For quantitative research, YouGov use an online panel of adults who are profiled across a range of demographic, attitudinal, lifestyle and marketing characteristics. The emphasis is put on quality rather than quantity and restrictions are put in place to ensure that only those selected from this panel are able to take part in the survey.

Cash incentives are used to encourage participation and prevent an overwhelming influence from those with a particular interest or ‘axe to grind’. In the UK, France and Germany, the panels are constructed by YouGov and consist of 654,000, 127,000 and 178,000 adults respectively. In the other countries, a panel partner of YouGov conducts the survey using an online interview. The panel sizes for these countries are as follows: Austria (25,544), Hong Kong (14,444), Italy (75,201), Singapore (21,399), Spain (130,312) and Switzerland (21,684).

For qualitative research, they use online forums, face to face focus groups and cognitive interviews. This information is then either used stand alone or is fully integrated with their quantitative research.

Once collected, the data is weighted using either each country’s census, if available, or industry accepted data, to help make the sample as reflective of the general population as possible.

Who is YouGov?

YouGov is an international market research agency with sector specialist teams serving the financial, media, technology and telecom industries. They are considered a pioneer of online market research and are the most quoted market research agency in the UK. In August 2012, they were named as one of the world’s top 25 research companies by the Honomichi Top 25 Global Firms.

What do they do?

YouGov provides value consultancy, qualitative research, field and tab services, as well as syndicated products that track brand perceptions (BrandIndex), analyse social media (SoMA) and create market intelligence reports (SixthSense).