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Lifestyle surveys have been a part of the consumer's life for about as long as anyone can remember. Every so often, one will arrive in the post with pages of questions all aimed at getting to know your consumer preferences.

Take out a magazine subscription and a partnered survey may fall out of its pages. Buy white goods and a survey accompanies its delivery.

But while paper-based surveys are still going strong, they're no longer the only option for lifestyle data gatherers. Online competition and survey sites have become vital tools and phone surveys are growing in popularity. New initiatives are also coming into play. Ebiquita's recent partnership with W3 Commerce, for example, has resulted in collecting consumer data in return for information on topics the consumer has sought online (see box p32).

But is one source any better than another? It has become evident that lifestyle data is tiring, with falling responses and the same types of people answering the same surveys, resulting in lists of diminishing value. This has made finding new ways of reaching consumers vital.

"The standard approach is failing," says David Castle, database director at Lifecycle Marketing. "You've got to come up with new and more interesting ways to elicit response."

Different channels

This is where employing different channels comes in. "There is a certain type of person who will sit and complete an eight-page survey but the challenge is to find other pools of data and consumers, and the only way to do this is by using other channels," argues Suzanne Soper, executive board director, consumer data division at Wegener Direct Marketing.

Online surveys have been successful at capturing audiences that might not respond to other forms of lifestyle survey. "Tradition says that people who complete surveys online are predominantly the younger market but there is evidence that one of the biggest users is the grey market, particularly affluent greys," adds Soper.

And this fact is of considerable interest to certain sectors. "Around 30 per cent of UK savings are held by affluent greys, so they are of interest to the financial services market, but they're not necessarily the people who will complete postal surveys," adds Soper.

Phone surveys are also growing in popularity, thanks to the level of targeting they can allow, and the speed in which they can deliver fresh data. "Data collected over the phone is very fresh and accurate," says Richard Webster, marketing director of data provider Data Locator. "Clients that sponsor questions on our surveys can get answers daily if necessary."

Despite this undeniable advantage, Webster acknowledges that the phone can't reach everyone. "All methods are good - each has its benefits and attracts different audiences," he says. "We can't survey individuals registered on the TPS so instantly lose a certain percentage of the UK consumer base."

So while phone, online and postal surveys are still going strong, there's still room for alternatives. With Ebiquita and W3 Commerce's product, consumers have the option of using the sites purely as an information source or of opting in to receive information on specific products, services or brands from Ebiquita's partners.

"If someone goes onto one of our financial planning sites and is after a credit card, they could register for one there. If they're not interested in this, they could do an online poll, help us with some market research or just get information," explains Ebiquita managing director Andy Taylor.

Data accuracy

But while these channels may reach new audiences, is the data provided any more accurate or valuable? Martin Kiersnowski, COO of email marketing solutions provider IPT, believes there is still a question mark over phone surveys. "The phone is excellent for filling in gaps and finding people you can't reach in any other way but as a general data collection method to rival lifestyle surveys, it is limited," he says. "On the phone consumers get very impatient and quickly start giving any answer to get through it, which means there are big gaps in data quality."

Online surveys are generally considered to provide accurate data as control is firmly in the consumer's hand and they can opt out at any point. "On the web most responsible companies give consumers the opportunity to opt out at any time," says Nick Fuller, e-crm director at permission marketing company PDV. "They know that to enter competitions they have to look at ads but when they don't want to do this any more they can opt out. This is a choice the consumer never had before."

But one of the big questions for marketers is how to keep consumers answering these surveys, irrespective of the channel. The majority of surveys offer an incentive of some kind, be it a prize draw or money-off coupons.

Incentivising consumers

What works depends to some extent on the channel. Data Locator incentivises its online questionnaires but not its phone surveys. "A lot of our clients feel people only answer for the prize or vouchers being offered with phone surveys," says Webster. "But we do incentivise online because no one would answer voluntarily otherwise."

Although commonly used, whether incentivising consumers to give personal information runs the risk of skewing responses is a moot point. One argument says that they do - if coupons are promised for filling in a survey, a consumer might answer some questions less truthfully if they thought that was what the company wanted to hear, or if they thought certain answers would get them more vouchers.

"If the reward is based on the answers given - if a question asks what brand of cat food you buy and it's sponsored by a particular brand - the results will be skewed, but if it's divorced from this then it's not an issue," believes Kiersnowski.

The other school of thought says incentives are a necessary part of surveys - today's consumer is more likely to realise the value of their data and to want something in return.

Incentives don't have to come in the shape of freebies and money-off vouchers. The Preference Service motivates its paper-based respondents by letting them control the kinds of offers they receive. Its surveys ask consumers what products and services they would like to receive offers about, enabling them to opt out of communications from brands they're not interested in. Its cold mailing surveys regularly get an 11-12 per cent response rate.

"You don't get this with other lifestyle surveys," says Thomas Adalbert, MD of The Preference Service. He puts it down to giving consumers the power to control what they receive but also attributes it to his company's stance. "We tell people exactly what we use their data for and as a result they're fine with it," he says.

While incentivising its online surveys, PDV, which runs five survey sites, including dailydraw.com and chooseasurprise.com, has gone an extra step to keep consumers interested and has launched a CRM programme. "Its purpose is to remind and incentivise people to come back," explains Fuller.

"A reminder saying we haven't seen you for a couple of weeks works better than an email containing an offer."

What marketers want is also changing. Lavazza Coffee gets most of the data it needs by capturing it itself. "This provides the best data and the most robust addition to our database," says David Rogers, sales and marketing director, home category, at Lavazza Coffee (UK). But it also buys in data. "Sponsored questionnaires are fairly robust," says Rogers. "We tend to buy questions that have been sponsored by others and then modify and analyse it."

What's crucial for Lavazza is recency - it won't use data over two years old. As it becomes tougher to get consumers to respond, the demand is for recency and strong leads - ideally people who have asked to receive information from a certain company.

If a lifestyle data company can provide this, marketers are willing to pay. "If you can turn around data in days and add phone numbers there's a premium on it," says Kiersnowski.

What's clear is that there is room for all the lifestyle survey methods available today, and more. "As an industry we need to embrace new methods of data capture," says Rogers, "And this means using a variety of channels."

SEARCH ENGINE DATA CAPTURE

"Lifestyle data is getting tired and the marketplace is crying out for fresh consumer-driven data," Andy Taylor, MD of Ebiquita, explains.

"There's a need for data that's more psychographic, and for a file of opted-in people. There's always room for lifestyle surveys but they attract certain audiences and these aren't always who you want to reach. We've got 1,000 websites covering everything from pet grooming to dietary services that are built on information, and engage consumers who have run an internet search on the topic. If a consumer wants more information on a product, they can opt in to receive information from a number of our partners.

It gives these partners qualified hot prospects by telling them who's asked them to contact them. People are after responsiveness. The market is incredibly tight but if it can provide data that's recent and responsive you're onto a winner."

THE VALUE OF THE PHONE

Data Locator specialises in collecting lifestyle data over the phone and also has an online division. Its main product is Consumer Lifestyles, a database of fresh consumer prospect information that is gathered on a daily basis by its Glasgow call centre. Clients can sponsor questions on surveys or buy data that results from a series of stock demographic questions that Data Locator adds to the surveys itself.

With any set of questions, there are likely to be some that apply to certain segments more than others and while an eight-page survey may work when it's paper-based, consumers are unlikely to answer so many questions willingly on the phone. Data Locator generally asks consumers between 15-35 questions depending on their individual profile.

"We apply logic to the scripting so if we get a 50 year old woman on the phone, we wouldn't ask her certain questions we'd ask young men," explains Richard Webster, marketing director of Data Locator. "A 'no' response is worth nothing to us because no one wants to buy that so after a question has been on for a while, we build a profile of the type of respondent that answers no and omit that profile from the question. The aim of the database is to have a good mix of people, which is why we also collect online to get a different profile. The raison d'etre for our phone survey is recency. Our clients can ask any question and we can provide them with accurate data in no time at all."