Incentive
The compensation each participant receives for their time, set before recruitment starts.
Why does it matter for a brand?
The incentive is what lets people with the right profile spend an evening talking. If it is not set well, quotas are hard to fill and the people who show up tend to be those with the most free time, not those who best fit the profile. And it must never depend on what the person thinks: it is received for taking part, not for saying something favorable about the brand. If the incentive seems to reward an answer, the session loses the candor that makes it useful.
How does WAV handle it?
We set it before recruiting, together with the quotas and the recruitment screener, and it does not depend on what each person says in the session. We recruit the participants ourselves, so the incentive is part of the full study we deliver and the brand does not have to manage it.
What should you ask before a study?
- Is the incentive set before recruitment starts?
- Does it depend on anything other than attending the session?
- Who handles giving it to each participant?
This term is part of the qualitative research glossary, which defines the fifteen terms that come up in any study; it is most closely related to recruitment screener, informed consent and customers and non-customers. To see it applied, browse the sample report, built from a fictional study: it is the same format a client receives.