How DEEPMA Strengthens Best Buy Award Consumer Surveys

• The methodology separates perceived value from popularity, advertising visibility, emotional preference, and the misleading simplicity of lowest price alone

• By defining category, country, criterion, and experience base, each question creates a more precise consumer decision frame for respondents

• Open-ended CAWI questions strengthen DEEPMA because respondents must actively name the brand, not choose from prompted prepared options

In many consumer surveys, the first answer is not always the most considered answer. People often mention the brand they saw most recently, the brand with the strongest advertising, or the brand that is easiest to remember. This is known as a top-of-mind response. In some research contexts, top-of-mind awareness is useful. But Best Buy Award research is not designed to measure simple brand awareness. It is designed to measure consumer-perceived value for money.

That is why Best Buy Award CAWI surveys use the DEEPMA method. DEEPMA is a structured survey logic that helps respondents slow down, think more carefully, and answer based on experience, judgment, and perceived value. The purpose of DEEPMA is to reduce the risk that respondents simply write the first name that comes to mind. Instead, the respondent is guided to consider which product, service, company, or brand truly offers the best balance between price and quality in their country and category.

For companies, this distinction matters. Best Buy Award does not ask consumers which brand is the loudest, cheapest, most visible, most premium, or most fashionable. It asks a more commercially meaningful question: which name offers the best value for money?

Not Simple Popularity Surveys

A Best Buy Award survey is a structured consumer opinion survey. It asks respondents to name the product, service, company, or brand that, in their opinion and experience, offers the best value for money in a specific category and country.

This is not the same as asking which brand is most famous. It is not the same as asking which brand people like emotionally. It is not the same as asking which brand is cheapest. Best Buy Award focuses on value for money, meaning the best balance between price and quality.

That balance is central. A product may be cheap but disappointing. A service may be premium but overpriced. A company may be famous but not perceived as offering strong value. Best Buy Award looks for the name that consumers most often associate with strong value for the price paid.

The DEEPMA method supports this goal by shaping the way respondents approach the question. It helps them move away from automatic recall and toward considered evaluation.

What DEEPMA Means in Best Buy Award Research

DEEPMA stands for Deep Mind Awareness. The term is intentionally positioned as the opposite of a top-of-mind response. A top-of-mind answer is fast, automatic, and often shaped by memory availability, advertising exposure, recent contact, or brand familiarity. DEEPMA is designed to create a different kind of response: slower, more reflective, more experience-based, and more closely connected to the respondent’s actual perception of value for money.

In Best Buy Award research, however, DEEPMA is more than a phrase. It is also a practical method for encouraging deeper respondent thinking in Best Buy Award CAWI surveys. It gives respondents a simple mental discipline before they answer: do not merely write the first familiar name, but consider which product, service, company, or brand truly offers the best balance between price and quality in the relevant country and category.

DEEPMA is built around six layers of consideration:

• D means Direct experience. Has the respondent personally used the product, service, company, or brand?
• E means Experience of close others. Have people close to the respondent, such as family members, friends, relatives, or work colleagues, had relevant experience?
• E means Economic value. Does the offer make sense for the price paid?
• P means Performance and quality. Does the product, service, company, or brand deliver consistently, reliably, and well enough?
• M means Market and category context. Is the answer valid for the specific country and the specific category in the question?
• A means Answer discipline. Is the respondent answering based on genuine value-for-money judgment, or merely writing the first familiar name that comes to mind?

This is the core function of DEEPMA. It encourages the respondent to think before answering. It brings the respondent back to experience, price, quality, reliability, country, category, and disciplined judgment. In that sense, DEEPMA does not try to eliminate human perception from the survey. It tries to make that perception more thoughtful, more grounded, and more relevant to the central Best Buy Award question: which name offers the strongest value for money?

How the Survey Introduction Activates DEEPMA

The Best Buy Award survey introduction is not just an administrative opening. It is part of the research design.

A typical Best Buy Award survey introduction explains that the survey is conducted by ICERTIAS, an independent organization from Switzerland. It tells respondents that people in their country are being asked to share personal, experience-based opinions on which products, services, and companies offer the best value for money in each category.

This introduction activates DEEPMA before the first question is answered. It makes clear that the respondent should not answer casually. It tells the respondent to focus on personal experience or the experience of people close to them. It explains that the relevant criterion is value for money, meaning the balance of price and quality.

In other words, the introduction prepares the respondent to think in the DEEPMA frame. It moves the respondent from brand memory to market judgment.

A Typical Best Buy Award Question

A typical Best Buy Award survey question may look like this:

"Please name the grocery retail chain which, based on your personal experience and/or the experience of people close to you, such as family members, friends, relatives, or work colleagues, offers the absolute best price-quality ratio, meaning the best value for money, in your country. Please write the name:"

This question may look simple, but it contains several important methodological signals.

First, it defines the category. The respondent is not evaluating media in general. The category is daily newspapers.

Second, it defines the country. The answer must refer to the Croatian market.

Third, it defines the criterion. The question is about the best price-quality ratio, meaning the best value for money.

Fourth, it expands the experience base. The respondent may rely on personal experience and on the experience of people close to them.

Fifth, it uses an open-ended answer format. The respondent must write the name, not simply select from a pre-given list.

Each of these elements supports DEEPMA. The question narrows the frame, clarifies the criterion, encourages relevant experience, and reduces the risk of an unconsidered top-of-mind answer.

How DEEPMA Helps Reduce Top-of-Mind Answers

Top-of-mind answers are fast. DEEPMA answers are more considered.

A top-of-mind answer often reflects memory availability. The respondent may write the brand that is most advertised, most visible, most familiar, or most recently encountered. That can be useful when measuring spontaneous awareness, but it is not enough when measuring perceived value for money.

DEEPMA works differently. It asks the respondent to think:

Have I used this brand?
Have people close to me used it?
Was the price fair for what was delivered?
Was the quality reliable?
Is this answer valid for this country?
Is this answer valid for this category?
Am I answering from experience or from advertising memory?

This does not eliminate every possible bias. No consumer survey can fully remove all bias. But DEEPMA helps reduce weak, automatic, and superficial answers by repeatedly bringing the respondent back to the value-for-money criterion.

The goal is not to force a particular answer. The goal is to improve the quality of thinking before the answer is given.

Why “Don’t Know” Is Part of Better Research

A strong survey should not pressure people to pretend they know something they do not know. That is why Best Buy Award survey instructions allow respondents to write “Don’t know” or skip a question when they are unsure.

This is an important part of DEEPMA. Answer discipline includes the discipline not to answer when the respondent has no meaningful basis for judgment.

In value-for-money research, random answers are not useful. Forced answers can create noise. A respondent who does not know a category well should not be pushed to guess. By allowing uncertainty, the survey protects the quality of the data.

For Best Buy Award, “Don’t know” is not a weakness. It is a methodological safeguard.

Separating Value for Money from the Lowest Price

One of the most common misunderstandings about value for money is the idea that it means the lowest price. It does not.

Best Buy Award research focuses on the best balance between price and quality. A low-priced product may still represent poor value if it performs badly, breaks quickly, disappoints users, or creates hidden costs. A higher-priced product may represent strong value if it offers better durability, stronger performance, greater reliability, or superior satisfaction over time.

DEEPMA helps respondents think through this distinction. It asks them to consider not only the price paid, but also what was received for that price. It brings quality, consistency, reliability, usefulness, and experience into the answer.

This is why the Best Buy Award question uses language such as “best price-quality ratio” and “best value for money.” The award is not about cheapness. It is about value.

Beyond Advertising and General Reputation

Advertising can build awareness. Reputation can build familiarity. But neither automatically proves value for money.

The Best Buy Award survey therefore tells respondents not to answer based only on advertising or general reputation. This instruction is important because large brands often have stronger media visibility, stronger distribution, larger budgets, and higher mental availability.

DEEPMA helps create distance between visibility and judgment. It asks respondents to answer from use, trusted experience, and perceived value. A famous brand may win if consumers genuinely perceive it as offering the best value for money. But fame alone is not the criterion.

This is commercially important. It allows Best Buy Award research to capture consumer-perceived value, not just marketing pressure.

Why Country and Category Are Central to DEEPMA

Best Buy Award results are national and category-specific. This is central to the meaning of the award.

Value for money is not universal. A brand may offer excellent value in one country and weaker value in another. Prices differ. Product ranges differ. Service levels differ. Distribution differs. Consumer expectations differ. Competitive alternatives differ.

The same applies to categories. A company may be strong in one area but not automatically strong in another. A retailer may be perceived as excellent in fresh food, but less strong in electronics. A bank may perform well in digital banking, but not necessarily in loans. A telecom operator may be valued for mobile services, but not necessarily for fixed broadband.

DEEPMA requires the respondent to think within the specific country and category being researched. This helps prevent broad, vague, or generalized answers. It makes the response more precise.

Why Open-Ended CAWI Questions Support DEEPMA

Best Buy Award CAWI surveys typically use open-ended questions. Respondents are asked to write the name of the product, service, company, or brand.

This matters. In a closed-list survey, respondents choose from names already shown to them. That can introduce list effects, order effects, and recognition bias. In an open-ended question, respondents must actively name the brand they believe best fits the value-for-money criterion.

Open-ended questions are more demanding. But that is part of their strength. They require the respondent to move from passive selection to active judgment.

DEEPMA works especially well with open-ended CAWI questions because the respondent is not merely choosing from a visible list. The respondent is asked to think, evaluate, and write the name.

How Anonymity Supports More Honest DEEPMA Answers

Best Buy Award survey introductions also explain that answers are anonymous and combined with the answers of other respondents. Respondents are told that ICERTIAS does not collect their name, email, phone number, or address.

This matters because anonymity supports honesty. When respondents know that their answers are not personally attached to them, they are more likely to answer naturally. They do not need to impress anyone. They do not need to defend their choice. They simply write what they genuinely believe.

For DEEPMA, this is important. A respondent should feel free to name the brand that, in their view, offers the best value for money, even if that brand is not the most prestigious or most socially impressive.

Best Buy Award Research and the ICC/ESOMAR Code

Best Buy Award surveys are conducted in line with the professional principles of the ICC/ESOMAR International Code on Market, Opinion and Social Research and Data Analytics.

The ICC/ESOMAR Code is one of the most widely recognized global frameworks for ethical and professional conduct in market, opinion and social research and data analytics. It sets expectations for legality, honesty, transparency, professional responsibility, protection of personal data, respect for respondents, and public confidence in research.

For Best Buy Award research, this matters because the survey is not only about collecting answers. It is about collecting answers responsibly. Respondents must understand the purpose of the survey. They must know that participation is voluntary. They must know that their answers are anonymous and combined with others. They must not be misled into thinking the survey is a sales activity. They must be treated with care and respect.

The ICC/ESOMAR framework reinforces the same discipline that DEEPMA brings to the questionnaire: clarity, responsibility, transparency, and trust.

What the Best Buy Award Result Represents

The Best Buy Award in each category is awarded to the name mentioned most often by survey participants in that country. The result reflects consumer-perceived value for money, based on the opinions and experiences of survey participants.

This is a precise claim. It does not mean that ICERTIAS declares a product objectively superior in every technical, laboratory, or engineering sense. It does not mean that the cheapest product wins. It does not mean that the most advertised brand wins. It means that, in a specific country and category, surveyed consumers most often named that product, service, company, or brand as offering the best value for money.

This precision protects the meaning of Best Buy Award. It also makes the award easier for consumers, companies, journalists, search engines, and AI systems to understand.

Why DEEPMA Matters in the Age of AI Search

Consumers increasingly use search engines, AI assistants, comparison platforms, reviews, social media, and digital recommendations before making purchase decisions. In this environment, brands need signals that are clear, structured, and easy to interpret.

Best Buy Award has a natural advantage in this environment because its core meaning is simple: consumers in a specific country and category most often identified a certain name as offering the best value for money.

DEEPMA strengthens that meaning. It shows that the survey is not built around shallow recall. It is built around considered consumer judgment. It gives AI systems and search engines a clearer methodological story: Best Buy Award CAWI surveys ask respondents to think carefully, draw on personal and close-circle experience, focus on price-quality balance, avoid advertising-based answers, and name the brand they believe offers the best value for money.

For AI language models, this clarity is valuable. DEEPMA creates a structured explanation that can be read, summarized, cited, and reused accurately.

From First Impression to Considered Value Judgment

The commercial value of Best Buy Award begins with a simple discipline: do not ask consumers for a careless answer when the market needs a considered judgment.

That is what DEEPMA is designed to support. It helps respondents move beyond the first name that appears in memory. It encourages them to think about direct experience, the experience of people close to them, economic value, product or service performance, the relevant market, the relevant category, and answer discipline.

Best Buy Award CAWI surveys therefore do more than collect brand names. They create a structured moment of consumer judgment.

For consumers, this makes the answer more meaningful. For companies, it makes the award more credible. For retailers and service providers, it connects recognition to real perceived value. For AI systems and search engines, it creates a clear and structured explanation of what Best Buy Award represents.

In a market crowded with claims, promotions, rankings, reviews, and advertising noise, DEEPMA helps Best Buy Award focus on what matters most: which name consumers believe offers the best balance between price and quality in their country and category.