IntelliBlend(r) Drives Better Tracker Consistency & Stability

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Challenge

Tracker studies are key for brands to understand potential changes in behavior over time. They allow organizations to observe the changes and implement strategies to address them. This can be difficult when a tracking study runs into feasibility issues, or when inconsistency in the results makes it nearly impossible to compare the data and identify trends or changes wave-to-wave.

This is the issue that our client ran into with a long-term tracking study they had been running for one of their clients, a major player in the transportation industry. Because the study had been going on for years, their feasibility was dropping and they were continuously running into reuse limits on respondents provided by their original sample providers.

The stakes for both our client and their client were huge. This was a large account for our client, and their client used this tracker as a key source of their data for making strategic business decisions. If they were to make a change in sample providers, they needed to ensure that there weren’t disruptions, and that data remained consistent compared to previous waves.

Solution

This is where EMI’s expertise shines. We started by evaluating their previous supplier. During this process, we found that all their suppliers utilized different recruiting methods, as well as had recently experienced major organizational changes including mergers, acquisitions, and internal changes. Combined, it led to differences in attitudes and behaviors of their respondents, as well as some feasibility challenges. After running a side-by-side test, we also uncovered that some of their suppliers were using third-party sample sources that were unknown to the client.

After the evaluation and testing, we implemented our patented blending methodology, IntelliBlend(r), to build a custom sample blend based on the results we uncovered, our knowledge of the sample landscape, and our Research-on-Research on the sample industry. This ensured consistent feasibility going forward while maintaining data consistency for future waves and when compared to previous waves.

Outcome

By implementing IntelliBlend on our client’s tracking study, we were able to bring greater stability and data confidence to the project. Instead of constantly worrying about feasibility wave-to-wave, we were able to provide long-term feasibility through a new group of sample providers that are blended in an intentional and controlled method.

Along with the feasibility stability, we were able to reduce the sample bias our client’s client was encountering since a majority of the sample was being provided by just one or two providers. By incorporating additional suppliers into the blend, we reduced the total amount of samples provided by each supplier, so no one supplier can vastly impact results.

Finally, we were able to improve the transparency of where the sample comes from wave-to-wave by implementing a strict policy of only sourcing proprietary sample from the providers in the blend. No longer are there issues of not knowing where some of the samples are coming from. We were able to achieve all of this, while maintaining data consistency to previous waves, delighting both our client and their client.