Pilot study proves SAARF's Branded Data Survey is on track

SAARF Branded data will provide subscribers with over 1 000 brands and will bring a totally new dimension to AMPS data. It will cover brands from 110 product categories. The brandy category for instance, covers Martell, Klipdrift, Flight of the Fish Eagle, Bertrams, Viceroy, Mellow-Wood, Oude Meester, and Bols. New categories such as insurance and quick-service restaurants have already been added, with cellphone and credit cards to follow shortly.

The pilot shows that the inclusion of brands on the current self-completion AMPS Product questionnaire, which is left behind with the RAMS diary, does not impact on the quality, or reliability, of data collected for RAMS or AMPS. No significant differences were found for radio listening, either by quarter hour or by station and most importantly, the new questionnaire also had no impact on the rate of respondent dropout.

The identification of the brands listed in the survey was extremely high - 94% of rural and 96% of urban respondents claimed to have had no problems in this regard.

Reaction to the questionnaire

One concern, which the pilot has laid to rest, is whether South Africans would be able to adequately comprehend a well-designed brand-based self-completion questionnaire. Here SAARF's unique use of brand logos has proved to work extremely well. In total, only 9% of the rural sample didn't understand some of the product categories. Amongst these were the differences between toothpaste gel and regular toothpaste, ground versus instant coffee, salad cream versus salad dressing, and bath additives versus toilet soap versus liquid body washes. However, this is not a real concern because in most cases, the addition of brand logos actually assisted respondents to distinguish which products they were dealing with.

Other than these isolated instances though, comprehension of the branded questionnaire was high. It was also clear that where problems were experienced, it was normally the case for non-users of a specific product category. Users of products were in general very adept at identifying the brands which they used.

Only 5% of the urban sample experienced difficulties with some categories and in 97% of cases, answers were found to be realistic.

On average, the self-completion branded questionnaire took just over an hour to be completed by rural respondents, and 45 minutes by urban. The majority of respondents completed the questionnaire in one sitting, although they had a whole week to complete it in. Interviewers had no trouble placing the questionnaire in the rural sample, and only minimal problems in the urban sample.

The first results of the SAARF Branded Data Survey will be released early in 2003.