Marketing Glossary

A

Ad Concept Testing: Testing used to determine the target audience's reaction to an advertising approach that is being considered. Do potential customers recognize the motivating reasons and are they strong enough to compel customers to purchase a product or service?

Ad Tracking Research: The periodic measurements of the impact of advertisements over time - often including brand awareness, brand consideration or brand perceptions. In some cases ad tracking market research can be used to understand whether a particular ad can shift consumers perceptions about a brand in a particular direction. (Example)

Advertising Effectiveness: Advertising effectiveness begins as a marketing question that can eventaully be tested in a number of ways through various market research techniques. Initially the decision about which medium(s) to advertise through depends primarily on: budget, coverage area, target customer and product/service familiarity.

Anthropomorphic: A word to impress all your friends with! A market research technique in which participants describe a product, service or brand in terms of a human being with personality traits so that the participants' feelings about the object/brand can be understood. Anthropormorphic literally means to change something else into a human form. (e.g., if a BMW car where a person, what type of guy would he be? Would he be smart, would he be serious, would he be friendly...)

At-home Testing: A product sample is provided for participants to use at home. The reaction to the product is determined in a follow-up telephone survey, written survey or in a group session. This allows a potential customer to evaluate the product in the way in which it would actually be used, or in a more relaxed setting than a focus group or depth interview.

Attitudinal Scaling: A measurment technique typically used in focus groups in which participants are instructed to conceptualize the product or service on a two-dimensional scale, such as price and quality. The goal is to better understand the participants' feelings about the product or service, and how it compares relative to alternative products.

Awareness: The proportion of people who are familiar with a product, brand name or trademark. This is one of the key deliverables of certain types of market research that seek to understand the funneling from awareness, to consideration to purchase (e.g., when you last purchased a six pack of beer where you aware of Fat Tire brand beer? did you consider it? did you purchase it?)

B

Back Room: (this is the not the backroom of a statistics vendor) but rather the room from which client personnel observe and listen to focus group proceedings through a one-way mirror. Also called the observation room or viewing room. The dim back room is typically filled with executives in various degrees of undress and always including more M & M's than an entire brigade of of couch-potatoes could eat in a month. (Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3)

Backroom Dudettes And Dudes: These are the statistics specialists who work in the back room of quantitative market research houses. They typically have PHD's in statistics or mathematics and speak in a decidedly different lagnuage than the rest of the business world. They're positions are exceptionally important. The fundamentals of their work involve technical distinctions between nominal v. ordinal data, Conjoint Value Analysis, Choice-Based Conjoint and Discrete Choice Analysis - just to scratch the surface. Some may call them geeks, but they're the backbone of any quantitative market research project.

Bias: A systematic tendency of a sample to misrepresent the population. Biases may be caused by selecting the wrong respondents, by using improper interviewing techniques, wording of questions, or a number of other ways. An easy example of bias would be locating respondents from trade organization lists, where there would likely be be few stay-at-home mothers - thus causing them to be under-represented. The truth is that there is no market research without bias, but having a good researcher can help manage and reduce this risk.

Blind Research: Market research in which the company sponsoring the research is never revealed. This decision often hinges on on the ease of finding participants, which tends to be easier when the sponsor is revealed, and on the bias that would be created if the respondent knew who he or she was talking to during the research. The alternative to blind market research is called "branded" market research which is when the respondent knows what company or organization is sponsoring the market research.

Brand Associations: Is the feelings or attitudes that consumers have regarding a particular brand. For example many people associate Volvo automobiles with a higher level of safety.

Brand EEquity: The level of awareness and consumer goodwill generated by a company's brand or products. Brand equity can be a major factor in determining whether market research should be branded or blind.

Branded Research: Market research in which the sponsorship of the research is revealed before or during the market research. This decision generally hinges on the ease of finding participants, which tends to be easier when the sponsor is revealed, and on the bias that knowing the sponsor would create. Most market research is "blind" which means that the sponsor's name is never revealed.

Buying Intent: A scale used to measure the likelihood that the respondent will purchase a product.

C

CASI (computer-aided Self-administered Interviewing): Self-administered surveying using a computer-based questionnaire.

CATI (computer-aided Telephone Interviewing): ) - Interviewer-administered telephone surveying using a computer-based questionnaire. The vast majority of the time that you phone rings at dinner time and they desperately need your input on Coco Puffs or some other urgent topic, these interviewers are using a CATI system that asks questions based on your last response through the magic of computers.

Cartoon Tests: Tests in which the respondent fills in the dialogue for a character in a cartoon. This is a type of projective technique to uncover feelings or impressions about a product or situation.

Causal Research: Study examining whether one variable causes or determines the value of another (e.g., as the height of a respondent increases does the weight of the respondent tend to increase?)

Central-location Study: A survey conducted at a dedicated market research facility to which respondents come to be interviewed, as opposed at their place of work or home. Central-location study allows for more control of a respondents attention, and it also allows more control of any visual aids that may be shared during the research.

Closed-end Question: Questions that ask the respondent to choose from a limited number of pre-defined answers. Typically compared to open-ended questions in which the respondent can answer in their own words. (Example)

Cluster Analysis: A statistical technique for discovering whether the individuals of a population fall into different groups by comparing characteristics. It is possible that purchasers of a single car are motivated by entirely different reasons - one could be driven by the cars performance on the snow (skiers?), and another could be motivated by the speed of the car.

Cognitive Dissonance: Another impressive phrase to WOW your friends with! Cognitive dissonance is a natural phenominum causing uncertainty or confusion after a major purchase (e.g., a car) when alternatives are recommended and/or dislikes emerge with the choice. To eliminate the discomfort of dissonance, the consumer will try to rationalize the original choice, in other words, find positive advantages and ignore the negative. This is something that must be kept in mind throughout the course of conducting market research. There is a strong need to make, and believe that we make, good, logical decisions.

Completion Rate: The percent of qualified respondents completing an interview or study. An indication of the ultimate representativeness of the study results to the population at large. In general as the completion rate declines the bias potential tends to increase and the cost of the market research tends to increase. The conventional wisdom is that most phone or web surveys tend to start having completion rate problems at 15 or 20 minutes (when many people quit the survey mid-stream).

Concept Research: General description of a market research methdodology designed to gain an understanding of how the market would respond to a new product or services. Typically this type of research initially probes on unmet needs or desires from existing products or services and later seeks reaction to ideas already being considered.

Conceptual Mapping: Moderation technique in which participants are asked to place the names of products or services on a grid. How they group the items on the diagram is used to stimulate discussion (examples of characteristics that may be probed on include: quality, prestige factor, broad availability).

Confidence Intervals: A measure of the certainty that a market research result is within the given range - refers to quantitative market research studies. The range around a survey result for which there is a high statistical probability that it contains the true population parameter.

Confidence Level: The probability that a particular confidence interval will include the true population value. This tends to get pretty techical pretty quickly, but suffice it to say that the lower the confidence level the higher the certainty of the finding. Many companies have standardized on 95% +/- 5 as the standard - and any other levels need to be called out.

Conjoint Analysis: A market research technique used to quantify the value that people associate with different levels of product/service attributes. Respondents trade product attributes against each other to establish product (brand) preference and the relative importance of attributes.

Constant Sum Scales: Scales that ask the respondent to divide a given number of points, typically 100, among two or more attributes based on their importance to the individual. (ie - imagine that you had 100 dollars to spend on different entertainment options, how would would you spend: 1) going out to eat, 2) going to movies, at a amusement park...)

Convenience Sample: A sampling procedure that leaves the selection of respondents totally to the interviewers, with no quotas or qualifications imposed. It consists of people who are easily accessible, which means that there is a strong potential for bias. This is usually not the first preference of researchers, although it is sometimes the only feasible alternative.

Correlation Analysis: Analysis of the degree to which changes in one variable are associated with changes in another, (i.e., people who purchase SubZero refrigerators are probably more likely than average to purchase Viking stoves.

Crosstab: Short for cross-tabulations. A table comparing responses of one question to answers of another (e.g., income comparison to mortgage balance). This table allows for the examination of the responses to one question relative to responses to one or more other questions.

Customer Satisfaction Research: Market research conducted to measure overall satisfaction with a product or service. Frequently customer satisfaction research attempts to break down the overall satisfaction level into smaller pieces that are more easily acted upon (ie installation process, look and feel, reliability, value....). (Example)

D

Data: The collection of observations. Often considered unprocessed and compared to information which includes insights or learnings.

Day-after Recall: An advertising testing technique that measures the proportion of people recalling seeing a TV commercial within 24 hours of its airing.

Delphi Technique: Method of expert judgment without adequate hard data, e.g., long-term forecasting. Stage I is to poll experts, anonymously and separately. In Stage 2 the results are consolidated and fed back to the experts as a group. Stage 3 polls them individually again, in the light of peer group opinion. In theory, the process continues until consensus arrives.

Demographics: A description of the vital statistics or characteristics of a population. Demographic designators include age, marital status, income, family size, occupation, and personal or household characteristics such as age, sex, income, or educational level. This is sometimes compared to “firmographics" which is a similar comparison of a company's characteristics.

Demography: A social science concerned with the size, distribution, structure, and change of populations. For instance demographics has taught us that a disproportionate number of senior citizens move to Florida after retiring, or that California is the most populus state in the US.

Discussion Guide: A written outline of topics to cover during a focus group or in depth interview discussion. See also moderator guide.

E

Executive Interviewer: Definition coming soon.

Executive Interviewing: Usually a more senior researcher who conducts market research one on one, typically with higher level managers. These discussions are often less structured and allow for more flexiblity in what direction the discussion takes - and for that reason is more acceptable to higher level executives that may not tolerate a "canned" set of questions.

F

Factor Analysis: An analytic process for data simplification through reducing the many rating scales (or set of variables) used by the researcher to a smaller set of factors which are more influential.

Field: Definition coming soon.

Firmographics: This may not be an actual word yet, although it's definitely become a part of the market research vernacular. It's an overall description of a company (like demographics is to a person) that includes characteristics such as number of employees, number of company sites, total revenue industry...

Focus Group Facility: Definition coming soon.

Focus Groups: Are a form of qualitative market research that brings together small numbers of people to discuss a topic (such as reactions to a new product or service, or opinions about a client or a client's competitors). The typical focus group consists of seven to ten people who share common characteristics and experiences in relation to a topic. The group typically discusses the topic for two hours under the direction of a skilled moderator. (Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3)

Free Range Respondent: Someone who has not volunteered to be on a list of of potential market research respondents, or who has not agreed to be on a panel which requires periodic participation in market research studies. As researchers grow more worried about the potential bias of "professional respondents" requests for free range respondent are becomming more common - although this is a request that can increase the cost of market research significantly.

G

Group Dynamics: Both a benefit and a risk of focus groups. An effective moderator can use group dynamics to generate a synergy that develops better insights or ideas than what could have been done by talking to the same people individually.

I

In-Depth Interview (IDI): One-on-one interviews that probe and elicit detailed answers to questions, often using various techniques to uncover hidden motivations. Typically done at a central location or focus group facility. (Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3)

Incentive: The payment to participants for coming to a focus group. The amount varies dramatically, based on the difficulty of recruiting the participants. For a central recruit in the US, lasting 90 minutes the incentive may be between $50 and $200, depending on the difficulty of finding the target respondent and the value of their time. Also called honorarium or co-op payment.

Incidence: A number referring to the percentage of people which have the characteristics required to qualify for a given research study. If your market research study requires that you speak with respondents who are under 5 feet tall and wear shoes larger than size 10, although those people probably do exist, their incidence is probably very, very low. This will make your target respondent more difficult to find, and will drive the cost of your research up.

Intercept: A recruitment method in which an interviewer stops people in a mall or other public location and administers a survey. This is usually done immediately after a purchase or shopping experience, in a small alcove of some sort, to ensure the freshness of the experience.

L

Laddering: A probing technique, used in one-on-ones and focus groups, designed to delve into the real reasons for participants' attitudes and behavior toward the topic. It is generally considered to be an intensive technique. The moderator seeks the reason behind each answer until he or she arrives at a basic human need such as ego or status.

Longitudinal Study: A long-term survey based on a series of research programs, typically intended to understand trending. For example, one car manufacturer might conduct longitudinal research year over year to understand how their brand is developing in people's minds. The Oldsmobile brand is probably a case-study in the danger in not keeping an eye on brand perceptions (or on the demographics of those who felt positively about their brand). At some point they realized that their cars were favored by a much older demographic group, and that the next generation had come to see Oldsmobile as stodgy and lacking excitement. By the time that they realized that they had a problem and launched their "It's not your parent's Oldmsmobile" campaign it was too late to change perceptions and the brand was doomed.

M

Magic Envelope Exercise: This is an exercise that you can use if you suspect that the decision have already been made. Research is expensive, so if you hold up an envelope (empty or junk-mail work just the same) and use your business understanding to guess what the research may reveal. Then challenge the team to explain their actions based on each of the different possible findings (ie roughly 40% would consider purchasing the product as is, but another 20% would consider it only with a lower price, or with a key feaure that is currently missing) - what would your company actually DO NEXT? This is a great exercise to remind everyone that research is ONLY as good as the decisions that it informs!

Market Research: The planning, collection, and analysis of data relevant to marketing decision making, and the communication of the results of this analysis to management.

Market Segmentation: The process of dividing a total market into sub-groups of consumers who exhibit differing sensitivities to one or more product characteristics. Segmentation models are typically based on one of a number of customer characteristics such as: price sensitivity, product usage, product feature prioritization...

Mean: The sum of the values for all observations of a variable divided by the number of observations. The mean is often thought of as the arithmetic average because you simply add everything together and divide by the number of data points. The three measurements of central tendency are: mean, median and mode.

Median: The numerical observation that divides the distribution of observations in half. Sometimes referred to as the second quartile. the three measures of central tendency were: mean, median and mode.

Methodology: The research procedures used, the approach used in the research, including the method of recruiting participants, the types of questions used, and so on. There are a number of methodologies but the first breakdown in qualitative or quantitative.

Minigroup: A focus group that contains between four to six participants. More than six is normally considered a full group, and fewer than four is a triad or a dyad. In general, the larger the group the more simplified the concept or discussion needs to be as the total amount of individual "talk-time" is reduced by each additional respondent in the room, although the number of opinions gathered is increased. (Photo 1)

Mode: The most frequently occurring measurement. The peak of a frequency curve. The three measures of central tendency are: mean, median and mode.

Modeling: The formulation of mathematically-expressed variables to simulate a business decision environment. For example, a model could be formulated using demographics and a company's financial data to select a new market that has the same combination of factors that are present in currently successful markets.

Moderator Guide: The outline that the moderator uses to lead the discussion in depth interviews or focus groups. It is developed by the moderator and the researcher on the basis of the briefings and identifies the topics that will be covered in the discussion, and the approximate emphasis that will be given to each topic. Also called a discussion guide.

Multiple Choice Questions: Questions that ask a respondent to choose from a list of more than two answers. This is one form of closed-end questions, which provide a limited number of options for the respondent to choose from.

Multiple Regression Analysis: Statistical procedure that studies multiple independent variables simultaneously to identify a pattern or patterns. See also regression analysis.

Multivariate Analysis: Any statistical procedure that simultaneously analyzes several measurements (variables).

Mystery Shoppers: People employed to pose as consumers and shop at the competitors and their own stores to compare prices, displays, salespeople's friendliness and knowledge levels. This is a quickly growing branch of market research right now.

N

No-show: An IDI or focus group respondent who agrees to come to a session and is confirmed the same day, but nonetheless does not show up. Facilities compensate for no-shows by over-recruiting.

Nonresponse Bias: Error that results from a systematic difference between those who do and do not respond to the survey. As research projects have become more common the potential for non-response bias continues to increase. As paid-respondents increase could it be that they tend to be more from a certain income level more than another (does a $5 Starbucks card mean more to a person making $25K a year than it does to a person making twice that? Does the increase in research mean that potential respondents are more choosy about the topics that interest them? These questions could lead to nonresponse bias and should be considered as we construct our research plans.

Normal Distribution: A continuous distribution that is bell shaped and symmetrical about the mean.

O

Observation Research: Descriptive research that monitors respondents' actions without direct interaction. A good example of this would be the cameras that were placed near the sinks in a number of public restrooms. That research showed that men were far more likely to wash their hands when another man was in the restroom, than they were if they were alone in the restroom. There wasn't any interaction between the researchers and those people who were being studied, which probably meant that they were acting more naturally than they might have been if they knew that they were being studied.

Observation Room: The room from which client personnel observe and listen to In-Depth Interviews or focus groups. through a one-way mirror. Also called the back room, viewing room or "behind the glass". In research this is the epicenter of fun and free M & Ms.

Omnibus Panel: Study over time in which the sponsoring research company defines the audience to be surveyed and the intervals between studies. Numerous clients participate by submitting proprietary questions. Generally clients only receive results from their proprietary questions and general demographic questions. Imagine that a syndicated market research company puts together a regular survey of people who frequently rent cars and they could offered to sell a number of questions to car rental companies such as: Hertz, Avis and Enterprise. Periodically each company would get the answers to the questions that they paid to have included in the survey - but not those of the other companies.

One-on-one: A qualitative research technique in which a moderator interviews one participant. Also called In-Depth Interview (IDI).

One-way Mirror: A special mirror that permits observers to watch the proceedings in the focus group without the participants being able to see the observers. Virtually all US focus groups are conducted in a room separated from an observation area by a one-way mirror. However, in some less researched cities it can be difficult to find purpose-built facilities, in other cases local customs may dictate observers act as note-takers in the room with respondents. ( Mirror Side Photo, Backroom Photo )

Open-ended Question: A question that does not have a list of predefined options that the respondent chooses from. An open ended question asks that the respondent formulate their own answer, in their own words. In general this is one of the distinctions between qualitative and quantitiative market research - the abilty to probe into specific areas depending on the respondent's answers. Quanitative research tends to presume to understand the key drivers and list them as options in most cases, while qualitative is more flexible and can follow up on something that wasn't even brought up during the planning of the research. Another challenge with open-ended questions is that respondents are more likely to skip them, or to answer very briefly. (Example1, Example 2)

Ordinal Scale: Identifies categories of the variable which can be ranked from smallest to the largest, but the distance between observations is not meaningful. An example would be a question which attempts to record the degrees of opinions using terms such as poor, fair, good and excellent and because these measure don't have a relative measurements in degrees they're not capable of being used for certain types of analysis.

Over-recruit: The extra people who are recruited for a research project to compensate for the likelihood of that some of the those people who were recruited will not come, "no-shows". In research vernacular a representative of the commissioning company might specify in the Request For Proposal that they "want to recruit 12 for 10 to show" - that assumes 2 respondents might not be able to show. If everyone who was recruited does show up as requested, the screening information and the perceptions of the receptionist is used to dismiss and pay the least qualified, or least articulate respondent(s).

P

PAPI (paper And Pencil Interviewing): Wurvey in which the respondent fills out a traditional paper questionnaire. Usually administered by interviewer.

Packaging Tests: Tests used to gauge reactions to different packaging approaches. Often includes product specifications or in-store displays.

Panel: A survey in which the same respondents are interviewed several times over an extended period. This type of research requires vigilance to ensure that panel does not develop different opinions than the target population.

Participant: A person included in a focus group, survey or study. Also called respondent, unit, subject, experimental unit or unit of analysis. On this website we refer to particpants in any type of market research as a respondent for simplification.

Perceptual MAPPing: Mathematical Analysis of Perception and Preference. Any one of a number of analytical techniques which is designed to represent consumers' product perceptions and preferences as visual representations or points on a map or graph. In cases where a company may be underperforming in areas that are very important to customers, or overperforming in areas where customers don't care very much, this graphical depiction can be very helpful in describing a complicated market terrain. (Example)

Photo-sort: A type of qualitative market research in which the respondent is asked to sorts photos of different types of people,identifying those photos that the respondent feels would use the specific product or service. There are a number of variations of this exercise - essentially they all are all used to conceptually order or somehow organize the way the customer sees products or the market overall.

Positioning Research : Market research to explain the location of a brand or product in consumers' minds. If this type of market research were currently conducted on car brands, customers might put Hyundai at the low end of the market and Mercedes toward the higher end of the market in terms of status. (Example)

Pre-test: A trial run of a questionnaire or discussion guide which is tested early enough to make changes before the actual research starts. This is often done for more difficult or complex research to ensure that everything is being described or explained appropriately and in the right order.

Primary Research: Conducting market research to collect new data to solve a marketing information need. Primary market research is the primary focus of this entire web site, although good primary market research always begins with a thorough look at the existing secondary market reserach information. See also secondary research.

Probing: A follow-up technique for getting complete responses to open-ended questions by asking. Probing is generally a primary component of qualitative research while quantitative research typically does little if any probing. The trade-off is that quantitative research will provide exacting numbers of the customers who would have chosen not to have bought the car - without the two-trim paint....

Product Concept Testing: A type of research in which respondents are asked to evaluate the attractiveness of a new product idea before they are produced. This type of research often includes product specifications, workflow analysis and industrial design components.

Product Placement Study : A type of research in which respondents try a product under normal usage conditions, usually in their own home or workplace. Example: in-home test of a food product. Also called a product test or in-home test depending on the target audience for the product.

Product Pricing Research: Research used to measure consumer sensitivity to different prices for a product. This often compares the elasticity from one brand to another or from one product category to another (e.g., rakes to leaf blowers)

Product Prototype Tests: Tests conducted to understand how potential customers may react to its capabilities and features.

Professional Respondent: A participant who attends many sessions by volunteering for the recruitment lists of different facilities. Most moderators seek to eliminate professional respondents from groups, since they do not generally respond in the same objective way as do fresh respondents. This is a growing problem for the research industry. A free range respondent is someone who has not volunteered to be on a list of potential respondents or on a market research panel that requires regular participation in market research studies.

Projectability: The capability of research results to be extrapolated to the larger universe, on the assumption that the sample is representative of the population at large.

Projective: A type of moderation techniques used to stimulate discussion among participants. These techniques ask participants to think about the topic in a more subjective or creative way than they might in a regular discussion. Projectives include sentence completion, expressive drawing, anthropomorphization and associations. Projective techniquest attempt to understand the core feelings that a customer has about a topic - feelings that might be harder to get at if asked directly.

Psychographics: Market research that attempts to explain behavior by analyzing people's personality traits and values. (e.g., are there certain personality traits that might indicate a person's tendency to drive a large SUV? The automotive industry conducted research that indicates controlling others is one motivator for purchasing larger SUVs - this has been used in their advertising efforts - look at the Cadillac Escalade print advertisments - they show the SUV from a perspective that makes you feel like you're about to be run over by it - it's powerful and seems to tower above everything else). Psychographics is a rapidly growing piece of the market research industry, especially in industries where commoditization is threatening to reduce the price premiums that companies can charge. Psychographics advocates claim that understanding the emotional side of purchase decisions is critical to making good business decisions. Consider the price-premium that Apple's Ipod commands when similar features are available on much less expensive MP3 players.

Q

Qualitative Research: Research data not subject to quantification or quantitative analysis; characterized by the absence of rigid scales or options. Qualitative methodologies include focus groups, mini-groups, one on-ones and open ended-questions. Qualitative research is appropriate for the following types of questions:

Quantitative Research: Research conducted for the purpose of obtaining empirical evaluations of attitudes, behavior or performance. Provides projectable numerical data about a topic. Quantitative research is appropriate for the following types of questions:

Questionnaire: A structured series of questions designed to generate data necessary for accomplishing the objectives of the research project. Most typically used for quantitative research studies such as web, telephone or mail surveys.

Quota Sample: A requirement to find a certain number of respondents that have certain characteristics in a market research study. (i.e., half of all recruits will be from companies and half will be responding as consumers representing their households). As the number of quotas (or quota cells) increase so does the cost of the research.

R

Regression Analysis: A higher level statistical technique that relates a dependent variable to one or more independent variables.

Representative Sample: A sample in which each potential respondent has an equal and independent chance of selection. This is one of the areas where theory and practicality sometimes end up being at odds. Often finding a more representative sample is more expensive than are options which are less represntative. (ie - recruiting respondents outside of a basketball game would mean that someone who didn't attend basketball games wouldn't be included as a respondent. For most research topics this would create a signifcant source of bias - or a less representative sample.

Request For Proposal: Typically called an RFP. This is a document written by the researcher at the company which intends to conduct research. The RFP is generally 2-4 pages long, explains the business situation, the business decisions that are being considered, details the research objectives, lays out a methodlogy, timeline and recruitment criteria for the research. The RFP is typically sent to 3-5 qualified market research vendors with both industry experience and a specialty in the determined methodology that has been determined as optimium for the business goals. The process of writing an RFP and gaining internal agreement on the research specifics typically takes several days, although the competitive nature of the resulting proposals can easily save thousands of dollars and the refinement of the methodology specifics can be invaluable in the long run. For a single-region RFP the vendors may be given 3-6 business days to respond and a few days longer when multiple-regions will be researched.

Rescreening: A brief interview conducted with potential participants when they arrive at a facility to ensure that they really qualify for the session. Rescreening normally uses some of the questions that were originally asked when the participants were originally recruited.

Respondent: The term respondent is used throughout this web site as the the individual from which data are collected. Please be aware that this is a slight simplification and respondent is not always used in all types of research this way, however, we felt that it was necessary to simplify in MarketResearch101.com to make the initial learning process less complicated.

Response Rates: Definition coming soon.

S

Sample: A subset of the population of interest selected for a research study. The term statistic refers to a subset of the entire population.

Sampling: The method of selecting a specified portion, called a sample, from a population, from which information concerning the whole can be inferred. Sampling is a fundamental piece of research and any sampling error is carried throughout the entire project into the findings.

Sampling Error: The estimated inaccuracy of the results of a study when a population sample is used to explain behavior of the total population.

Scope Creep: The natural tendency to expand a market research project to include a broader range of products or issues than originally planned. The danger in scope creep is that it can reduce the focus of the research from the original objectives to the point that none of the research objectives are sufficiently satisfied. It's very difficult to know, in reasearch, when one more straw will break the camel's back. Be careful of scope creep - if the new topic is so important, maybe it should be determine the objective of the market research project and not the initial objective.

Screener: A series of questions which are used to determine whether or not a potential respondent will be included in a research study. These are the qualifying criteria that are typically agreed to before a market research study is awarded to a particular market research vendor. For example, if we were trying to field a set of focus groups we might phone screen asking if there was a skier in the house, if so, how many times she skied last year, and if she considered herself to be an intermediate skier (the skier for which our ski was designed). If they answered all of those question were answered appropriately, the person would be invited to a focus group facility in that town to discuss her thoughts about our new ski.

Secondary Market Research: Analyzing information from previously conducted research projects. Often this includes the purchase of market research from syndicated companies that conduct research in a particular industry and sell it to competitors within that and related industries. See also primary research.

Skip Pattern: In a questionnaire typically, a requirement to pass over questions in response to respondent's answer to a previous question. (i.e. a respondent who answers that they intend to buy a product, but haven't yet purchased it, wouldn't be asked when they purchased that product). This is also called branching because it indicates a fork in the road where one group is asked additional questions and another group is not.

Spurious Association: An apparently obvious relationship between two factors that is not actually real, or that isn't understood. Although there is a well documented correlation between the price of coffee and teacher's salaries - there is not cause and effect relationship. This is an example of a spurious association.

Standard Deviation: A measure of the variability of a characteristic. This is a very specific measure of the variability of a certain number.

Statistic: A numerical quantity calculated from observations in a sample.

Statistical Inference: Drawing conclusions about populations based on a sample. For example, you don't need to eat the whole pot of soup in order to know how it tastes. The same concept is true for market research - taking a reasonable sampling of the soup will give you a pretty good idea of what the whole pot tastes like.

Statistics: The science of collecting data, organizing or describing it, and ultimately drawing conclusions from it. This refers only to quantitative market research.

Sugging: The all too common practice of Selling Under the Guise (SUG) of market research. You've probably had people calling your home and asking if you they could ask a few questions for a market research study, only to find out later that they were actually just looking for an angle to sell something to you. This is called sugging in market research terminology. (Example)

Syndicated Research: Studies conducted by these companies are constructed to be broad in appeal and are typically sold to a number of competitors in a given industry. Clients share the same results and costs. Sometimes called "secondary market research", or "desk research".

T

Target Population: This is the population which is being studied. Imagine for example that you wanted to sell bicycle baskets. You'd probably have an easier time selling them to people who already had a bicycle than you would to people who didn't own a bike. That might become part of the definition of the characteristics of those people that you wanted to talk to. You might also want to stipulate that the potential respondent could imagine having a use for a bicycle basket.

Telephone Focus Groups: A qualitative market research methodology in which a number of respondents are connected in a telephone conference call and a trained moderator leads them through a discussion about a particular topic. This is basically a focus group that is conducted by conference-call.

Telephone Sample: A market research study in which a group of individuals are surveyed by telephone.

Test Market: A market research study in which a product or service is introduced into a small market to understand whether it is successful or not. This technique provides a very accurate estimate of how a product would be received in the open market. This option is very difficult to do for certain categories of products which cannot be cost-effectively produced in small lots, or which require broader support services in order to operate.

Tests Of Significance: Tests for determining whether observed differences in a sample are sufficiently large as to be caused by something other than mere chance. Determines whether two numbers are actually statistically different. Imagine a market research study in which 20 customers of one store are asked how satisfied they are with their shopping experience, and another 20 customers are asked the same questions. Assuming that both groups of respondents (customers) had different satisfaction levels, management would want to know if these differences were statistically different or not. A test of significance can answer that question.

Tracking Studies: Are repeated over time to monitor changes in a brand, product category or even a customer group. Oldsmobile could have used a tracking study to understand the age of people who were buying their cars and that their brand was coming to represent in the minds of yournger car buyers. By the time Oldsmobile started the "Oldsmobile - not your father's car" advertising campaign their fate was already sealed. Oldsmobile's brand had become something that many people didn't want to be seen driving - and the ones who did were growing too old to drive.

Triad: A qualitative market research methodology in which a moderator works with three respondents. In general having a smaller number of respondents allows deeper probing than would be possible with a larger number of respondents in a full focus group of 8 or 10 respondents.

U

Universe: The set of all the units from which a sample is drawn. Also called the population.

Unstructured Observation: A market research study in which the observer simply makes notes on the behavior being observed. This type of research is less likely to influence the study subject (respondent).

V

Variance: The measure of the variability of a value. The statistical measure of how similar a population is in a characteristic being studied. Imagine that you were measuring the height of people on a basketball team - their heights might be very similar from 6 feet tall to 7 feet tall. However, if you were measuring the variability in their scoring they could vary greatly from 0 points to 25 points a game for some of the high scorers. So the height variability is lower than is the scoring variability. Variability is typically measured in quantitative market research projects.

Viewing Room: The room from which client personnel observe research conducted at a central facility (typically this is in-depth interviews and focus groups) through a one-way mirror. Also called the observation room or back room or "behind the glass". (photo 1)

Visual Aids: Anything shown to respondents during market research - either qualitative or quantitative. Examples: print advertisement examples, a product prototype or photograph, video clip to show the use of a product concept. Also called external stimuli.

W

Weighting: Assigning a number to certain groups of respondents in order to ensure that those groups accurately represent their known proportions within the actual population. For example, imagine that market research is conducted with a range of businesses within a certain region, and the number of retail business respondents is 5%, but it's known that retail businesses are known to represent 10% of all businesses within that region. In this case the market research results might be weighted to reflect 10% of the total population to more accurately reflect reality.