METHODOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE 2009 CONSUMERS' CHOICE AWARD - ATLANTA
OBJECTIVES:
The purpose of this study is to select Best in Class Businesses in the Atlanta metropolitan area, as measured by consumer opinion. Consumers consist of two groups: 1) General Public and 2) Middle/Senior Managers in Small, Medium and Large Businesses (i.e., organizations with less than 250 employees).
METHODOLOGY:
Web surveys were conducted with two groups of ATLANTA area consumers-General Public (3,462 and Business Managers (956).
The primary sampling frame for this survey was the SurveySpot online research panel, a multimillion-member panel of cooperative online respondents provided by Survey Sampling International (SSI). SSI is the world's largest provider of telephone, online and direct mail statistical sample for survey research, working with over 1400 research clients globally.
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SurveySpot is one of the largest databases of individual opt-in respondents in the world.There are over 20,000 online panel members residing in the metropolitan ATLANTA area. The metropolitan area was defined in terms of the following 15 counties:
Bartow - Cherokee - Forsyth - Gwinnett - Fulton - Cobb - Paulding - Dekalb - Rockdale - Henry - Clayton - Fayette -Coweta - Carroll - Douglas
Onine panel members living in the defined ATLANTA metropolitan area were randomly invited, via an email invitation, to participate in the Consumers' Choice Award voting. Interviews were completed following the invitations sent. No weighting was used an no bias corrections were undertaken. The sample represents only those who completed the interviews. Each respondent had to be at least 18 years of age and live in one of the counties in the ATLANTA metro area. Those completing the Business survey had to work in one of the listed counties as a middle/senior manager with decision making responsibility within their company.
QUESTIONNAIRE:
For the General Public /Consumer path of the survey, each respondent was first asked to select a minimum of two out of six main categories that he /she was most interested in responding to for the rest of the survey. The six main categories were: Automobile, Restaurant, General and Specialty Services, Home Services, Retail and Home Improvement. Then each respondent was shown the appropriate list of business sub-categories for the corresponding main category. There were 15 listings for Automobile. 5 listings for Restaurants, 11 listings for General and Specialty Services, 25 listings for Home Services, 14 listings for Retail, and 41 listings for Construction and Home Improvement, for a total of 122 consumer sub-categories. Depending on which two main categories a respondent selected, he / she would have been shown anywhere from 16 to 66 total listings.
In the Business path of the survey, each respondent was always shown two main categories: Business to Business Services and Fine Dining. There were 36 sub-categories for Business to Business Services and 4 sub-categories for Fine Dining, for a total of 40 total listings.
All respondents were allowed to vote on those business categories with which they had some knowledge. Accordingly, the respondent first was asked to check off thoses business categories with which he / she has used or has familiarity in terms of knowing businesses within that category. Based on these responses, the respondent was then shown a list of specific companies with which he / she has used or is familiar.
Respondents were asked the question that has been used in prior Consumers' Choice Award surveys. "We would like to know your opinion about ATLANTA companies in various sectors, which have distinguished themselves the most in the last year. To help in your choice, please base your answer on aspects such as quality, value, service, and appearance of the business, as well as any other elements you might consider important in making your choice. In your opinion, among the following companies, which two are your choices of the year in the metropolitan ATLANTA area in the category of...?"
The list of businesses shown to the respondents was those from the metropolitan ATLANTA area. In all cases, however, respondents could write in the names of businesses that were not already listed. Finally, additional questions were posed regarding the outstanding male and female personalities in the ATLANTA metro area, media preferences and selected demographics such as age, gender, language, education, home ownership and income.
ANALYSIS:
Data were collected via Russell Research, a New York-based survey research firm. Russell Research did not weight the data. Design and analysis were developed and prepared by Consumers' Choice Award.
The metropolitan ATLANTA winners in each category were the three companies receiving the most votes in each category. The criteria for selecting winners were as follows:
Winners were selected in each category based on thoses businesses receiving the most votes (i.e., highest percentages among those casting votes in the category). Accordingly, there were fewer then three winners in some categories.
The sample base, on which percentages were calculated, is the number of people who actually cast votes for A business in the category."Don't Know's" and "None' s" were removed from the base in each category.
In order for a business category to have one or more winners, the number of people casting votes in the category had to be 20 or higher and a winner had to have received at least eight votes. Any category for which there were fewer then 20 people voting and /or less than eight people voting for any one business did not have a winner.
