Common questions about audience segmentation:
Q: How many respondents are required?
To achieve statistically significant results we’ll need at least 400 respondents, and maybe more depending on how many subgroups we’re looking at. For this reason, B-to-C companies can often provide more reliably valid results. However, we have successfully conducted B-to-B segmentation research as well, and depending on the audiences examined the results can offer substantial insights simply based on the fact that they include responses from a large percentage of the target.
Q: Do we need to have a list of people to survey?
Each project begins with a strategic discussion about what the client’s goals are, and who best should be included in the respondent pool to get the information that we need to accomplish those goals.
For some projects, current customers are the targeted respondent group. In that case we can work with your existing customer list, visitors to your retail locations, or gift recipients, for example.
Many of our clients, however, want to incorporate a population they don’t currently have in their files — potential prospects, non-customers or even a targeted audience for a new product or service. In that case we have a variety of techniques to source the appropriate respondents for your study.
Q: What if we already have segments based on qualitative research, or personas we’ve developed in the past?
Our research identifies your attitudinal segments organically, based on a mathematical analysis of the data gained from a survey custom-designed for you. The methods we employ specifically avoid using predetermined expectations to categorize respondents into preexisting audience segments. While in some cases the resulting insights may align with audiences you’ve already identified through other means, in most cases they offer our clients a completely new view of their customers and prospects. And for virtually all clients the data offers a much richer, more informative and more reliable profile of their audiences than they’ve ever had before.
Q: How long does the research take?
Typically three months from our first strategy meeting to delivery of final results, depending on the complexity of the project, the respondent pool and other factors.
