Desperately seeking Germans

May 8, 2006 2:41 PM

How can I find young German people willing to answer a paid questionaire?

I've never dabbled in market research before. How's this stuff done?

I need a small selection of 20-somethings (this is not scientific sampling), either still in college or graduated, to answer questions about the German education system.

Is 50 bucks for a 30 minute questionaire a decent rate for such young, professional types?

Almost anyone in the demographic will probably do, as long as they've passed through the education system. Informal leads are thus more welcome than agencies or whatnot, as I don't have time for all that.

Can I email university administrators? Alumni departments? How would you do this?

That's the long and short of it really. I need to speak to them in in the next 2 days (!).

Cheers MeFi.

posted by godawful to Work & Money (11 answers total)

For reference, I've done marketing surveys for nothing more than a cookie and glass of milk. Seriously. I think you'd be overpaying if you are offering 50 bucks.
posted by Loto at 2:46 PM on May 8, 2006

Put a flyer up on the bulletins at the college campuses. You'll have more than your share.
posted by Ugh at 2:47 PM on May 8, 2006

I don't think he's in Germany. What sort of money do you have? Build a website and buy web advertising on whatever German language blogrolls and offer your 50 bucks there, for phone interviews. Hell, you may find some German expats in your demographic near you if you do that.
posted by By The Grace of God at 2:55 PM on May 8, 2006

And post on German language craigslist. Or post on London craigslist, in German.
posted by By The Grace of God at 2:56 PM on May 8, 2006

Contact people who participate in German meet-ups through meetup.com. A friend of mine organizes the German meetup here in Austin, and it's mainly ex-pats.
posted by lunalaguna at 2:57 PM on May 8, 2006

Unless you're asking for sensitive personal information in the surveys, $50 seems like a lot. When I do paid research surveys here in the US (on a college campus), the rate is usually $10 per hour or less.
posted by bubukaba at 3:01 PM on May 8, 2006

$50 for a half-hours work? That's pretty high. You'll be encouraging fraud unless you lower the pay.
posted by malp at 3:40 PM on May 8, 2006

offer free t-shirts, that works in the U.S.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:10 PM on May 8, 2006

What about asking for volunteers on a German Livejournal community?
posted by fuzzbean at 5:15 PM on May 8, 2006

$50 for 30 minutes of focus group/market research-type work is not overpaying (at least in the market I'm in, which is Boston, US). It's generous, but not overpaying.

Craigslist is probably the right answer for not only finding people but checking out the offerings by other research groups.

(Revenue from various things like this I've participated in: $100+dinner/2 hrs; $50/30 minutes; $150/2hrs; $140/4 hrs.)
posted by whatzit at 5:26 PM on May 8, 2006

$50 for 30 min?

you just found one.
posted by krautland at 2:50 PM on August 18, 2006