04 Nov 2022

Surveys explained

Max FribergCEO at Inex One
Tools and best practices Surveys

Inex One simplifies surveys for commercial due diligence and market research. We began back in 2018 by simplifying expert interviews for strategy and market research work. As we expanded into surveys, we stumbled on the many acronyms and specific lingo. Here’s our internal explainer of the words we needed to understand for ourselves. I hope you’ll find it helpful - and tell us if anything’s missing!

  • B2B surveys - business-to-business market research. Surveys that target a specific, qualified sample set for their professional (business) insights. Expert networks with quality databases often make them available as panels for survey sampling.

  • B2C surveys - business-to-consumer market research. B2C respondents are generally consumers, surveyed at the point of sale or soon thereafter. The survey often focuses on buying intent, brand awareness, or brand appreciation. Compared to B2B surveys, B2C surveys have lower CPI and typically higher incidence rates in any panel.

  • Complete - A complete response to a survey, where the respondent is qualified based on profiling criteria and the response is legitimate and complete.

  • CATI - Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews. Phone surveys that follow specific scripts, with a clear hierarchy and logic of questions. Typically much shorter than IDIs, with little or no room for open-ended questions and qualitative commentary.

  • CDD surveys - surveys run as part of a commercial due diligence (whether buy- or vendor-side). These tend to be B2B surveys and focus on key decision makers involved with the target company or industry at large. Questions often cover the competitive landscape, market trends and evolution.

  • CPI - Cost per interview/ survey response (also called “CPC”, cost per complete). This is the price that you pay for the survey sample, divided by the number of complete responses. The cost is influenced by the availability of your targeted respondent groups, and their incidence rate in your sample.

People crossing a street

Please don't fiddle with your phone when crossing the street. But if you do, why not answer a mobile survey?

  • IDI - In-depth interviews, for example arranged through an expert network, or as a call with a survey respondent for detailed follow-up questions.

  • IR - Incidence rate. The percentage of respondents that qualify to take your survey. If you survey a broad audience (e.g. “all men”), your incidence rate is ~50% of the population. If you need to be more specific, (e.g. “oncologists who have prescribed drug X more than 10 times in the last two years”), your incidence rate can be a lot lower.

  • LOI - Length of interview. The expected time needed to complete a survey, usually calculated in minutes.

  • Panel - A company or system with a group of respondents available as sample for surveys. Panels can be pre-organized (e.g. members in a club, loyalty/reward programs, mailing lists), or - less commonly - spot-recruited (e.g. through targeted ads on social media, text messages, or at a point of sale).

  • Profiling criteria - Criteria, or questions asked, to determine if respondents are relevant for a survey. When surveys are distributed to large panels or respondent groups, profiling criteria let you filter out any respondents that are not qualified to take the survey. For example, if your survey is aimed at coffee drinkers, a profiling question could be “Do you drink coffee at least once per week?”.

  • Respondent - An individual that replies to a survey.

  • Sample - A group of respondents, or completed responses. These are sourced from one or multiple panels.

  • Survey - A set of questions distributed to respondents. Surveys are used to collect feedback and data from a sample, to understand an entire population, market, or industry. Surveys can be distributed in numerous ways (e.g. online/mobile, pen-and-paper, telephone, or passive monitoring). For our audience at Inex One - primarily strategy consultants, investment professionals and market researchers - we choose to narrow the definition of surveys to only those distributed online via web/mobile to both B2B and B2C audiences.

How do I launch a survey for my market study?

The easiest way to launch a survey is on Inex One. Access the best survey providers in one portal, who help you with scoping and designing the survey. This gives you optimal survey quality, price, and speed of delivery.

Launch your survey here, or click here to discuss your research needs with our team.