• How can a company, product, or service win a Best Buy Award?
  The Best Buy Award status for any given company, product or service is granted based on independent Best Buy Award market research. The Best Buy Award research is conducted periodically on different sectors of the market via web surveys, and the respondents are asked to identify the product or service that, in their personal experience and opinion, offers the best value for money on the market. The company, product, or service that receives the highest number of votes for best value for money secures first place in that particular category and is awarded the accolade of "ICERTIAS Best Buy Award-No. 1 Best Value for Money."
• How can a company be nominated for a Best Buy Award?
  Companies cannot nominate themselves or directly apply for the Best Buy Award accolade. ICERTIAS, the organization behind the Best Buy Award accolade, conducts independent cluster surveys in different world markets. Every research effort includes several categories from different sectors of the economy (e.g., milk, cars, banks, smartphones, or internet service providers). Respondents (consumers) are asked to name the product, service, or company in each category that, in their experience, offers the best value for money on the market. The questions in these surveys are always open-ended (i.e., not in the form of multiple-choice questions with predefined answers-a/ b/ c/...), and the respondents can freely enter the answer they consider most appropriate for the given category. The product, service, or company most often cited by the respondents in the given category earns the privilege of winning the Best Buy Award accolade for that particular category in that particular country.
• How many companies participate in the Best Buy Award surveys?
  Companies do not apply for participation in Best Buy Award surveys, nor does the Best Buy Award nominate the companies to be included in the surveys. Best Buy Award market surveys are conducted on the basis of predefined market categories (e.g., family cars, milk, insurance companies, or TV sets), and the respondents are asked a predefined open-ended question (for example: "Please state the manufacturer of laptop computers present in your national market that, according to your personal experience and opinion and the experiences and opinions of persons close to you, offers the best value for money"). The respondents are free to answer this question by naming ANY laptop manufacturer present on the market-i.e., whichever manufacturer they believe to be most worthy of the award. With this approach to research, we can say that all companies present in the given market are eligible to be nominated for a Best Buy Award.
• How is the Best Buy Award different compared to other awards?
  The "Best Buy Award" is different because it is based on the actual opinions and experience of - consumers. These opinions are assessed using our innovative DEEPMA research methodology, and are the driver for assigning the award to the best products and services on the market. For the buyer, the "Best Buy Award" identifies which product or service in a particular category offers the most for its cost. The "Best Buy Award" is also a prestigious honor for and compliment to the administration and management of producers and service providers. It is also appreciated by employees, shareholders, and officials in the company, while buyers receive the ultimate benefit in the end.
• Why is the price-quality ratio important?
  Today, consumers across the world look for the highest value for the price of products and services. Final purchase decisions are often made based on an assessment of features and benefits in relation to actual cost. Consumers are also more aware the actual quality of a purchase is not guaranteed, even if the brand-name is popular or the price is higher than that of comparable products or services. The "Best Buy Award" refers to the research, medal, and certificate that represent what buyers are most often attracted to. Price-quality ratio identifies an item in a market segment with the best price along with the best quality. Consumers, therefore, see research and a certificate that allows them to recognize products and services with the best price and, with the highest quality for that monetary value.
• Who is behind the Best Buy Award research?
  The organization behind the Best Buy Award surveys is "ICERTIAS-International Certification Association GmbH," headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. For more information on ICERTIAS, please visit www.icertias.com.
• When was the first ICERTIAS Best Buy Award survey conducted?
  The first Best Buy Award survey worldwide was conducted in January 2010. The Best Buy Award surveys were initially conducted by the renowned international market research company GfK (www.gfk.com) through telephone surveys (CATI methodology) until the end of 2012 when the ICERTIAS initiated independent Best Buy Award research using their own internet-based web surveys (CAWI methodology).
• In which countries do the Best Buy Award surveys take place?
  To date, Best Buy Award surveys have been conducted in around 20 international markets, while some international Best Buy Award surveys such as the Best Buy Award MICE Survey are conducted in almost one 100 countries around the world. Also, the results of ICERTIAS Best Buy Award surveys are regularly cited by the leading media outlets in many countries globally, including the leading media outlets in the US, Germany, Great Britain, and Australia. In addition to the Best Buy Award, ICERTIAS also conducts market research for its other certification programs: "QUDAL" (QUality meDAL) and "ICERTIAS Customers' Friend." To date, ICERTIAS has conducted national surveys in more than 30 countries across four continents-from Singapore and Kazakhstan in Asia, through Azerbaijan, Turkey, numerous European countries, Kenya and Ghana in Africa, and Chile in Latin America.
• How do you decide in which countries to conduct Best Buy Award surveys?
  The goal of the ICERTIAS Best Buy Award surveys is to assist consumers in certain markets with their buying decisions and to highlight to consumers those products and services that truly offer the best value for money on the market. Best Buy Award surveys are primarily conducted in markets that lack similar certification or awards that could assist consumers in making choices; however, these markets must be sufficiently developed to offer strong competition in the product and service categories subject to research.
• How much must a company pay for the Best Buy Award status?
  The Best Buy Award status is not for sale, and companies cannot purchase it. Companies can only "earn" the Best Buy Award status through their product or service winning first place (highest number of consumer/respondent votes) in the relevant category in one of the Best Buy Award surveys. Companies that win first place in a certain category are entitled to publish this information free of charge on their corporate websites. However, if the company wishes to use its Best Buy Award status for public promotion purposes and use the renowned copyrighted blue Best Buy Award medal, such use is charged to the company depending on the type of public application the company chooses (e.g., in television promotion campaigns, outdoor advertising, or print advertising). The company can use the Best Buy Award logo only in the context of the product or service for which the Best Buy Award was granted and not for its other products or services. For example, a company manufacturing computers and other high-tech equipment that wins the Best Buy Award status in a certain market in the laptop category, but not in the smartphone or tablet category, may use its Best Buy Award exclusively in the context of marketing its laptop computers but not its smartphones or tablets.
• How do you find respondents for the Best Buy Award surveys?
  Best Buy Award research is conducted in the form of web surveys (CAWI-Computer Assisted Web Interviewing methodology). Respondents are invited to participate in Best Buy Award surveys through contextual ads, such as through Google AdWords.
• How representative is the sample of respondents in your surveys?
  ICERTIAS surveys are based on a representative sample of respondents for the given product or service category. In the Best Buy Award surveys, we strive to include respondents who have personal experience of using a certain product or service. For certain categories in frequent use by the general population (e.g., smartphones), we use samples representative of the general population. For other categories (such as, for example, car rental services) that are not in frequent use by a large percentage of the general population, we try to include in the sample those respondents who have frequent experience of using that particular product or service.
• How often are the Best Buy Award surveys conducted?
  The Best Buy Award surveys are two-year programs; therefore, as a rule, the Best Buy Award surveys for each category are conducted every two years.
• Where can I find the results of all of the Best Buy Award surveys?
  The results of the Best Buy Award surveys are not published and cannot be purchased in the form of a complete document. As a rule, the most interesting results of the Best Buy Award surveys are published by ICERTIAS through periodic press releases and are regularly reported by leading media outlets. Advice: For more info on the Best Buy Award survey results worldwide, please type "ICERTIAS Best Buy Award" or simply "Best Buy Award" into Google or an equivalent search engine.

For any additional questions about our surveys, please feel free to contact us by email at info@icertias.com.

The Best Buy Award medal is a clear indicator that products and services meet strict quality standards while being reasonably priced

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