Imagine that
you're the recently hired Director of Communications at a non-profit in
Toronto. Your firm is in desperate need of a new marketing and fundraising
strategy. You know that if you want your organization to succeed and grow, you
will need to find out what the people are thinking and how these attitudes, opinions, and behaviours affect your organization's well-being. There's just one problem -
one big problem: your organization has informed you that they don't have the
funds you need to take on the massive in-depth market research project that you
had envisioned.
Q: What
would you do in this situation?
A: Buy
yourself some space on an omnibus poll.
Just
because your organization's war chest is suffering, doesn't mean the quality of
your research should suffer. An omnibus
poll (also known as a syndicated study) is a public opinion survey with a
series of questions that are sold individually or in ‘blocks’ to
non-competing clients across a number of industries. To purchase questions on
an omnibus poll is an economical means by which businesses or
organizations can acquire modest amounts of data by paying a (relatively)
nominal cost for each question they wish to have answered. Depending on
what firm the research-buyer chooses, purchasing real estate on an omnibus poll
or syndicated study could cost anywhere from $750-$1000/question. Some firms
may be able to sell blocks of survey questions at a discounted rate.
The reader
should note that each market research or polling firm will have different means
of collecting, presenting, and sharing data. Some firms are transparent with
their findings and will allow all clients of a syndicated study to see what
each client has purchased and what the findings of those questions are.
Alternatively, some firms may wish to withhold data and will only show clients
the findings from questions for which those specific clients paid.
Additionally, some firms may simply give their clients the results of their
findings with no interpretation or analysis while other firms will provide
clients with some insight as to what the numbers they purchased mean. Each firm
will have access to different resources and methodologies that influence
their business model; it's important to ensure that if your organization
is interested in taking part in an omnibus poll that you find a firm that can
provide you with the most information at the best possible cost.
As a
Director of Communications, it might be upsetting that you may not able to obtain
all the information you wanted. However, being realistic and strategic about
the data you can afford can pay out dividends to your organization's short-term success.
There are too many small- or medium-sized businesses or organizations that would
benefit from market research and polling but simply do not have the funds
needed to take on such an expensive endeavor. Omnibus polling allows these
entities to change their research paradigm from "How much data can we
possibly get our hands on?" to "What kind of data is absolutely
essential to our organization's success?”. Furthermore, if you are able to find
a firm that is more transparent with their findings, your organization might be
able to acquire more data than the three or four questions that you paid
for.
When a
business or organization experiences a financial loss or setback,
it's common for the research budget to be the first to feel the swing of the
axe. In this example, you as the Director of Communications would be
able to cope with your organization’s unavailability of funds by sacrificing
the amount of data you wish to acquire instead of the quality of that data. Use your circumstances to find short-term opportunities and
build upon them to create long-term success.
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