Q1. What experience does your company have with providing online samples for market research?

Intra Research is specialized on providing online samples for market research. Research was founded in 2014 by a group of people with more than seven years of experience from managing online panels.

While our main business is providing online samples, Intra Research also offers an extensive range of services from programming and scripting to hosting and sample delivery.

Q2. Please describe and explain the type(s) of online sample sources from which you get respondents. Are these databases? Actively managed research panels? Direct marketing lists? Social networks? Web intercept (also known as river) samples?

We run an actively managed double opt-in online panel used solely for market research purposes. We use multi-source recruitment to avoid sample bias.

Our panelists are recruited via web, telephone and face-to-face which enables us to make sure that our panels are always up to date even in the hardest target groups.

We gather detailed profile info about our panelists – this allows us to draw representative samples and target low penetration segments on both demographic and socio-economic variables. We update our info on the panelists on a regular basis. We believe that good panel management is the key to running successful surveys, thus we aim to provide good and fast customer service not only to our clients, but also to our panelist.

We try to engage our panelists as much as possible via offering various types of incentives from points to lotteries. Panelists are encouraged to spend more time on the panel portal filling fun surveys, so they feel they are part of a community with a mission.

Q3. If you provide samples from more than one source: How are the different sample sources blended together to ensure validity? How can this be replicated over time to provide reliability? How do you deal with the possibility of duplication of respondents across sources?

We use several processes to prevent any duplication of respondents – we monitor addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses.

We use mainly own panel. In case of any blending sources it is done to meet some clearly defined quota specifications with the blended external source being acquired to fill a specific niche requirement.

Q4. Are your sample source(s)used solely for market research? If not, what other purposes are they used for?

Our sample sources are solely used for market research.

Q5. How do you source groups that may be hard to reach on the internet?

Our panel is well represented on the hard-to-reach target groups as we partly recruit by F2F and telephone. This way we avoid the issues you would otherwise have with an only web recruited panel.

In addition to this we run ad hoc recruitment campaigns for hard-to-reach target groups based on client specific needs.

Q6. If, on a particular project, you need to supplement your sample(s) with sample(s) from other providers, how do you select those partners? Is it your policy to notify a client in advance when using a third party provider?

For some surveys Intra Research supplements with samples from other providers as it increases feasibility. We use only carefully selected trusted panel partners which comply with research industry standards and meet our panel quality requirements. We always notify clients in advance when using other panel providers.

Q7. What steps do you take to achieve a representative sample of the target population?

The sample selection in our panel is made randomly using the profile criteria specified in client quotas. We also take into account predicted response rates by target demographic and region and thus avoid over contacting panelists.

Historical tendency to fill questionnaires is not used to choose a sample. Respondents are selected randomly for surveys that they have a likelihood of qualifying for.

Q8. Do you employ a survey router?

We do not use a router.

Q9. If you use a router: Please describe the allocation process within your router. How do you decide which surveys might be considered for a respondent? On what priority basis are respondents allocated to surveys?

We do not use a router.

Q10. If you use a router: What measures do you take to guard against, or mitigate, any bias arising from employing a router? How do you measure and report any bias?

We do not use a router.

Q11. If you use a router: Who in your company sets the parameters of the router? Is it a dedicated team or individual project managers?

We do not use a router.

Q12. What profiling data is held on respondents? How is it done? How does this differ across sample sources? How is it kept up-to-date? If no relevant profiling data is held, how are low incidence projects dealt with?

After potential research participants choose to join our panel, respondents complete a detailed profile questionnaire. We then ask the respondents to add info to their profile periodically. Having detailed profiling data allows us to identify potential respondents for low incidence research without disturbing the entire panel.

The data is updated consistently. Panelists are regularly reminded to update the profiling data in order to ensure accuracy of segmentation and respondents. We incentivize this process as much as possible.

Q13. Please describe your survey invitation process. What is the proposition that people are offered to take part in individual surveys? What information about the project itself is given in the process? Apart from direct invitations to specific surveys (or to a router), what other means of invitation to surveys are respondents exposed to? You should note that not all invitations to participate take the form of emails.

At time of recruitment, all the potential panelists are asked to join an online market research panel. We make it clear at this point that the panel is for research-only purposes and that it is not a marketing tool.

During each invite, panelists are informed about the survey topic. All respondents are rewarded for taking part in surveys according to our incentive scheme that reflects the length of the questionnaire and type of the sample.

Q14. Please describe the incentives that respondents are offered for taking part in your surveys. How does this differ by sample source, by interview length, by respondent characteristics?

We have a very clear incentive system that is based on bonus points. As a standard, we compensate our panelists based on the estimated interview length. On longer surveys we may add further incentives to this, in order to promote a desirable participation rate. The panelist’s ‘save up’ their points on their personal panelist account and once reaching a certain amount of points, they can choose to exchange their points into a variety of different incentives, e.g. gift cards, lottery tickets, charity or other. The types of incentives offered, differs a bit from country to country.

Additionally we conduct periodical prize draws for our panel members to make sure we maintain a fun environment.

Q15. What information about a project do you need in order to give an accurate estimate of feasibility using your own resources?

We would appreciate the following information to run the best possible feasibility on a potential project - the total sample size, target audience, length of questionnaire, projected incidence versus the population of interest and expected response rate.

We believe this information will be enough for our project managers to predict the feasibility of a project and thus give realistic estimates for timing.

Q16. Do you measure respondent satisfaction? Is this information made available to clients?

We measure respondent’s satisfaction with each survey and make this information available for the clients upon request.

Q17. What information do you provide to debrief your client after the project has finished?

After a project is finished the client will receive a report with detailed information such as number of invitations, starters, screen-outs, quota-fulls, dropouts and completes.

Q18. Who is responsible for data quality checks? If it is you, do you have in place procedures to reduce or eliminate undesired within survey behaviours, such as (a) random responding, (b) Illogical or inconsistent responding, (c) overuse of item non-response (e.g. “Don’t Know”) or (d) speeding (too rapid survey completion)? Please describe these procedures.

For us data quality is very important. For surveys where we provide hosting and programming, we will run a series of quality checks on the data collected.

We use a selection of different ways for limiting fraudulent respondents. Inactive and fraudulent panelists are regularly deleted from the panel. Fraudulent respondents are put on a blacklist to avoid any possible reregistration.

During an active project our project management will run checks to ensure the quality of data. For example, we check respondents for filling surveys too fast and for straight-lining. We can also accommodate trap questions and other techniques upon request.

Q19. How often can the same individual be contacted to take part in a survey within a specified period whether they respond to the contact or not? How does this vary across your sample sources?

Our goal is to contact panelists regularly, to keep the community as active as possible without burdening anyone. We limit survey participation to avoid creating professional panelists. We have set a limit of maximum 6 invites sent to our members each month.

Q20. How often can the same individual take part in a survey within a specified period? How does this vary across your sample sources? How do you manage this within categories and/or time periods?

We let our panelists try to qualify and take all surveys they have been invited to – if the surveys are still open. We believe that allowing panelists to feel engaged keeps them motivated and engaged. At the same time our rule is that no more than six completes per month are used per panel member.

Q21. Do you maintain individual level data such as recent participation history, date of entry, source, etc., on your survey respondents? Are you able to supply your client with a project analysis of such individual level data?

We maintain individual level data and it can be made available to the client if it does not compromise privacy principles.

Q22. Do you have a confirmation of respondent identity procedure? Do you have procedures to detect fraudulent respondents? Please describe these procedures as they are implemented at sample source registration and/or at the point of entry to a survey or router. If you offer B2B samples what are the procedures there, if any?

During recruitment and profiling we collect full names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and date of birth.

Our team analyses the profile data on a periodical basis and any discrepancies will result in a phone call made to the panelist by the team or a direct black listing of the panelist.

Q23. Please describe the ‘opt-in for market research’ processes for all your online sample sources.

All potential panelists are required to go through a double opt-in process.

First step - A prospective panelist fills a registration form (first opt-in).
Second step - An email is sent to the prospect, requesting verification of their login details.
Third step - Once the panelist has verified his details (second opt-in), he or she is regarded as a panelist.

Q24. Please provide a link to your Privacy Policy. How is your Privacy Policy provided to your respondents?

Our Privacy Policy has its own pages on the country base panel websites. A link to the Privacy Policy is added to all survey invites.

Q25. Please describe the measures you take to ensure data protection and data security.

We follow all local data protection regulations. Personal information is fully protected and can only be accessed following a strict procedure. Our sampling teams do not have direct access to the database to reveal the identity of users. Survey data remains anonymous.

Q26. What practices do you follow to decide whether online research should be used to present commercially sensitive client data or materials to survey respondents?

When accepting projects that have commercially-sensitive material being presented to panelists we make sure that the client is aware of potential risks.

We would then create a client specific solution that would make sure that leakage probability is minimized - disabling screenshots, copy-pasting, watermarks etc.

Q27. Are you certified to any specific quality system? If so, which one(s)?

We are not certified to any specific quality system. We have documented procedures related to the survey and sample process.

Q28. Do you conduct online surveys with children and young people? If so, do you adhere to the standards that ESOMAR provides? What other rules or standards, for example COPPA in the United States, do you comply with?

We conduct online surveys with children and young adults, but it happens quite rarely. When it occurs, we adhere to ESOMAR standards and all applicable local regulatory and legal requirements.

In addition, when targeting respondents below the sufficient age to participate, they are interviewed only with parental permission.