must not be used as incentives in a research project.

The MRS points out that incentives need not be of a monetary nature to be accepted as a token of appreciation. It also helpfully suggests the following alternative as incentives: charity donations, non-monetary gifts and prize draws. All of these will continue to be approved.

Demographix recommends that charity donations for a completed survey (such as to charities like The Prince’s Trust, which is our principle Community Support partner) be given greater consideration as an incentive.

As an MRS Company Partner, Demographix will ensure that all of our staff abide by the new code of conduct rules, and we will encourage all our users to be aware of and abide by the new rules.

Read the revised code of conduct in full here.

Age demographics in online survey research

9 Dec 2009 — We frequently get asked to advise on the usage of age breaks in online surveys. What are the best age groupings to use, we're asked, and in particular are any groupings meaningful? One common listing used in the US breaks age groups into 6 key phases:

• 21 and Under
• 22 to 34
• 35 to 44
• 45 to 54
• 55 to 64
• 65 and Over

The problem with this is that it begins late (many young people over 16 are working and can be treated as adult consumers, rather than lumped with teenagers and children) and it ends early (many older people remain economically and physically active after 65, and retirement ages look like being pushed back towards 68-70 in coming decades).

In the Demographix system you can create any answer list that you want (and edit it at any time) that can help you instantly populate the answers to a question (thereby maintaining data consistency between surveys, not to mention avoiding spelling errors or errors of ommission). Among the standard lists we provide for all users is our recommended age breaks:

• Under 16
• 16 - 25
• 26 - 35
• 36 - 45
• 46 - 55
• 56 - 65
• 66 - 75
• Over 75
• Decline to answer

These age segmentations can also be summed up in primary clusters for each of the "8 economic stages of life", as so:

• Under 16: Childhood and teenage years
• 16 - 25: Tertiary education and First job
• 26 - 35: Love and marriage
• 36 - 45: Parenting and nesting
• 46 - 55: The "Meaning of Life" Years
• 56 - 65: Empty nests / new goals
• 66 - 75: Active retirement
• Over 75: Reflection and repose

Remember that people are more likely to answer a question placing them in an age range, rather than their year of birth, which many consider personal data. Getting age ranges right can be a key to getting better responses, and gathering data in meaningful groups that share attitudes and values.

How is the recession affecting online research?

19 Nov 2009 — It's undoubtedly a tough time out there in the research industry, with research and marketing departments having to justify every penny they spend. We've found that many companies we've been talking to have scaled back the budgets they spend on expensive research agencies, and are opting to do more online research in-house.

That's why, for Demographix, the recession has had an upside, giving us the opportunity to help our customers cut their research costs dramatically.

Our system is so easy to use, without being unnecessarily complex, that training costs are considerably lower than with competing products. Getting your staff up-to-speed is not difficult, and users don't need weeks of training and a certificate to understand how to build sophisticated surveys and analyse data.

Even though we’ve been busier than ever, we’ve used our time during the downturn to focus on developing and enhancing our technology — giving more value for money. And just this week, we've announced new pricing for our enhanced annual subscription that represents a price reduction of 16.67%. That's quite a saving!

Hopefully, the recession is now bottoming out — we're hoping it's a U or V, and not a double-dipper W, shape to come! Whatever 2010 holds, we know that our message will get across to a lot more people.

For those who are just getting to know us, the message is simple. Ask yourselves three questions:

1. Why are you paying for expensive, difficult-to-use survey building systems?
2. Why are you paying several thousand pounds for an agency to do what you could do yourself in 30 minutes?
3. Why should anyone be paying per response anymore — it's a pricing model that's no longer justifiable!

We'd like to hear from you if you're serious about slashing your online survey costs. You really could slash your research budget with very little effort today!

Sliders give greater interactivity and wider accessibility

31 Oct 2009 — Demographix has added a new question type, called sliders, to its range of survey elements. These questions give a more intuitive and interactive way for respondents to input data, without using radio buttons or tick boxes.

As always, this new technology has been designed in line with our core principles of creating surveys that are accessible to all. Surveys designed for accessibility, as our technology provides, mean that all questions can be operated using keyboard controls, if users can't use a mouse, or by voice command.

Additionally, if the survey respondent is using assistive technology (for example text-to-speech or large fonts or no styles because they are visually impaired) the sliders will display as drop-downs or number entry boxes if needed.

To see our new sliders in action please click here.

To read a PDF spec of the range of sliders available please click here.

Sliders go into final beta testing

15 Oct 2009 — Our new interactive question types, dubbed "sliders", have now gone into final beta testing, and we are looking forward to making them available to users in the next week or two. We apologise for the delay in making them available, but we think that all the work we've put into them will mean they will give better data than any other sliders currently available.

We have also been testing them throroughly so that they will be as robust as possible on a variety of browsers, as well as accessibility-compliant. For instance, our sliders will be keyboard-controllable, so that respondents who cannot use a mouse can still interact with them. Flash-based online survey solutions that can only be used with a mouse are not accessible to such users.

Additionally, if the survey respondent is using assistive technology (for example text-to-speech or large fonts or no styles because they are visually impaired) the sliders will if necessary display drop-downs or number-entry boxes instead of sliders.

Our development work has also solved some major problems around the difference between default values of the slider control and active selection of a default vlaue. Different data values and visual icons are used to signify different responses (or lack of them) and therefore make data more reliable.

Online surveys eclipse telephone research

30 Sep 2009 — Growing evidence that online surveys are getting better data than telephone-based surveys, as well as providing far better return on investment, has been further reinforced by new data from the US-based Advertising Research Foundation.

In a report published in Research Magazine, ARF Chief Research Officer, Joel Rubinson, is quoted as saying: "There is no clear pattern of RDD [random-digit dial telephone surveys] providing the more accurate answer vs the average result from internet panel research on a series of benchmarking questions and demographics.”

The ARF research said the reach of RDD telephone dialling was being hampered in the US by the increasing usage of cellphones (mobile phones) among younger demographic groups, many of whom are now "cell-only".

Internet usage, on the other hand, is now widespread among all ages and demographic groupings.

Other drawbacks normally associated with random-dial telephone surveys are:

• Little time to consider responses: Respondents must answer quickly, with little time to think about answers
• Voice factors: The tone or accent of the interviewer can create obstacles
• Convenience: Respondents may be incovenienced by timing of call
• Personal frankness: Respondents are less likely to be frank in answering diffcult or embarrassing questions in a person-to-person situation.
• Lack of visual stimulus: Unlike online surveys, you cannot include audio or video clips or photos in a telephone survey

Sliders are coming!

13 Aug 2009 — After many months of research and development work, we're about to release our new interactive question types, called "sliders". Just like controls on a mixing desk or music centre, the sliders provide a more intuitive way for survey respondents to select from a list of answers – whether a range of values, Likert scale statements, or percentage splits.

The new technology will be available for our users to start using in live surveys from September. Watch this space for further advance previews and updates.

A few things to note, as shown in the example above:

• The default position for any slider control is initially N/A (No answer). This means that if respondents do not move the slider on that row, no value will be recorded, thus preserving the integrity of the data entered.
• When the slider is moved, the value or number of each position it is moved to will be shown in a cursor value statement.
• The active slider control changes colour to red.
• A great deal of development effort has been put into making sliders work consistently across the most commonly used browsers, and to enable accessibility - slider cursors can be controlled both by keyboard and mouse.
• Data from sliders in the analysis tools will appear in a similar way to dropdown questions, with averages automatically calculated once average calculation values have been assigned by users.

Enhanced account management tools

10 Jun 2009 — Following the spring launch of our new user interface, an enhanced set of account management features are now available to Demographix customers, and we'd like to alert you to a couple of them.

Account Holder and Full User log-ins now have at their fingertips an easier way to manage the surveys and user log-ins in an account. The three tabs (see below) let you quickly jump between managing your personal details, managing surveys and managing users. At any time you can download an Excel spreadsheet with details of all your user log-ins, grouped in their different categories. To further aid self-management you can also download a full list of ALL the surveys in your account — an easier way to monitor the usage you get from your Demographix subscription.

The interface now lets you change the status of surveys (e.g. close them to responses or archive them) in batches. Previously you had to do this with individual surveys. You can also batch process surveys for categorising them. Similarly, for managing your account log-ins, it is now easier to access user permission listings (the details of each Creator, Colleague or Client log-in now shows all the surveys they can access), and to change the status level of a log-in (e.g. to upgrade or downgrade users).

Agencies demand better brand values from surveys

20 Apr 2009 — With our recent upgrade programme, Demographix has added to the power of its online survey customisation feature-set, making it even easier for our customers to develop surveys that reflect the brand values of their clients.

It's a sad fact that the majority of online survey suppliers insist on stamping their own brands all over online surveys - after all, it's free advertising for them. However, it does significantly detract from what many clients are looking for - a focus on their own brand values.

Demographix believes that its target customer base - publishers, digital agencies, market research agencies and advertising agencies - want to create surveys that reflect the brands they're doing research for. Our customisation feature set makes it easier to match colours, logos, and typefaces to give greater customisable flexibility.

Demographix research generates media blitz

3 Mar 2009 — Demographix is providing the technology and data collection expertise behind a new hospitality industry research project, which has received wide-spread coverage in the mainstream press in past weeks. Peach Business Tracker is a new monthly collation of data from leading restaurant and pub groups in the UK, run in conjunction with KPMG and UBS.

Press coverage has been widespread, including articles in the business pages of The Times, Investors Chronicle, and The Publican. Demographix is increasingly involved in technically complex quantitative and qualitative online research projects like Peach Business Tracker. We are here to consult with you on how to get authoritative research completed that generates mainstream and niche media interest.

The Envelope Please!

30 Jan 2009 — We had a terrific response to this year's Festive Fun Quiz over the Christmas and New Year holiday period, and hope everyone who took part enjoyed the competition.

The 2008 prize draw winners, chosen at random from the eligible entrants, were: Nadia Curnell (BMA), Hunter Drinan (iSubscribe Australia), Carys Evans (S4C), John Fryers (Global Radio), Nadine Nicholas (H Bauer), Jamie Parker (Shop Direct), Charlotte Putnam (John Brown), Trevor Roberts (Virgin Media), Neil Sharman (Telegraph Media Group) and Louise Vinter (BBC).

Our congratulations go to the 10 lucky winners who have all received e-vouchers with our compliments.

Our multilingual development work

13 Nov 2008 — Over the past year or so we have worked with a range of customers to provide multilingual versions of surveys. It is our intention to make a full suite of languages fully available so users can easily create duplicated surveys in multiple languages. At present we are happy to assist customers to build surveys in languages we don't currently support, at no extra cost. We will also help you build duplicated surveys in alternative languages we already support, at no extra cost to annual Gold subscribers, and at reduced rates for Silver and Bronze users. Please contact us if you wish to discuss this.

Languages we currently support: ENGLISH, DANISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, INDONESIAN, ITALIAN, PORTUGUESE, RUSSIAN, SPANISH, SWEDISH and THAI. Languages we are currently developing support for: VIETNAMESE, WELSH.

NOTE: Our development work is based on the tremendous feedback we get from our users, which we greatly appreciate. Our aim is to provide you with a better Demographix, focussed on your needs, and at no extra cost. At present we're hard at work on a range of new developments, and over coming weeks we will notify users about some of these.

Great online surveys powered by Demographix

6 Oct 2008 — This month we thought we’d share with you a few recent projects by Demographix users that we’ve admired for many different reasons.

Inside Soap Awards and ELLE

Demographix is the technology behind voting for the Inside Soap Awards, Hachette Filipacchi’s annual soap star fest where a lot of good-looking soapsters strut their stuff on the red carpet. The Awards are such a paparazzi-puller that they generate vast coverage in major media outlets — from the BBC and The Times to Northern & Shell’s OK! magazine. Hachette Filipacchi’s marketing teams often use the results of Demographix surveys to maximum effect for their PR potential. A recent example is an ELLE magazine survey of readers’ attitudes to the credit crunch — resulting in coverage that included The Press Association and istockanalyst.

Beano Max

D C Thomson’s legendary Beano magazine, which celebrated its 65th birthday this summer, has a dedicated team with great ideas for involving readers. This year, Beano Max has conducted a brilliant survey asking its young readers what they’d suggest to put in the mag if they were to “fill in for the editor while he’s on holiday”. That’s not only a great concept for collecting reader ideas, it was also reinforced by the specially commissioned visuals used in the survey (see photo), helping make it more interactive and fun for respondents. Well done to the Beano crew!

CNBC Europe and Euronews

On the broadcast media front, Demographix is being used by CNBC Europe to host surveys for its Viewertrack panel — a regular monitor of viewer opinions. We have also been involved in a major pan-European viewer survey for leading international news channel, Euronews. This summer we hosted a multi-lingual feedback exercise co-ordinated in seven languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Russian) for the company. This greatly extended the range of languages we support, and helped us move forward in one of our development objectives — to increase our global reach.

Evaluation of Google Chrome browser

9 Sep 2008 — The launch of Google’s new Chrome browser at the beginning of this month has been widely anticipated, and our initial uptake stats indicate that this is going to be an extremely popular alternative to IE and Firefox on PCs running Windows Vista and XP. (Google has not, as yet, released versions for the Mac or Linux, though these are said to be coming downstream).

Within days of its launch, Chrome was registering almost 1.5% on our stats for browsers being used to submit Demographix surveys – clearly users are eager to assess the advantages of the new browser.

The team at Demographix has also been hard at work evaluating Chrome – from both the perspective of survey respondents and the build and analysis interface for our users. Our initial tests show that Chrome sometimes gives noticeable speed improvements in rendering web pages, and that it has additional facilities for developers and the security-conscious.

But we’d like to know what our users and survey respondents think of Google Chrome, so we have built a feedback survey for you to give us some idea of how well you rate it. To take our survey click here.

Demographix is likely to add Google Chrome to the list of browsers we support. Currently we support Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari on the PC, and Firefox and Safari on the Mac.

You can download Google Chrome (BETA) for Windows here.

Take our survey to give us feedback about Google Chrome (BETA) for Windows here.

Introducing Managed Services from Demographix

5 Jun 2008 — When internal resources are scarce, and you need survey building expertise without delay, the team at Demographix can help you out! It may be because you have a sudden demand to build and manage a number of surveys, perhaps. Or there may be periods when you’re low on staff resources, for a variety of reasons, from maternity leave to team holidays. For research and marketing managers, we offer a responsive, low-cost way to help you manage the ebb and flow of internal research fulfilment.

Our highly experienced and talented survey designers can build great-looking surveys for you, and offer advice in the survey building process. All we need is a document that details your questions and conditionality – the blueprint that will help us draft an outline. You will be involved in the design process as it progresses, and you can take the whole process at a pace you set.

Using our new Panelwise technology we can also take care of the emailing for you, to draft and schedule emails requesting people on your mailing lists take part in the survey. We’ll do the reminders as well, and provide you with full lists of bounces and unsubscribes so you can keep your lists up-to-date.

Above all, our managed services are highly competitive. Why waste money on expensive external research companies for doing this kind of “grunt work”. Research consultancies have their place for analysing data and writing the reports you need, and our managed services teams can give external consultants access to your data (on terms you specify) and access to our powerful analysis and report tools.

If you’d like to know more about our Managed Services, please read the PDF document Demographix Managed Services on our information page.

Improve survey response rates with Panelwise

15 May 2008 — Our new email and panel management solution offers you the chance to start getting improved response rates to your surveys. How? By better management of panels, including easy management of bounces and unsubscribes, and by employing best practice in email invites.

Want to find out more about Panelwise? Our brand new panel management system gives research, sales insight and marketing departments all the tools they need to maintain an online panel. All at cost-effective and highly competitive rates!

Yes, you could "do a YouGov" of your own, and get a panel with great PR potential going for your company. Or just do regular customer satisfaction reserach, or regularly consult your staff.

We explain these usages, and much much more on the new Panelwise website at www.panelwise.com. Click here to take a peek!

In today's tough business climate, you need all the mission critical data you can get your hands on. Whether you want to manage your panels in-house or outsource the management of your panels to the experts, Panelwise is the most powerful easy-to-use solution available!

Panelwise introduces new workflow-based principles

2 Apr 2008 — Demographix's companion system, Panelwise, incorporates new Web 2.0 and Ajax programming principles, allowing new interactive workflow-based facilities that make panel management extremely easy-to-use.

As each new task is undertaken, Panelwise automatically walks you through the processes involved. For example, if you want to add details of new panellists — you are first given three options: to add panel members from respondents to an existing survey in Demographix, a file upload, or manual insertion.

Depending on how you answer this first question, different processes are shown.

If you choose the latter, for example, then this tabular interface (shown left) will be displayed, allowing you to manually input the basic details of a panel member.

Manual insertion of panel members is likely to be used on an occasional basis. For longer lists, uploading an Excel file will make the process more automated and simple.

Panelwise will debut new look to workspace interface

30 Mar 2008 — SNEAK PREVIEW! Here’s the first screenshot released by Demographix of the soon-to-be-released Panelwise panel management system. A companion service to the Demographix survey-building toolset, Panelwise will allow you to create and manage panels, create and deploy emails linked to surveys, and manage lists of panel members. But it's the interface that's really new! Take a look...

As the screenshot shows, the Panelwise workspace is based on exactly the same layout as Demographix, with panels listed on the left-hand side; and with controls for editing and scheduling emails, managing panel members, and so on, on the right.

Panelwise incorporates new Web 2.0 and Ajax programming principles, allowing new interactive workflow-based facilities that make panel management extremely easy-to-use. (More about this to follow in upcoming blog entries!)

Panelwise will also be a cost-effective way for survey builders to email out links to surveys in one-shots to mailing lists, thereby bypassing log-jams in over-worked IT or digital departments.

Watch out for more details about Panelwise on the blog over the weeks leading up to its launch in May 2008.

The most popular pages on our website

14 Feb 2008 — There’s a wealth of helpful material on the Demographix website. It can help you build great online surveys, increase your response rates, and get more reliable data from your customers or supporters. We thought we’d share a few of them with you, to give you some great ideas for improving your survey building techniques.

One of the most popular pages for Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines is our Online Survey Best Practice document. From years and years of experience, we have distilled 10 succinct and handy tips for you.

In a nutshell: “a well-thought out survey, neatly structured and worded without ambiguity is the key to a great response rate”.

More and more large organisations are looking for a cost-effective way to manage enterprise-wide feedback, both from employees and outside contractors and customers. Our What is Enterprise Feedback Management? document helps explain how Demographix can help in a corporate environment.

And if you want great tips on improving the content of your Customer Satisfaction Surveys, there’s a page of advice here for you to get stuck into. We’ve also created a Demonstration Customer Satisfaction Survey to show off some of these tips in action.

Keep an eye on this blog and our website in general for more handy information that can help you build up your expertise in using the Demographix system.

The full list of winners for our Festive Fun Quiz 2007!

21 Jan 2008 — Thanks to all of you who took part in the Festive Fun 2007 quiz – we know it was a tough nut to crack, but we hope you enjoyed the challenge. Most of the respondents managed to make it over the 50% bar of correct answers to be eligible for the prize draw - which shows you how in touch you all are (or just how good you are at using Google and Wikipedia).

Using the handy inbuilt random draw mechanism in Demographix, the following list of prize draw winners was created: Claire Childs (Dennis Publishing), Sue Dyson (La Trobe University, Melbourne), Kate Flood (Nielsen Media Research), Eleanor Gray (British Medical Association), Jennifer Kiffer (Conde Nast), Kathie Mahoney (Sirius Satellite Radio), Judith Pogorzelec (DC Thomson), David Reid (Sigma Research), Kelly Rogers (Elsevier), and Chris Talintyre (Time Out). Congratulations to those 10 lucky winners, all of whom have received gift vouchers.

If you want advice on how to build online quizzes to reward and thank your users or supporters, we are always happy to oblige at Demographix. There’s Valentine’s Day, summer sporting events like Euro 2008 and the Beijing Olympic Games, as well as the Christmas period this coming year – so plan well in advance to spread a little happiness among your supporters in 2008.

Year-end round-up: Helping our users slash their research costs

11 Dec 2007 — It's been another busy year for us at Demographix, helping marketing and research executives create great online surveys with top response rates, and giving our customers access to powerful technology at far lower costs than our competitors.

During 2007 we continued to expand in our core publishing and media markets, and we introduced a raft of new technologies that beefed up our design and analysis toolsets. Our introduction of multimedia question types, which allow you to include audio and video questions within surveys, undoubtedly helped us move out beyond our core publishing industry customer base into the wider media industry.

Developing multiple crosstabs in our realtime analysis and reporting certainly helped us gain more traction in corporate research departments. And we also broke out into the wider world, with major global events organizers now regularly using Demographix to get reliable, low-cost feedback.

We didn't neglect our publishing industry clients, helping many achieve a great deal more return on their investment in online research tools. We found ourselves engaged in major custom projects for key clients. Our Better EMAP Service project for EMAP Advertising helped produce significant sales performance improvements for them, and best-selling Now magazine at IPC Media scored a major PR triumph with data gathered using a Demographix survey.

And what might 2008 bring? We have recently signed a new reseller agreement with Telmar Group Inc in the US, and look forward to working with them. Our Panelwise technology, which will allow our customers to run their own low-cost panels on a regular basis, will come to the end of its initial development phase in Q1, and customers who have expressed an interest in it will be given first trial access to it. We have high hopes for Panelwise, which combined with the survey design and analysis toolsets in Demographix, will give our customers access to a full suite of online survey technologies in a more affordable way.

Finally, we’d like to thank all our customers, new and ongoing, for their support during the year, and wish you all best wishes for a successful and prosperous New Year.

Now magazine scores PR success with Demographix data

12 Nov 2007 — IPC Media’s celebrity gossip and beauty tips weekly, Now magazine, has scored a thumping PR success with the results of a survey conducted using Demographix. The survey, of over 2000 women with an average age of 35, looked into their dieting habits and revealed some eye-catching results.

A story on Channel 4 News led on the fact that dieting often proves fruitless, saying: “Less than one in ten women who lose weight by dieting manage to keep it off, according to a new survey. Only 9% diet successfully while the remaining 91% put the fat back on and are doomed to a cycle of calorie counting for the rest of their lives.”

The more sensational misuse of drugs is what caught the eye of reporters at The Sun. Under the headline "It's diet coke for many women", it noted that: “One in six young British women claims they stay slim by taking cocaine or speed, a shocking poll has revealed.”

The Daily Mail also pointed out that other drugs, such as slimming pills, were also widely used by women desperate to match idealised body images. It said: “The survey, carried out by online analysts Demographix, found 37 per cent had taken slimming pills, 15 per cent had taken speed or cocaine and 26 per cent had used laxatives as slimming aids.”

The widespread coverage given to the survey results shows how the Now team knew what hot button issues the media is looking for, and also allowed them to position Now as a concerned observer.

Helen Johnston, Now’s editor, was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying: “Sadly this survey shows once a woman starts on the path of fast faddy diets they become her companion until the day she dies. Body image is the female curse of the 21st century. Whatever a woman's achievements in life, her whole self-image is totally bound up in her body shape.”

At Demographix, we think this is one of the best examples we’ve seen of customers using survey results to maximise PR opportunities for their brands.

Spread the word - get more value from your research data!

7 Sep 2007 — The announcement we made a few weeks ago about our major development project, Panelwise, met with a lot of press interest, proving that panel management software is a current hot topic in research and marketing departments.

We got coverage in MRWeb.com, Haymarket's Brand Republic, and the Market Research Society's Research magazine.

As these news stories report, we're currently putting together a beta programme for Panelwise with some of our key customers. If you're not an existing customer and would like to know more about how we could help you develop and maintain panels at a fraction of the cost you currently pay, then don't hesitate to contact us.

It was also great to see the good folk at Hachette Filipacchi's Red magazine getting a lot more added value from a survey on women's health issues they conducted using Demographix. The poll, on female fertility problems, came up with some headline-grabbing results, such as this report in the Guardian: Fertility poll warns against delay. Well done, Red!

So think about it. Have you got some survey results that could help in a PR campaign? If so, don't forget to let your press department know about it, and spread the good word.

Enhancements to the Survey Menu interface

7 Aug 2007 — When a user now logs in to Demographix they will notice that the Survey Menu interface is looking a little different. At the top of the Survey menu screen (which lists all the surveys they have access to), they'll now see that we display their account information. This includes their name, log-in type and contact details. It is important that all users keep their phone number and email address up-to-date, particularly if we need to contact them for Helpdesk or other support reasons. If these details are not correct, or not available, they can click the "Update Your Details" link to make changes.

We have also significantly enhanced the Survey Menu interface. Underneath the Your Surveys title, there is now a "Search Your Surveys" option. Users who are designated as Full Users and Creators (but not Colleagues or Clients) will also see a "Create New Survey" link. (But remember, this isn't the only way to create a new survey; users can click the "Duplicate survey" option under the name of an existing survey to give them a copy of that survey, to serve as the basis of a new survey to rename and edit).

To the right, users will now see two survey listing options. They can display their surveys in a Status view (grouped according to whether they are live, in production, archived, and so on) or in a Category view (according to the customised categories that have been assigned to each survey). Secondly, within each of these status groups or categories, they can now display their surveys ordered by Date (with the most recent first) or by Name (in alphabetical order).

The collapsing folders we introduced in the survey navigator and analysis pages have also been implemented and the system remembers each folder's open/closed state between sessions. Demographix also saves which grouping scheme was last used between sessions.

We launch Multiple Crosstabs and Country Analysis features

29 Jun 2007 — The great thing about using a hosted online survey system is that, as we are continually upgrading and improving our service, our users automatically get the new advantages without any fuss. There's no new software to install or learn. And these great new features come at no extra cost!

In the past month we have introduced two new features that bring greater survey analysis features to the fingertips of happy Demographix customers.

• Multiple crosstabs gives substantial new analysis power to our users. It allows customers to select as many questions from their survey and crosstab them with as many other questions as they like, giving Demographix a significant advantage over other online survey providers. Learn more here.
• Country Analysis is an extra response report which shows you which countries respondents come from, based on the IP address of each respondent. This is available for surveys which have been published in the past year or so. The report can be found under the "Response Rate" link given for each survey on a user's workspace. Users can find out more about this new feature under Latest Updates when they log into Demographix.

We have also changed the Response Rate interface to more clearly show the full suite of reports that are available for each survey. Now, you can view Daily and Cumulative response figures, Page views, Time of Day analysis, Time Zone analysis, and Country Analysis.

Demographix in the news with multimedia features

22 Mar 2007 — News of our new embedded multimedia question types has started reaching the industry. The ability to include video and audio clips in a survey, and ask questions about their contents, has a wide range of potential uses, especially for our publishing and media clients.

On the sales side, a lot is now possible that was previously out of reach – such as, radio stations testing ad creatives, publishers gathering feedback on videos for clients and agencies, or web media companies testing online campaigns.

And that's just a start - music clips, MP3s and podcasts can all now be included in standard surveys as well.

All this new technology is available at your fingertips today for all our customers - whether one-off survey users or Unlimited Survey Plan subscribers.

So what did the press say? Research magazine noted the new features with a story headlined, amusingly, "Now watch and listen, says Demographix".

Another news report in Brand Republic, "Demographix to introduce embedded media files to surveys", written by Alex Donohue, quoted communications director Bobby Pickering: "Researchers and marketing personnel, especially in our core media and publishing sectors, can now add clips of videos or audio files to their surveys and get immediate feedback from readers, website visitors or members."

Festive Fun Quiz – way to go!

12 Jan 2007 —

Many thanks to all our users and supporters who took part in the first Demographix Festive Fun Quiz over the 2006/2007 holiday and new year period. Congratulations to our five prize draw winners: Miriam Blankenship, Conde Nast; Keith Donaldson, The Newspaper Society; Davina Figgett, Age Concern; Emma Howland, Network Rail; and Asha Unzia, IPC Media.

The survey is now available as an example festive quiz. Please take a look – it demos our new multimedia question types, and it might give you ideas for the next holiday season. In fact why wait till then? Why not treat your supporters, readers, members, staff or users to a bit of morale-boosting fun, today?

The Prince's Trust is first appointment for Demographix Community Support Programme

20 Nov 2006 — We're excited to announce that we've started working with The Prince's Trust, our first appointment for The Demographix Community Support Programme.

What's this programme about? Well, every year we plan to select two organisations engaged in charitable activities in the UK, and work with them to develop and explore feedback opportunities with their supporter networks.

The Prince's Trust does a great deal of event organisation to develop relationships with corporate supporters. It also has a major mentoring programme, whereby supportive companies and organisations provide mentors to young people in its target 14-30 age group.

Our technology is being used as both a form of data capture and to get event feedback to help the Trust develop its events programme. Demographix technology is ideally suited to the charity sector - charities often have growing online databases and need to get to know technologies that can be used to build up interaction and feedback with these core loyal supporters.

So, if you're working in a charity and want help in building your supporters network, or developing your charitable business, using survey technologies and creating surveys to find out what your supporters think could be a cost effective way forward. Online surveys for charities is a growing part of our expertise and specialist interest.

How big can a survey be?

5 Sep 2006 — One of our regular users was quite impressed by the size of a recent youth sex survey in the UK, conducted by the BBC (Radio 1's Bare All youth programme) in conjunction with the Department of Health.

The BareAll06 survey claimed to have been the biggest sex survey sample ever in the UK - 20,000 young people responded to requests for feedback via a variety of online channels, including 1Xtra, the BBC's black music station, and MTV. The findings of the survey made interesting reading and were generally welcomed in the UK press.

So how big can Demographix surveys get? One of our customers, Sigma Research, does an annual sexual health survey to support health promoters in the UK working in HIV prevention. The survey reaches its target audience through adverts on carefully selected websites, and has generated response levels of 10-15,000 respondents online annually.

Some of the biggest online surveys Demographix has recently hosted include AutoExpress's annual Driver Power survey (around 40,000 respondents in 2006) and Inside Soap's annual Soap Awards (33,000 respondents and still counting).

And those big sample sizes cost a lot less with us than with those of our competitors who charge on a "per response" basis. Demographix has unlimited response levels - and the more response you get, the more impact your quantitative research has!

We want your surveys to have real marketing muscle!

Quizzes and competitions

19 Jun 2006 — One of the questions we're often asked by customers is how to build up mailing lists. They'll often have a busy web site but this doesn't require registration or have a forum where contact details can be collected.

In our experience quizzes and competitions are an excellent way of achieving this. They provide visitors with some additional interactivity and possibly the chance to win a prize. Plus they give you an opportunity to collect some contact and demographic information at the same time.

Demographix new "scoring surveys" technology makes running quizzes and competitions quick and easy. You just enter the questions and assign a score to each of the possible answers. Demographix does the rest.

When visitors have completed the quiz they can be shown their score and optionally a verdict. For example a food site could run a quiz based on knowledge of ingredients. At the end the verdicts could range from "you're a real food buff" to "time to try some new recipes".

Of course this final message can also be used to sell your products and services: "Your exercise levels seem too low. Click here for a special offer on gym membership".

People also like to rate themselves on personal or topical issues. "Are you a good bargain hunter?" and "How energy efficient is your home" are examples of self-assessment quizzes that could be run using demographix scoring surveys.

To see an example of a quiz why not take our difficult World Cup quiz. Or set up a free trial account and create your own quiz now.

Demographix on panel at Media Research Group

26 May 2006 — Derek Cohen, demographix CEO, appeared on a panel at the Media Research Group monthly meeting in London this week on "Using the Internet for research".

Much of the focus of the discussion centered on how to compare online and offline survey results. It was generally agreed that the two need to be treated differently and those conducting national surveys need to combine the advantages of speed, cost and flexibility of online surveys with the different reach offline provided.

Derek gave the attendees the benefit of our experience at building response rates and taking advantage of the greater potential for interactivity with online surveys.

Derek was guest at the MRG meeting courtesy of demographix reseller Telmar Communications.

There is a PDF presentation from the evening on the MRG website.

Introducing incremental raw data downloads!

5 May 2006 — If you are using demographix for a registration or similar form you might want to download responses on an incremental basis rather than downloading all of them. This is now possible.

Whenever you download the raw data of responses as CSV or Excel files you will now be shown the ID of the last response you have just downloaded.

You can subsequently request only to download responses after this or any other valid ID.

Question Bank gives access to rigorous survey composition techniques

20 Apr 2006 — Question Bank run by the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey. It's also a useful reference for teachers and students of survey methodology, and we recommend it for browsing even if you're not an academic to get an idea of how to structure questions in a survey.

Ambiguity of wording, and anticipating what responses might be, should always be at the forefront of your mind when designing surveys. The Question Bank provides you with the opportunity to see what questions were asked in some major UK social surveys, such as: the 10-yearly UK Census of Population; the annual British Household Panel Survey; the continual (every two months or quarter) Office of National Statistics Omnibus survey; or the ad hoc Young People's Social Attitudes Survey. There's a full list here.

You can dig down into any one of these surveys and find out what the paper/laptop questionnaire or call centre script looks like in PDF format. There's also invaluable information on how the topics within a survey are structured. An alternative way of interrogating the depth of this resource is to use the advanced search facility. Enter a range of search keywords or terms to find questions containing them - click on a link in the results screen and it will take you into the page in the PDF where the question is located - excellent stuff!

Piping aboard greater interactivity in survey design

1 Apr 2006 — Great News! Dynamic question text has recently been introduced to demographix, and we've all been amusing ourselves devising questions based on preceding answers.

Also known as "piping", the new feature allows a respondent's answer to a single choice or write-in question to be incorporated into the text of later items in the survey.

For example, the write-in "Tell us who your favourite singer is?" can feed a name into the later question: "What is the best song that [piped name] has ever sung?". This simple new feature allows for a greater sense of interactivity with your respondents.

Enterprise Feedback Management makes a debut

31 Mar 2006 — It's funny how a new concept or trend in business management suddenly reaches a tipping point and starts to make a wider impact. We've noticed this with the concept of Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM), which is really consultant-speak for "Getting To Know What Your Employees Or Customers Think" (GTKWYEOCT). Leading IT research consultancy, Gartner, has recently released a report on the topic, which it sees as an extension of customer relationship management systems.

Within an organisation, Enterprise Feedback Management has particular appeal to Human Resources and other central services departments, as regular polling of employees can allow for management feedback on a range of issues. Find out if there is bubbling discontent before it bites, or measure the internal success of new programmes, or allow ideas to come bubbling up from within. EFM offers measurement opportunities and facilitates organic business growth.

But the key thing about EFM is that a lot of the companies making the running in this area, like demographix, are those that have offered inexpensive survey creation and analysis tools. The most forward-looking are those that offer survey systems that bypass the IT or web/content management departments - which have often been hugely obstructive in the past. You can get a survey up on the company intranet or electronic bulletin board in an hour or so, not the months of inter-departmental negotiation and frustration that HR workers have previously had to deal with.

A collaborative development environment, like demographix, allows staff to log-in and work on creating surveys whenever they want to, and from wherever they want. Similarly, the deep analysis tools mean you can extract data from the responses quickly and flexibility. Managing an organisation is all about providing the opportunities for staff to feedback openly, and, of course, listening to what they have to say!

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