Buyer’s Guide:

Don’t Miss the Omnibus:

A beginner’s guide to the cheap and easy survey solution

by Lindsey Wyckoff, Staff Writer

Summary: Omnibus surveys offer a relatively quick and low-cost technique for polling an audience. They are undertaken periodically by market research companies which, for a fee, will include questions from various non-competitive clients. Several vendors are mentioned and survey characteristics are discussed.

What Is an Omnibus Survey?

If your objective is to increase awareness or preference, or you’re trying to measure shifts in opinion, surveys are your only measurement option. But many organizations shy away from them due to cost.

The answer is an omnibus survey. Omnibus means “for everyone,” or, more simply, “for all.” Market research companies put together omnibus surveys by starting with a basic survey (demographic questions on income, age, gender and the like) and adding questions from various non-competitive clients. The surveys are generally performed on a regular schedule; you submit a question (or multiple questions) to the firm and they tack it on the next survey. See this article for a quick introduction to omnibus surveys.

Whether you are a non-profit, government agency or a multinational corporation, a tool this simple is not one to pass up. If you share a market segment with any organization, why not share the cost of researching that market segment? Omnibus surveys do just that, providing non-profits and other organizations with limited marketing budgets low-cost access to the same representative sample of the population that larger corporations can afford.

In recent years omnibus studies have shifted from the completely random questionnaires of the past to surveys that focus on related topics. The sampling is generally around 1,000 people; however more and more companies are offering omnibus surveys that are administered to as many as 3,000 to 5,000 people at a time. The surveys are kept short, generally no longer than 20-25 minutes in length, in order to ensure a high rate of response. The turnaround time is fairly quick; results are returned in anywhere from a couple days to a week or so. Responses to the demographic questions as well as your question(s) are reported back to you. Some research firms may even cross-tabulate your data against the demographic data, saving you the time of doing this yourself. Each client’s data is kept confidential.

Adding a question to an omnibus survey is simple. Most firms publish their ongoing schedule and deadlines for questions on their Web site. Submit a question before the deadline and it will be included. Pricing is on a per-question basis, with basic questions starting around $750 and more complex, open-ended questions costing upwards of $3,000.

Who Does Them?

National and international omnibus surveys are administered by major market research firms. Although the big guys seem to have a hold on the market, there are more options available if you would like to add a question to a statewide or local omnibus survey.

Many university survey centers offer statewide omnibus surveys at much lower rates than their commercial counterparts. Check out a university near you to see if it is a service they offer. For example, the University of New Hampshire Survey Center runs the Granite State Poll, a quarterly survey of about 600 New Hampshire residents. Non-profits, local government agencies and small business are the best fit for these lower cost options, as the focus is primarily on public policy issues in the area.

How to Choose a Vendor

As with any survey, there are a variety of distribution methods: telephone, email, face-to-face and direct mail (for more on performing your own online surveys, see this web survey article in our archives). Each omnibus study differs in its distribution method, so make sure that it uses a method you feel comfortable with or have found reliable in your own research.

Here are a few questions to consider when making your choice:

• Are you happy with the distribution schedule?
  While most omnibus surveys are conducted on a weekly or monthly basis, some run on a quarterly or yearly schedule. Unless your audience base is very specific, it is really not necessary to participate in a quarterly or yearly omnibus survey, as most are aimed at a specific demographic, such as children, seniors or congressional staff and aides. If they do interest you, you may want to do a test run on a weekly omnibus survey to see how your question fares.
  
  
• Do you wish to target a certain segment of the population?
  Omnibus studies usually cover a representative sampling of the population, but many vendors offer more targeted omnibus surveys. The Issues and Answers Network specializes in targeted omnibus surveys. They conduct a Latin Bus which surveys people in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela; a 50+ Omnibus for the over 50 crowd, and a Travel Omnibus geared specifically for the travel industry. MORI, Harris Interactive, ORC International and International Communications Research all have an omnibus study that focuses on pre-teens and young adults. Wirthlin Worldwide runs both the Executive Omnibus, which surveys corporate leaders, as well as the Congressional Omnibus, which “monitors the pulse of Capitol Hill.” There is bound to be an omnibus survey directed specifically toward your target audience, so if you are interested in a more focused sampling, check out the options available.
  
  
• How big a sampling would you like?
  If the standard sampling of 1,000 to 5,000 people is not sufficient for your research, it is possible to increase the size. Market Facts has 600,000 panel member households that participate in Data Gage. You purchase a 3-1/2 by 8-1/2 inch card and fill it with questions that are then sent out to 5,000 to 150,000 households from the panel. Pricing is based on cards as well as the number of households (which are purchased in increments of 5,000).

When

Omnibus surveys are used primarily as a supplemental research tool. Because you can obtain results on a regular basis, they are a good way to capture a “snapshot” of your market or public opinion at various times. You may want to use them to compare product or campaign awareness over a period of time. Before the launch of a new product, omnibus studies are helpful in determining the product's niche. They can also help gauge public opinion about things like name change and are often used in political polling. When used for publicity research or for casual insight into public opinion, omnibus surveys can be an extremely cost-effective and efficient tool.

An Interesting Read:

For more on omnibus surveys and inexpensive measurement in general, read “Research Doesn’t Have to Put You in The Poorhouse” by Walt Lindemann at www.instituteforpr.com.

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