Harris Interactive

About the company
Harris Interactive is a global market research firm that combines the science of innovative statistical thinking with the power of leading technologies and the art of strategic consulting, always with an eye on understanding how to meet and exceed our clients’ expectations. Our goal is to provide timely, research-driven insights that lead to measurable and enduring improvements in our clients’ business performance.

Typically, our clients request services that lie in several broad areas, including those below:

• Market sizing, segmentation and profiling
• New concept and product development
• Marketing communications
• Brand
• Employee
• Customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention
• Public opinion
• Corporate reputation and leadership

History and record of accomplishment
Our history is long and strong, beginning in 1956, when the famous pollster Lou Harris founded Louis Harris & Associates in America. Our roots in Europe are equally noteworthy, dating back to 1965 when Humphrey Taylor, now Chairman of the Harris Poll, founded the Opinion Research Centre. In the past 50 years, we have worked for presidents and prime ministers, the world’s largest and most successful companies, and organisations/associations representing nearly every conceivable sector from around the world, among countless others.

Our track record is no less impressive. Time and again, we’ve subjected our methodological approaches to the “acid test” of research; namely, pre-election polling in full public view to predict the outcome of national elections. Our many successes are well documented, no matter whether we’ve conducted interviews inperson, on the telephone, or through the Internet.

The importance of the internet
In 1997, we began to develop the infrastructure and methodological expertise to harness the incredible power that the Internet offered to our clients. In these 10 years, we have conducted nearly 1,000 research-onresearch studies to identify and learn to correct for any biases associated with online research. We’ve also completed more than 70 million interviews for hundreds of clients worldwide, and this is merely the tip of the opportunity. Clearly, online research is here to stay, although it is not always the best data collection approach to employ. We pride ourselves on knowing when to recommend (and not recommend) online research.

Distinctive features

Propensity Score Weighting
In the past 20 years, statisticians have refined methods that eliminate or greatly reduce the biases associated with survey respondents (and the responses they provide) recruited by means other than probability sampling; particularly Internet users that decide of their own accord to join research panels. Propensity score weighting, a technique that Harris Interactive introduced in 1999, is designed not only to approximate the randomness of probability sampling but also to produce information through online research that is often more trustworthy than that produced through other modes. We know of no other technique that can match propensity scoring in this regard.

Multi-Mode Studies
Designing good multi-mode studies is complicated, and market researchers’ understanding of this type of research is thin. Understanding whether the same person would have responded to the same question in the same way independent of mode (eg. telephone or Internet) is the threshold question that an organisation must address before it can design a good multi-mode study, or transition, say, a telephone tracking study to the Internet without throwing away trend data. Conducting multi-mode studies is one of our core strengths.

Online Qualitative
The Internet offers a terrific platform for conducting qualitative research, particularly bulletin boards and chat rooms. We have used bulletin boards to collect qualitative information staggered over time from groups of carefully chosen panelists to expedite the ideation process required for new product development. And we’ve used chat rooms to capture 'top of mind' reaction to concepts, graphics, videos, sounds, websites, and other stimuli. That online qualitative research obviates the need to restrict participants to a single geography is an added bonus.

The Harris Poll – Global Omnibus
This European, US and Asian omnibus produces interviews with either 1,000 or 2,000 adults on a weekly basis. Data can be projected to national populations and costs can run from as little as £200 per question, with a capacity for up to 20 questions from any one client.

Coverage
Our panel includes more than 6 million individuals from Europe, the US, Asia and beyond who have consented to be interviewed online.

Type of contact

• Consumers of all types
• Automobile decision makers
• Individuals with chronic illnesses
• IT decision makers
• Shipping decision makers
• Technology decision makers
• The affluent
• Tweens, teens and young adults
• Client-supplied email addresses

Further information
Membership: ESOMAR, Market Research Society (MRS), IQCS, MRQSA