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ESOMAR 26 QUESTIONS |
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COMR’S ANSWERS TO ESOMAR 26 QUESTIONS
SECTION 1: COMPANY PROFILE
1. What experience does your company have with providing online samples for market research?
COMR Market research was established in 2001, invested by CIIC group which is a state-owned company and the biggest HR service provider in China.
Since then we started the online panel recruitment and providing online samples for market research.
COMR’s online panel is the leading online panel in China:
- www.51poll.com the most well-known online survey portal in China
- The largest online panel in China, there are more than 1.6 million panelists
so far, and it is increasing about 1,000 per day on average, covering all
mainland provinces and HK area
- Besides the common consumer panel, we particularly created IT professionals,
car owners, CEO/chief executives, finance and administration, etc
COMR has rich experience working with online research partners:
- In 2007, COMR finished over 450 online survey projects, of those 70% projects
were from global clients.
- Covering 18 categories, in more than 100 cities of 30 provinces throughout
China, and around 200,000 completed samples (excluding self-invested study)
COMR’s service is prompt and efficient
- We can deploy respondent invitation almost immediately (with one or two hours)
for projects which require only sample to be sent to a pre-scripted, live survey.
- The typical in-field/recruitment time for such sample-only studies is 2 to 3 days
which is sufficient time to allow panellists who have been invited to complete
the survey.
- Full-service projects including scripting and hosting the survey, typically need
a further 1 to 2 days set up and then test. We apply stringent testing and
translation checking prior to launching a survey.
COMR is a comprehensive online survey service provider
Besides delivering samples and clean data, COMR has the ability to do DE/DP work, it includes: code frame development, coding, data cleaning, translation of open-ended responses, cross tabulation and even advanced data statistics
COMR has 3 offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong respectively to provide both panelist and client services.
SECTION 2: SAMPLE SOURCE
2. Please describe and explain the types of source(s) for the online sample that you provide (are these databases, actively managed panels, direct marketing lists, web intercept sampling, river sampling or other)?
We used different channels to enrich our panel. The main approaches are as follow:
- Traditional methods: advertise on the magazines/newspaper/TV, this was used
frequently in the early stage
- Interactive methods: Links with other websites/Purchase key words from
Google, Baidu, etc
- Cooperative method: Recruit the members through the cooperation with giant
organization such as Shanghai Telecom and CIIC employee list (COMR’s mother
company, it has more than 300,000 white collar employees working in foreign
invested companies throughout China)
- Currently, we recruit panellists through our referring system which is brining us
more reliable and stable panelists
- With all channels above, our panel is growing by around 1,000 new members
everyday.
As a professional online sample provider, we carefully manage and keep updating our panel. The panel family currently comprises of the following communities which enable us maintain it very effectively.
- CIIC&COMR official website (www.comr.com.cn)
- China recruitment website (www.51poll.com)
- HK recruitment website (www.51poll.hk )
The panels are built in order to ensure that they are responsive, reliable and representative, the foundations for quality research.
3. What do you consider to be the primary advantage of your sample over other sample sources in the marketplace?
- We are the first online panel provider in China, the stability and effectiveness
have been clearly proven in past years
- The largest panel in terms of member size, this enable us to implement all kinds
of research appropriate online
- We developed a unique data cleaning tool, this guarantees the survey data are
logically correct and rationally acceptable
- Moreover, we provide the very competitive pricing to our research partners,
while remain the high service quality (response in one hour at working time)
- Our mother company CIIC is a state-owned enterprise which is regarded
trustworthy among our business partners and members
4. If the sample source is a panel or database, is the panel or database used solely for market research? If not, please explain.
Yes, our panel is used solely for market research. We are dedicated to be a market research panel provider in China so that we can continuously invest our efforts on it and avoid potential effect on survey results
5. How do you source groups that may be hard-to-reach on the internet?
We actively recruit those hard-to-reach groups on the internet via different approaches:
- Cooperation with specialty websites/organizations to recruit panelists with special
demographical and social background, such as IT website, infant milk powder
manufactures, etc.
- On-street recruitment for seniors (45 years or plus)
- Draw particular members from main panel to consist specialty sub-panels
and maintain them in particularly way.
So far, we have built several specialty sub-panels include car owner, IT professionals, finance managers, baby mothers, creative youth, etc.
6. What are people told when they are recruited?
Our panellists have been asked to actively join an online market research panel:
- Present as requisite for membership and clearly states the reason which they
are providing their information
- It is a clear promise to them upon on joining that they will only be invited to
take part in market research through membership of the panel and they will
never be marketed to or sold to as a result of membership
- They are informed that the panel is owned and managed by CIIC & COMR,
a company which follows all relevant market research industry standards,
data protection and privacy laws
- Upon confirming their desire to become a member they are asked to agree to
our terms and conditions of membership
- Then they are asked to fill in a registration questionnaire which contains
demographic and social information
SECTION 3: PANEL RECRUITMENT
7. If the sample comes from a panel, what is your annual panel turnover/attrition/retention rate and how is it calculated?
The panel attrition rate is 35% in past year, it is calculated as below:
The number of lost members in past one year
Panel attrition rate= ------------------------------------------------------------- X 100%
The total number of panelists at the end of last year
Here the “lost member” is defined as below:
- Those who didn’t have any interaction with us in past year, e.g. they didn’t log
on our website and didn’t click the survey link in the past year.
- The reason why they left us is mainly because we don’t have so many surveys
to invite them to participate.
8. Please describe the opt-in process.
Our panellists have been asked to actively join an online market research panel, the opt-in process is as follow:
- Inviting & guiding people to our recruitment website through various ways like
advertising (website and on-street leaflet) and member referring system
(any member who recommend others to opt-in will be reward by scores)
- Present as requisite for membership and clearly states the reason which they
are providing their information
- It is a clear promise to them upon on joining that they will only be invited to
take part in market research through membership of the panel and they will
never be marketed to or sold to as a result of membership
- They are informed that the panel is owned and managed by CIIC & COMR,
a company which follows all relevant market research industry standards,
data protection and privacy laws
- Upon confirming their desire to become a member they are asked to agree to
our terms and conditions of membership
- Then they are asked to fill in a registration questionnaire which contains
demographic and social information
- Double opt-in to confirm member’s agreement and the validation of email
address
9. Do you have a confirmation of identity procedure? Do you have procedures to detect fraudulent respondents at the time of registration with the panel? If so, please describe.
Every person who is interested to the online survey must submit his/her name, gender, contact, Identification number, residence address while registering. Since our members can be rewarded the gift or money, they are willing to provide true information, otherwise they can not be rewarded. However we take active measures the ensure the authenticity of panelist with our continuous efforts:
- With the ID number, we will check the consistency of key information such as
gender, age, location.
- Double opt-in: after we receive the registration questionnaire from our new
member, we then send him/her a short confirmation sheet which contains
basic demographics to double check the identity
- For all members whose scores are sufficient to claim the money or gift, they
need to provide the photo copy of identity card and bank account to us, thus
all those members are 100% confirmed
- We update member’s profile every year, those who don’t reply or reply with
clearly wrong background (particularly for gender, age, education, etc) will
be eliminated in the panel
- After each business survey conducted, we run a 10% back check via
telephone interview to confirm the identity
- We check the IP number to avoid multiple registration for single people
10. What profile data is kept on panel members? For how many members is this data collected and how often is this data updated?
Rich socio-demographic information of panelists are kept in the panel and updated every year. They can be grouped into three categories.
Personal demographic information:
- Gender
- Age
- Monthly Income
- Martial Status
- Education level
Family information
- Location/city
- Household income
- Household size
- Ownership of computers, automobiles, real estate
Social status information:
- Working status
- Occupation
- Company size and industry
- Position
- Years of working
11. What is the size and/or the capacity of the panel, based on active panel members on a given date? Can you provide an overview of active panelists by type of source?
COMR has more than 1.6 million registered panelists throughout China mainland and Hong Kong area, among them 20% are active members, say there are around 320,000 active panelists in our panel. We define the active panel as: who had positive interaction with us in past 6 months, it includes clicking survey link, completing survey, writing blog, expressing opinion on BBS, etc. in another word, those panelists are not only interested in survey but also can be reached shortly.
All those active panelists are from general population, so they are much representative of common consumers/customers
SECTION 4: PANEL MANAGEMENT
12. Please describe your sampling process including your exclusion procedures if applicable. Can samples be deployed as batches/replicates, by time zones, geography, etc? If so, how is this controlled?
The sample selection process is based on the terms and requirement of research projects. Specifically we have 3 steps in selecting samples:
Step 1: Exclusion of non-proper members
We exclude those not proper panelists in our sampling frame for each particular project
- We will exclude those who participated projects of same category in past 3
months
- We will exclude those who participated more than 12 projects in past year or
more than 2 projects in past month
Step 2: Building sample frame
Then we build representative sampling frame to minimize screening-out and improve the survey efficiency
- We use all the panel information that we have available, both from the initial
registration questionnaire and also from the subsequent pre-screening
exercises that we undertake.
- This minimises the number of people we invite to surveys for which they may
not qualify, thereby providing a better quality panellist experience which in
turn leads to better quality research responses and minimises panel attrition.
Step 3: Random sampling
Finally we randomly select members from established sampling frame to send invitation to
Yes, our proprietary panel management system enable us to have total control over the way in which we invite respondents to surveys, i.e. by batches, by geography, etc.
13. Explain how people are invited to take part in a survey. What does a typical invitation look like?
We use unique link genration system to avoid multiple participating for each panelist in one project, Here is the invitation process for a project:
- The system creates a batch of links, all with a unique ID for different
respondents.
- Select members from defined sampling frame, and match each selected
member with a unique link in our control system
- Send out invitation letter to selected members for survey, via our potented
email system, SM, BBS, etc.
- The survey qualification and requirement are not disclosed to invited members
- The invited members log on our online system by their user ID and password,
then can see the survey link, click on it and begin the survey. All those who
are not been invited/sampled can’t see the survey link at all
- Once each link been used up (i.e. screen-out or survey completed), it is
invalidated
A typical invitation looks like this:
• A unique URL that provides access to the questionnaire
• Physical address for 51poll
• Survey information (end date, survey number, survey duration)
• Opt-out information
• Member support email address
• Link to privacy policy
By above measures, we can make sure that the survey can only be done by intended members, and each member can only try once to avoid cheating
14. Please describe the nature of your incentive system(s). How does this vary by length of interview, respondent characteristics, or other factors you may consider?
The panellists will be rewarded the money or the equivalent presents (cooperation with our incentive partners) only if they have provided the true answers within the logic procedures.
- The amount of the reward varies for each survey but is clearly stated in the
invitation email and is related to the survey length, interest and complexity.
- When the members answer our questionnaires, we will double check the
questionnaires and give the related scores to the members.
- COMR exercises lucky draw regularly as an additional return to members,
particularly to those who don’t have the chance to take part in survey
15. How often are individual members contacted for online surveys within a given time period? Do you keep data on panelist participation history and are limits placed on the frequency that members are contacted and asked to participate in a survey?
We keep all data on panelist participation history such as when and what category they participate, so that we can control the invitation frequency to ensure panel members are neither over nor under contacted:
- Members can not participate in more than 12 surveys a year, more than 2
times a months and only for one survey at a time.
- Members can not participate surveys of same category within 3 months
- Our members are only contacted for market research or to provide
information about panel membership.
POLICIES AND COMPLIANCE
16. Is there a privacy policy in place? If so, what does it state? Is the panel compliant with all regional, national and local laws with respect to privacy, data protection and children e.g. EU Safe Harbour, and COPPA in the US? What other research industry standards do you comply with e.g. ICC/ESOMAR International Code on Market and Social Research, CASRO guidelines etc.?
- Certainly we strictly keep private of the members and their information. We
promise not to deliver the information of members without the permission of
them.
- Since we launch the surveys online, according the related law of the People’s
Republic of China, We are the Internet Content Provider (ICP) license, we also
the Permission Certificate of surveying the foreign projects, we launch our
surveys based on panel within the legal areas
- The panel of CIIC & COMR comply with, exceed, all applicable industry
standards published by European Society for Market Research (ESOMAR) and
China Marketing Research Association (CMRA), This includes observing the
following guidelines amongst others:
² Ensuring the voluntary cooperation of panellists
² Following rules to protect researcher’s and respondents’ identity
² Respecting the respondent’s right to anonymity
² Ensuring that all data procedures are reliable and valid
17. What data protection/security measures do you have in place?
COMR applies strict security protocols and measures to protect the relevant panellists’ data. These measures relate to the security of servers and databases, applications and survey links, but also to the procedures applied by all COMR employees. The Information Security Management System regulates the access to and usage of the COMR information and assets in order to protect information and preserve its main characteristics: confidentiality, integrity and availability. Further details on all processes applied are available at request.
18. Do you apply a quality management system? Please describe it.
Yes we apply several measures to assure the quality of panel, mainly cleaning the indifferent or dishonest members, all those measures are applied continuously:
- Profile update every year, those who refuse or ignore updating their profile in
past 2 years will be deleted in our panel database
- IP check to identify the multi-user members in our panel and block the
additional ones, this kind of work done every quarter
- After each project, using our unique data cleaning tool to identify those who
are not involved in answering questions, then block those IDs
- Delete all those who didn’t have any interaction with us in past year
Our panelists are continuously recruited and refreshed, ensuring that panelists are not over used, so that sufficient fresh respondents are always available for ongoing tracking profile
19. Do you conduct online surveys with children and young people? If so, please describe the process for obtaining permission
- We mainly conduct online survey with children aged 15 or more, it is permitted
by the public community in China
- If we conduct survey with younger child in a qualitative study, we will get
permission from their parents via offline communication (usually telephone or
face to face)
PARTNERSHIPS AND MULTIPLE PANEL MEMBERSHIP
20. Do you supplement your samples with samples from other providers? How do you select these partners? Is it your policy to notify a client in advance when using a third party provider? Do you de-duplicate the sample when using multiple sample providers?
- In the past time, almost all of our business is providing samples for our
partners. In the cooperation we strictly protect our panel information and our
own right, the partners can’t get contact information of our panellists, thus no
chance to produce multi-panel members in our process
- Currently we are establishing long term cooperation with other online panel
providers in Asia, in case we use a third party provider we will notify our
clients as a policy
21. Do you have a policy regarding multi-panel membership? What efforts do you undertake to ensure that survey results are unbiased given that some individuals belong to multiple panels?
We use the IP and ID number to avoid multi-users in our panel.
As in China online panel business is still emerging, so far it is not a big concern that people register members in different panels
DATA QUALITY AND VALIDATION
22. What are likely survey start rates, drop-out and participation rates in connection with a provided sample? How are these computed?
We aims to build a responsive and reliable online panel, we computed some key figures from projects conducted in past one year
- Within 3 days after we send out invitation, about 45% of those received
invitation log on and click the questionnaire
- Among all those who click the questionnaire, around 40% of them not qualified
(stopped by screening questions), 20% drop-out, other 25% stop because of
the quota limitation
So regardless the specific survey requirement, among all invitations, about 5%-10% will complete the survey within 3 days, this is why we usually ask partners to provide 10 times more links of target completion
23. Do you maintain individual level data such as recent participation history, date of entry, source, etc., on your panelists? Are you able to supply your client with a per job analysis of such individual level data?
- Yes, we keep detailed individual data about survey participation history.
- As per client’s request, we can provide the latest survey date the member
participated
24. Do you use data quality analysis and validation techniques to identify inattentive and fraudulent respondents? If yes, what techniques are used and at what point in the process are they applied?
Yes we use different data quality control measures at different points in the process:
- During the interview, we set questions logic in questionnaire to ensure all data
are logical
- After respondents complete the interview, we use our own unique data
cleaning tool to analyse the data and confirm the data credibility, this tool
analyses the interview time and rationality of the answers (particularly the
patterned responding) during the whole FW, it helps us identify inattentive and
fraudulent respondents very timely
- When the FW completed, we will delete the data in doubt (so usually we
conduct 10% more interviews than planned) before sending the raw data
to client
- 10% back check by telephone interview or online to monitor the data
credibility cotineously
25. Do you measure respondent satisfaction?
Yes, we integrate the satisfaction measures in to annual profile update program
26. What information do you provide to debrief your client after the project has finished?
As per client’s request, we can provide a survey technical report with following figures:
- How many invitations sent out
- How many members clicked the link
- How many screened out
- How many drop-out by self
- How many drop-out by quota limitation
- The average time spent on interview completion
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