Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

Databases

The past two weeks have been busy, at least by my recent standards. Two weeks ago I was given the opportunity to present my views on researching research at Hewlett Packard's week-long symposium on market research. While in California, I took the opportunity to visit friends at Clorox and Del Monte. Last week I got the opportunity to share my thoughts with members of Kraft and Philip Morris at their week-long symposium in Chicago. I find these meetings enjoyable in that I get the opportunity to hear the ideas and problems of others.

One of the questions that was raised last week dealt with the use of Databases. I was asked my thoughts on the value of databases. I stated that I felt that they are very important if they are put together with serious consideration to the variables affecting the data. For instance, data are not only a function of the products or ideas under investigation, but also such variables as to HOW and WHERE the data are collected. Following are examples of how the wording of an interview and the location of the study can have a profound effect on the results.

How the data are collected -- Does the awareness of future questions affect the results? My concern was that in questionnaire studies, the respondent can read ahead and adjust their responses accordingly whereas in an interviewer-administered study, the respondent does not know the future questions. At the time, my focus of concern was with the contingency questions commonly used with the Intent to Purchase scale. While the contingency questions vary, I focused on the one that asked why the respondent did not vote "Definitely Would Buy." I separated a panel of 600 into two panels of 300. Within each panel, I had six sub-panels, one for each concept.

Results
Average Definitely Would Buy for the six concepts.........
with the contingency question= 35%
without the contingency question= 16%

Where the data are collected -- In an effort to determine if the location of the research had an effect on the results, I conducted three concept evaluations in two different types of survey sites.

Results

                                Percent Definitely Would Buy
Location:               Central Location        In-Store        Difference
Concept         A               34.4%            10.7%          23.7%
                B               50.5%            28.8%          21.7%
                C               50.2%            29.8%          20.4%
Databases must be separated not only by the product category but also by where and how the data were collected. This variation also points out the need for benchmarks in all studies.
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