Implementation
The changed business model has also altered the conditions for the media company’s market research team, which can now easily reach the IT industry’s target groups online. IDG’s market research team has therefore changed over from paper- and telephone-based surveys to internet-based survey methods.
“We use EFS Survey as a quick and efficient means of providing our editorial teams, sales teams and advertising customers with key information about market developments and target audiences. The software boosts the productivity of our market research activities and helps our group adapt its strategy to the changing market conditions in the publishing sector.”
Matthias Teichmann
Head of Market Research
IDG Business Media GmbH
The surveys are also now being used for an ever wider range of applications. For example, readers are questioned on an ongoing basis about their satisfaction with editorial content, their preferences and their requirements. In this way, IDG Business Media gathers valuable information about which print and online products to include in their range. Moreover, the surveys deliver vital insights into the demographic structure of the readership, which is fundamentally important to advertising customers. IDG also offers its advertising customers online surveys into the impact of advertisements. In these surveys, readers indicate which advertisements they remember and what they think of them. This allows the success of individual advertisements and entire advertising campaigns to be measured and assessed. The IDG market research team also uses online surveys to determine target groups’ preferences in advance and to check visitor satisfaction after the company’s own conferences, roadshows and congresses. Another vital source of feedback is IT experts, who provide IDG with information on the latest trends.
IDG now employs a team of specialists to design, program and evaluate surveys. All of the processes involved are managed using the web-based interface from EFS Survey. Above all, the software’s extensive project management functions help staff handle the ever increasing number of requests. An authorization and role system, project-based modes of access, a large number of standardized question types and library and archive functions for questionnaires allow the team to gather information efficiently. In addition to its wide-ranging functionality, the user-friendliness of EFS Survey is also a major advantage for IDG – even after only one introductory event, staff were able to program and evaluate professional survey projects independently.
Experience and outlook
Download nowEFS Survey enables IDG’s market research team to offer its customers a wide range of survey projects. The company’s central departments can provide quick, efficient answers to mission-critical questions and its editorial content can be tailored to meet the requirements of the media company’s target groups. It is therefore hardly surprising that the IDG market research team is planning to extend its product range. In future, for example, it plans to increase its range of studies for external customers and incorporate surveys into webcast programs. IDG’s market research team also plans to set up a customer panel, as part of which it will create an interface between its own CRM system and the Globalpark software. Moreover, it is considering the use of mobile surveys to make taking part in evaluations even more convenient for customers and other interested parties.
Background
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