We have proprietary, proactively recruited consumer and B2B online panels in <Germany>, <UK> and <France>). At the end of 2007 this stood at more than 100,000 active panel members. We use our panels exclusively for the purpose of conducting online market research studies.

Due to the comprehensive profiling of our panel members, we are able to conduct online surveys in a targeted manner with consumers in specific product categories (e.g. different food and drink categories, health care, tobacco products, financial services, telecommunication/IT, automotive) as well as with specific target groups (e.g. innovators, frequent travellers, health oriented consumers, mothers of babies).

Through the long-term partnerships we have established over many years with reliable and quality conscious agencies, we are able to conduct high quality online surveys in very many countries:

In Europe

• Spain
• Italy
• The Netherlands
• Belgium
• Austria
• Switzerland
• Sweden
• Norway
• Denmark
• Poland
• Russia

Outside Europe

• US
• Canada
• Australia
• Japan
• China

In each of these countries we are able to conduct surveys with internet representative samples (e.g. for U&A studies) or with samples which represent specific user groups (e.g. users of a specific product category or brand).

When recruiting panel members we strictly follow a principle of only inviting people to whom we have been introduced via telephone, face-to-face (in-home or in-hall) or online.

People who are interested in becoming a panel member can therefore not apply for panel membership or register as panel members on their own accord.
As a matter of principle, we do not buy addresses of unknown quality from address brokers. And, we do not use any addresses from direct marketing databases.

Although it is expensive and time consuming to recruit panel members actively in this way, it is our belief that our approach means that we are able to offer our clients both higher data quality and also stricter confidentiality.

Comprehensive profiling of our panel members before including them into our panels is of great importance to us. Everybody has to complete a comprehensive profiling questionnaire before becoming a member of one of our panels.

In the profiling questionnaire we capture the following information:

• Attitudes and life style (e.g. health orientation, innovation, trends, spontaneity, individuality, pleasure orientation, style of furnishing)
• Leisure time behaviour
• Health
• Product usage (e.g. food and drink, health products, body care, tobacco products, telecommunications, automotive)
• Socio-demographics
• Technical data (e.g. type of online access, internet browser)

For keeping the profiles of our panel members up to date, and thus to be able to recruit correct and precise samples at any time, we update panellist profiles once every 12 months.