Why do practitioners always choose the same city to carry out focus groups in Spain?

Madrid and Barcelona are the most frequent destination for practitioners attending focus groups.                                

Madrid and Barcelona are the most frequent choice to field research projects.  Amongst the main considerations to make these choices appear familiarity with the vendor, frequency and cost of flights, availability of viewing facilities, Spanish client’s branch location, hotel preference and interest for the project.

However important these aspects are for consideration, each project is unique and there is an array of additional issues to weigh up prior to launching fieldwork.  Many times, the lack of information introduced a bias at the time of selecting the right location.  Under these circumstances, choosing “where to research” turns into “where there is a reliable contact”.  With this in mind, the most likely thing to do is to end up in Madrid or Barcelona, irrespective of the appropriateness of the city to gather the relevant information. 

These are obviously not the most relevant cities for all types of research.  However, technically, given their infrastructures and population, they have an advantage over the remaining cities as you tend to find people from all walks of life.

TIP

• Never assume that Madrid or Barcelona are the right location without gathering information about the market of your interest. If you do not have it, ask your client or get a chat with your Spanish adviser.

Does the growth of online methodologies in Spain means the death of traditional qualitative methodologies?

Nowadays, 47% of Spaniards are regular users of Internet ⁽¹⁾ and the trend appears to be unstoppable when considering that in Spain the use of Internet has been steadily growing by approximately 20% each year since 2001. 

These days, we are getting used to buying airline tickets, applying for jobs, purchasing in a different country, reading international press, making phone calls at ridiculous fares or even paying taxes online.   Does it suffice to believe that we can approach any project via online research?

Right now, Spain is almost reaching 18 millions of Internet users from which 13 millions⁽²⁾ participate in social networks, such as Facebook, with visitation levels growing rapidly. 

In accordance with this growth, the acceptance of online market research has also been growing and some clients have passed from complete scepticism to sheer curiosity or from utter rejection to being champions of online methodologies.  Still, many companies remain cautious and hesitate when having to choose online methodologies. 

In fact, according to ESOMAR Industry Report 2009, Spain does not appear amongst the Top 10 countries with highest online research spend.  Furthermore, local data⁽³⁾ show that online research account for 25% of the turnover by type of methodology but as much as 80.7% of this figure is due to quantitative projects. Accordingly, the rapid increase of online research does not appear to be related to its use in qualitative projects.  Despite the fact that it showed a staggering 25% growth in 2008, it is still struggling to gain a foothold in the qualitative research arena.

Frankly, we believe that online research is a great tool that has its own place within the research armamentarium.  Online Focus Groups and Bulleting Boards are great but are not suitable for all types of projects.  Surely, sensible qualitative research with traditional focus groups and face to face interviews will continue filling a researchers’ need for many years.

Fieldwork Implications

Naturally, the choice of methodology needs a lot of thinking and requires the consideration of many different issues.  On balance, we believe that no matter how complex this decision is, the starting point for any choice between online and in person qualitative methodologies involve answering the following questions: 

·         How representative is the sample available?

·         How reliable are the providers of samples?

·         What is the level of computer literacy required by the project?

·         Is typing speed a must?

·         May age range/ health condition be a limitation?

·         Do products need to be handled?

·         Are client materials highly confidential?

·         Does the subject of research restrict the use of online methodologies?

·         Does the country have availability of local professionals experienced in online methodologies?

TOP 20 Hospitals in Spain

The results of the VII edition of the “Top 20 Hospitals” that measure the quality and economic efficiency of the Spanish hospitals have been presented by the Ministry of Health. 

This time, the sample included 116 public -52% of the hospitals included in the National healthcare system- and 27 private hospitals, which have voluntarily accepted to be evaluated by a consultancy.

The ranking shows that ten out of the first twenty hospitals listed are located in Barcelona .  Clínica Corachan leads the private hospital ranking while Hospital Clínic, Bellvitge and Vall D’Hebron hold the first positions as public hospitals.

Fieldwork Implications

The fact that Barcelona has such a number of reference centres explains why it is so frequently selected for international healthcare projects.  Hospitals that appear at the top of the ranking have a proven record in dealing successfully with complex specialities that required a high degree of technology and specialised training. 

These organizations are at the forefront of research and their specialists are, to say the least, well informed about the latest treatments.  For fieldwork purposes, considering an international perspective, there are two important conclusions to be drawn upon Barcelona :

·         It is a place that shouldn’t be left aside in any local or multi-country healthcare research sample.

·         It is the place of many national and regional Opinion Leaders; most of the pharmaceutical companies select hospitals in Barcelona to carry out clinical trials

9 tips to make special your working days in Barcelona

Having to work in December and January, Barcelona is a great place for you and your clients to indulge yourselves after a hard working day.  In this special occasion, AWindow would like to offer all clients who use our facility throughout the holiday season a complimentary bottle of Cava (Catalan sparkling wine).

9 tips to make special your working days in Barcelona

One way you can indulge yourself during special occasions, is to give yourself extra “you time” for the day.  Here, there are some ideas to make your business trip unforgettable:

• Barcelona has old buildings, narrow streets and a friendly atmosphere; why not to stroll around to find out the ideal location for entertaining your clients?

• If you have the budget to do so, you could choose to indulge yourself in a spa or to get a massage.

• Appreciating and caring for ourselves really means more than most of us realize. Why don’t you take a time to think about all the things that make you smile and feel special: children, projects, ideas, etc?

• How about buying a pretty bouquet of flowers or a tie so that everyone knows you are special?

• Take yourself out to dinner or to a drink

• Get yourself a present that you would enjoy.

• Visit the Olympic Port of Barcelona and go to the cinema to watch that film put off for so long.

• Visit the craft market in the Born area. The Born area is good for shopping and it is also very pretty during the Christmas period, with dim lights and narrow streets. The market itself offers classy products such as jewellery, scarves and ornaments

• Get a tour to see Barcelona by night.  There is an extensive and varied selection of sightseeing tours by coach.  Visit the most emblematic buildings of the city such as The Temple of Sacred Family or La Pedrera

 

Facts and figures. Did you know?

AWindow it is only 26 minutes drive from the airport and it is located in the premier area of central Barcelona at a walking distance from important landmarks.

Call us at +34 934593103 or mail us at services@awindow.info

Working around the holiday season!!

Fieldwork. Back to basics

Three things an executive needs to know when targeting at__ veterinarians.

Chart 1

Nowadays, dogs, cats, ferrets, monkeys and even scorpions are considered pets; in fact, there is a long list of animals that can be seen by a vet at the city, which includes canaries, parrots, rabbits, hamsters and reptiles too.  In view of this fact, it is useful to consider what the typical practice of a veterinarian is like in a Spanish city.  

Dogs are the most frequent visitors

The graphics depict the results of a study performed by Argos in 2008, based on a sample of 380 practices (Sampling error: ± 5,12%; Confidence interval: 95,5%). It can be seen that dogs are the most frequent visitors to the Spanish practices –chart 1.  

In fact, 69% of the practices reported that between 69-99% of their patients were dogs. Conversely, for 48% of the vets interviewed, the percentage of visits in which cats were the patients varies between 1-50%- chart 2.

Keep in mind the importance of choosing the right location. It is true that for some matters such as ad testing, location may be irrelevant but for other subjects of research it is essential.  Basically, we all know that location is a key point when considering research projects related to livestock.  However, it is quite common to forget how important it is to get information about incidence and prevalence prior to research on pets’ illnesses, parasites or even food.  Nonetheless, this is an aspect capable of changing the local setting of the project.

Without information any executive is unable to prevent you from making a mistake.On usual bases, when we are consulted to develop fieldwork with veterinarians, we advise clients about the convenience of delivering a precise description of both the objectives of fieldwork and the subject of research.  In these cases, a detailed RFQ is worthwhile and saves us all hard times.  It ensures that fieldwork is carried out in the right place and with the right people. 

Chart 2





Spain. The growing importance of women as healthcare professionals.

In the future, women may set the pace for stronger colleges of health related bodies in spain. the latest figures show an increase in the number of collegiate members, where women under 35 account for 2 out of each 3 new members.

In fact, the percentage of collegiate women working as healthcare professionals represents now over 40% of the total amongst physicians, dentists and veterinarians.
The growing importance of women stands out as they represent a majority across all the remaining health related colleges of professionals. Notably, amongst the segment of young people -aged 35 or under-, women made up at least 66.6% of the total that have become new collegiate members during 2009.
The following table shows the absolute figures as well as the ratios per thousand inhabitants, in 2009:

College of	Ratio per 1,000 inhabitants	Absolute figures (Nationwide)
Physicians Graduated nurses Physiotherapists Chiropodists Dentists & Stomatologists Pharmacists	4.76 5.55 0.7 0.1 0.6 1.4	219,031 255,445 33,288 5,263 26,725 63,593

Fieldwork implications

• It brings to the fore the importance of including mixed genders in all physicians and health professionals groups.
• Resources and timing required to recruit health care professionals and physicians will not vary greatly in areas such as Madrid, Aragón and Barcelona.  The ratio of physicians to 1,000 inhabitants is higher than the average in these communities (>4.39 collegiate physicians/1,000)
• From a researcher’s perspective, it may be useful to ascertain whether male and female physicians prescribe differently in Spain.

According to the latest press release of the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE), healthcare professional bodies have increased for the fifth consecutive year the rate of professionals per 100,000 inhabitants.