Misco gets on the Omnibus with new survey

These are some of the questions that a number of business organisations, managers and marketing and advertising executives would want to know.

However marketing research only makes sense if it provides value for money. The Omnibus Survey is a cost effective way of obtaining information from the market you serve, whilst sharing the research cost with other businesses.

MISCO International is launching the latest in its suite of research products, MISCO OMNIBUS RESEARCH, purposely aimed at those companies and organisations who do not need a stand alone survey but still want to approach the market with the questions that matter most.

“In transport and logistics there is what is known as groupage, when different individuals pool in together to bring their respective cargos from the same shared destination using one vehicle thus enjoying the same service in a more cost effective way. In market research we refer to this concept as Omnibus where different clients supply their respective questions and contribute towards a collective survey at a reduced cost,” explains Morgan Parnis, Business Development Manager at MISCO International.

“However, although this gives the impression of a shared survey, it is not and all participating agents will enjoy full confidentiality.”

Explaining the basic concept, Parnis outlined how an Omnibus Survey is intrinsically a method of quantitative marketing research where data on a wide variety of subjects is collected during the same interview.

“Usually, multiple research clients will provide proprietary content for the survey (paying to 'get on the omnibus'), while sharing the common demographic data collected from each respondent. Omnibus surveys generally apply stratified sampling and may be conducted either by mail, telephone, or Internet.”

“One of the main advantages, and perhaps the most obvious one is cost effectiveness since sampling and screening costs are shared across multiple clients. This cost sharing method provides information from a large sample for a much lower cost than funding a standalone survey. This makes omnibus surveys more attractive and are increasingly being used to gather important information by producing representative estimates of public behaviour and/or opinion.”

“However, the client stands to gain from a number of other attractive advantages. One such advantage is timeliness since omnibus samples are large and interviewing is ongoing. Omnibus surveys provide statistically robust aggregate data by sampling a large population. The instrument design combines the use of a number of standard questions which collect demographic and core data, with questions devised and funded by other individuals or organisations, be they government, business, academic. This provides survey contributors with a data set containing data resultant from their sponsored question variables, along with all core and demographic data,” Parnis said.

While Omnibus Surveys are generally employed to gather customer feedback in a variety of areas including buying habits, consumer attitudes and opinions and market trends, other frequent applications include studies about awareness and usage, concept testing, incidence checks and public relations applications amongst others.