Tracking Studies analyse the changing views of consumers over time. Even though it is the most important tool for brands to continuously benchmark their success, setting up tracking studies is very often quite challenging. You have to get everything perfectly right straight from the beginning, since you should never change a running tracker. Today we will give you a guideline, how you can initiate successful tracking studies in five easy steps without any risks or worries.

1. Define the cornerstones of your tracking!

What are you striving for? Unaided or aided brand awareness, a better brand image, a high usage of your product (i.e. the market share) or a high Net Promoter Score? These could be the cornerstones of your tracking study. Use a handful of very short and simple questions to assess your target variables. Don’t make it too complicated!

2. Pre-test these questions in an Omnibus!

Use an online or telephone omnibus to get first answers to these questions. Most providers will deliver additional background variables when you are booking an Omnibus. This will allow you to dig deeper into the data and detect patterns. Check if the results fit with previous findings and if the data quality meets your expectations. If you have reasonable doubts, this is the last opportunity to change the fieldwork provider. From now on, everything will be about comparability!

3. Repeat the study with the same Omnibus!

After a couple of weeks, you should repeat the study with the same Omnibus. Try to figure out what has changed over time and to what degree. Maybe you even expected changes that didn’t show up in the data. Do you have a hypothesis to explain these effects? Incorporate further questions into the study that can help you explain your results in the future, like media usage, attitudes or purchase plans.

4. Setup a standalone tracking study!

Now, as you have a comprehensive questionnaire, spin off your tracking study. While an Omnibus usually doesn’t allow you to define all the field parameters, you should now put some thoughts into the right target group for your subject, the amount of participants and the frequency of your tracker. Adapt these parameters to your individual needs.

5. Upgrade your tracking study!

As you repeat the same steps from wave to wave, you will soon identify ways to better embed the tracking into your business practice. You might have some scripts that analyse the whole data at the push of a button. You could even think of interactive dashboards that update the time series automatically and allow you to explore changes.

Now you have all the tools to initiate a successful tracking study. Start one right now with us!