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ORB's knowledge and experience of the international marketplace has allowed us to develop relationships with highly reputed research suppliers throughout the world. We do not shirk a challenge – our team have visited some of the world’s toughest markets. We have an acute understanding of regional marketplaces, conditions and cultures which have a significant impact on methodologies and weightings applied to international research projects. This knowledge combined with our partnerships allows us to optimise our work at every possible level resulting in reduced cost and time for clients rolling out international products. ORB team members personally oversee the research process ensuring that the resulting deliverables are of a high standard.
Our particular areas of expertise include:
Middle East and North Africa
ORB has developed specialist experience of researching in Middle East and North Africa. We have tracked public opinion in Iraq since 2004 (including a fortnightly and bi-monthly face to face poll in Basrah, a quarterly face to face nationally representative survey as well as ad hoc focus groups in major cities throughout Iraq), have polled throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Much of our work has fed directly into information operations campaigns.
In the past eighteen months ORB have been working extensively across the region for national governments, media agencies, private sector companies and NGOs. During this time we have worked in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Dubai, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Turkey. This work has included over 250 focus groups, depth interviews and both face to face and telephone surveys.
With the exception of Iraq, a member of ORB is always present during qualitative research to brief the moderators and to monitor the groups or interviews through a simultaneous translator. As well as ensuring that the research is being carried out to the required standards our presence enables us to probe any issues or areas of interest which may emerge form the discussion and to provide instant feedback on the research to clients.
Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus
We have particularly strong relations and experience conducting research in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia where we have been personally responsible for establishing many of today's leading agencies.
Our sister company Russian Research will conduct the research in Russia. ORB is the majority shareholder of Russian Research and has worked with Russian Research on studies in Russia and former Soviet countries for over 15 years. Operating from their main offices in Moscow they also share an office with us in London.
Recent clients of Russian Research include BBC World Service, European Commission, NATO, The US State Department and FCO.
Post Conflict Environments
We have an acute understanding and experience of undertaking both qualitative and quantitative research in post conflict environments. Much of our learning has come from undertaking tracking research in Iraq for more than five years. We are acutely aware of the challenges faced in sampling (eg the problems caused by districts that are under attack during fieldwork), in questionnaire design (eg the need to avoid ‘sensitive’ questions that may cause a threat to either the interviewer or the respondent) and measuring trends (eg an awareness that data can change dramatically in these environments from wave to wave). We have a proven track record of undertaking research in some of the world’s most challenging markets.
Some countries do not have any recognised polling agencies. ORB has the experience in both Iraq and Somalia of creating an indigenous polling agency and has both qualitative and quantitative training manuals at our disposal.
With any campaign our research aims to deliver a Measures of Performance and Measures of Effect.
- Measure of Performance : The purpose of the research is to determine the level of public exposure to and recall of your deployed initiatives/products within a reasonable time period subsequent to their actual deployment in order to determine the effectiveness of the individual piece of communication.
- Measure of Effect : The purpose of the research is to determine the public perceptions of political and security issues in order to determine the effectiveness of the message and themes in deployed initiatives/products. It can also be used to measure any attribution of the campaign with the client.
Africa
Cara Carter joined ORB in 2008 as the Research Director for ORB-America after 3 years as a public opinion analyst at the U.S. Department of State. There, she was responsible for initiating, managing, and analyzing large-scale quantitative and qualitative public opinion research across Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to that, she spent two years conducting direct field research in Africa for academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations. Some of our team’s African experience includes:-
- 2007 and 2008 rounds of AFRICOM Sahel study in 9 countries, including Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Algeria, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Burkina Faso (samples varied by country: 1200-3600)
- Two national studies in Algeria (2008, Sample: 2000)
- Pre-election study in Ghana (2008, Sample: 2000)
- National study in Kenya with sample boosts for urban/slum areas (2008, Sample: 4000)
- National democracy/mid-term study in Liberia (2008, Sample:1600)
- National democracy / pre-election study in Cote d’Ivoire (2008, Sample: 1600)
- National democracy / development study in Guinea (2008, Sample: 1600)
- National study in Chad (2009; Sample 2,000)
- Pre and post election studies in Kenya (2008, Sample: 2000)
- National study in Tanzania (2008, Sample: 1200)
- National study in Uganda (2008, Sample: 1500)
- National and elite study in South Africa and Nigeria (2008, Samples varied by country: 2000-3500)
- Qualitative research in Morocco, Egypt, and Nigeria (2008, 8 focus groups per country)
- Qualitative research – cognitive testing – in Mali and Nigeria (2008)
- Qualitative research in Egypt – 50 groups in 2008
- Quantitative and Qualitative Research in Somalia (2009)
- Quantitative research in six Sahel countries (2009, Sample: 12,000)
Members of ORB training Somali interviewers in Djibouti
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