From A to Z, this helpful glossary of terms and definitions will help you navigate the lingo of CCI. A Attempt: Every contact with a potential respondent, whether or not anyone is actually reached and whether or not a completed interview results. Area samples :Samples which include geographic areas as part of the sample design. Awareness (Recall): A measure of a respondent's knowledge of a particular of a particular product, company, service or commercial. B Base: The required number of interviews to actually be completed and referred to as the need. Benchmark: A control source against which you compare the area you're studying. For example, you may compare the results of a study in one state to the results of the nation as a whole. Bid: Estimated costs associated with compliance to specifications. Briefing: A meeting in which interviewers review a project specifications and survey script. Blocked calls: Calls that receive busy signals. Busy (BZ): The accepted abbreviation for indicating a busy signal when dialing on the phone survey. C Callback (CB): Refers to interviewing a specific person following a product usage or attempts, after the first attempt, to contact potential respondents who were not previously available for interview and for which a time was agreed upon at which to call them. CATI: The industry acronym for C omputer A ssisted T elephone I nterviewing. Census: Generally refers to a complete canvas of the population being studied. Census divisions: The nine census divisions (grouping of states) are: 1. Pacific: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington 2. Mountain: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming 3. West North Central: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota 4. East North Central: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin 5. West South Central: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas 6. East South Central: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee 7. South Atlantic: West Virginia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, DC 8. Middle Atlantic: New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island 9. New England: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont. Census regions: The four census regions (groupings of states) are: 1. West: Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada 2. Midwest: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan 3. South: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, DC, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware, and Tennessee 4. Northeast: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Clarifying or Clarification: A technique used by an interviewer where the interviewer repeats an unclear phrase or word from the respondent's previous statement and then encourages the respondent to expand the answer to make their answer more clear. Classification questions: Survey questions designed to describe respondents in terms of demographics, such as age, income occupation, etc. Closed-End Questions: These questions have pre-established answers from which to choose. The interviewer is required merely to indicate the respondent's answer from the possible choices. Cluster: A category assigned to a neighborhood based on the assumption that the households share certain demographic, social, and economic characteristics. Cluster sampling: Consists of selecting clusters of units in a population and then performing a census on each cluster. The selection of clusters could be based on some desired feature of the population or could be a random sample of clusters in the population. Coding: Combining Similar answers and assigning a numeric code so they may be processed by a computer. Completion Rate (PR): The number of interviews completed per hour of interviewing. Completions: Questionnaires that are completed through a pre-determined question sequence and are included in the final data set for the study. Co-op payment: The payment provided to participants as an incentive to come to the focus groups or answer surveys. The amount varies dramatically, based on the difficulty of recruiting the participants. Also called the honorarium or incentive. CPI (cost per interview): This cost is determined by dividing the number of completed interviews into the total budget for a project. Cross-Tab/Cross Tabulation: A table, which shows the frequency and/or percentage of respondents who gave various answers to a question in the survey and which simultaneously shows these answers for various sub-groups of respondents. D Data: The term frequently used to describe the contents of surveys or polls. A group of facts or statistics. Data Collection: The gathering of information (words or responses) that describe some situation from which conclusions can be drawn; the gathering of information from administered questionnaires. Data Processing: The counting and tabulating of raw information into a format specified by a client. This can include spelling and grammatical corrections for open-ended responses. Demographics (demos): Demographics pertain to vital statistics, such as age income education and other personal characteristics of the respondent. Disconnect (Disc): The accepted abbreviation to indicate that a phone number has been disconnected. Usually noted on the dialing report by the interviewer. Disposition: The result of an attempt to reach or contact a potential respondent. Don't Know (DK): The abbreviation recorded when a respondent lacks the knowledge to provide an answer to a question. E Eligible Respondent: A person who meets certain criteria set for a particular study, and thus qualifies to be included in the study. Respondents may be qualified on such characteristics as age, income, brand used, etc… Executive Interviews or Business-to-Business (B2B) : Interviews that involve talking with businessmen and women in companies of all sizes. Executive summary: The portion of a research report that explains why the research was done, what was found and what those findings mean, and what action, if any, management should undertake. F Family: As defined by The Bureau of the Census, two or more persons who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption and who live together as one household. Families do not include one-person households or those having two or more unrelated individuals. Female Head-of-Household (FHH): The woman most responsible for maintaining the household. May or may not be the primary wage earner. Field: The physical location where the interviewing takes place. Field Director: The person assigned to implement the design of a survey through data collection companies. Final report: The document that the researcher develops at the conclusion of the research project. Its length varies, but a typical final report includes several sections: a summary of the methodology used, a review of the key findings, and the conclusions or interpretations of what the findings mean in light of the research objectives. Some final reports also contain a recommendations section containing suggestions for the client's next steps based on the conclusions of the research. Focus Group/Interview (FGI): An unstructured interviewing technique where a small group (8 to 10 of eligible respondents) is invited to participate in a discussion about a particular topic. Forecast: An estimate, based on assumptions about future trends in births, deaths and migration, or of a demographic characteristic such as population or number of households. Forecasts and projections are terms that are often used interchangeably. Full Service Research Company: A company hired by a manufacturer or service company to design and mange the implementation of a research project, as well as analyze and interpret the data. The Full Service Company may collect the data themselves or hire a data collection company for this phase of a project. G Gross income: The total amount of money people have before taxes and necessities are paid for. H Head of household: A term no longer used by the U.S. Census Bureau (although often used in the research industry). The new term is householder. The householder is the person who completed the Census Questionnaire. Homogeneous groups: Groups in which the units or individuals have extremely similar characteristics. I Incentive: co-op payment. Incidence: The frequency of something occurring in the population. It usually refers to persons and is stated as a percentage. In marketing and opinion research, incidence is a measure of the level of effort needed to reach qualified or eligible respondents. Income: As defined by the Census Bureau income is wage or salary income; self-employment income; interest, dividend, or net rental income; Social Security income; public assistance income; all other income, which includes unemployment compensation, veterans' payment, pensions, alimony, etc. Initial Refusal: This occurs when a respondent refuses to participate in a survey at the interviewer's initial introductory statement. Interview: The exchange of information between the interviewer and the respondent. Interviewer (Research Assistant): The person conducting the interviewing by asking questions. K Keypunch: Manually entering data into a computer from a paper survey. L Length of Interview: The actual number of minutes it takes to ask the questions and record the answers in a survey. Listed sample: A sample which contains only directory-listed telephone households. Listed telephone households: Households which are listed in published telephone directories. M Market: Total of all individuals or organizations that represent potential buyers. Marketing & Opinion Research: A process used by businesses to collect, analyze and interpret information used to make sound business decisions and successfully manage the business. Market segmentation: The process of dividing a total market into sub-groups of consumers who exhibit differing sensitivities to one or more marketing mix variables. Market Research: A process used to define the size, location, and/or makeup of the market for a product or service. Migration: Movement of residence from one political area to another. Monitor: A quality control measure, which involves observing, listening to the interviewing to ensure required procedures are followed and to give feedback and instruction to the interviewers. Multiple Punch Answers: When more than one answer is acceptable for the same question. Multiple Choice Question: Respondents are offered a list of responses to a question and are asked to choose one or more that seem appropriate. Commonly referred to as closed ended questions. N No Answer (NA): The accepted abbreviation for a sample element in which phone was allowed to ring four times with no pick-up. These number are re-attempted after a four hrs delay. No-show: A focus group participant who agrees to come to a session and is confirmed the same day, but nonetheless does not come to the group. Non-family household: A household comprised of a person living alone or with non-relatives, as defined by the Census Bureau. Non-random: Occurrences which do not have an equal probability of occurring; not mathematically predictable on the basis of the classical theory of probability. O 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. Omnibus Survey: A survey, which examines a number of unrelated topics or issues. This may be a “Shared expense” Study in which a number of different clients participate. Open-End (O.E.) Questions: Questions, which have no set of anticipated responses listed on the questionnaires. The interviewer records the respondent's verbatim response. Overrecruit: The extra people who are recruited for a focus group to compensate for the inevitable no-shows. P Panel: A survey in which the same respondents are interviewed several times over an extended period. Panel Research: A general term used to describe a pre-selected group of homogeneous people used to collect information more than once over a period of time. Political Studies: Used by government agencies, officials, candidates, and political parties to determine the opinion of the electorates. Population (POP): The total number of people in a country or region, or any geographic area or political subdivision. Pre-Codes: The number pre-assigned to a particular answer or answer group. Prefix: The first three digits of a phone number. Also known as an exchange. It represents the town, community or neighborhood in which a telephone number is located. Pre-recruit: Consumers or business professionals are contacted either by telephone, mail or in person and, if qualified, are invited to participate in a study scheduled for a future date and time. People who agree and are eligible are often compensated for their participation in the interview. Pre-test: A trial run of a questionnaire sent to a small sample to be sure that actual responses are clear and that any problems with the questionnaire are detected. Probe/Probing: An interviewing technique used to obtain more information from the respondent. Often used on open-ended questions. Project: A specific marketing research or opinion research study with its own unique set of specifications. Project Director (CSM: Client Services Manager): The person who coordinates all phases of a research project. Q Qualified Refusal: This occurs once all qualifying questions have been asked. The respondent is eligible for the test, but for some reason, refuses or is unable to complete the study. Qualified Respondent: See Eligible Respondent. Qualitative Research: Research that yields an in-depth understanding about an issue. Qualitative research typically focuses on a small number of people. Since these peoples are interviewed in-depth, interviews tend to be longer and are often unstructured. An outline of discussion points, rather than questionnaire, is often used. Quantitative Research: Research used to statistically estimate the viewpoint of a population providing estimates of percentages or averages. This research usually employs larger samples and takes less of the respondent's time. Telephone surveys, mail surveys, intercept surveys, central location studies, in-home use studies, and door-to-door studies are all used in quantitative research. Questionnaire: The printed or computer form or instrument used to ask specific questions. Questions are to be asked exactly the same way by all interviewers on a study. Also known as script. Quota: The total number of interviews to be completed by a data collection company. Quotas are to be asked exactly the same way by all interviewers on a study. R Race: As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau: Aleut, American Indian, Asian, Black (or Negro), Chinese, Eskimo, Filipino, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Japanese, Korean, Samoan, Vietnamese, White, or "other." Random: Being or relating to a set or element in which each set or element has an equal (non-zero) probability of occurring. Random Digit Dialing (RDD): A selection of telephone numbers where the digits in the numbers are picked by chance. Within predefined geographic regions. Random error: Error that affects measurement in a transient, inconsistent manner. Random Sampling: Given a specified sampling procedure, all consumers within the universe have an equal chance for respondent selection. Ranking/Rank Order: A procedure requiring the respondent to order a set of items with respect to some designated property of interest, such as first, second, third, etc., on overall preference or a specific product characteristic. Note: Each rank level may only be used once by a single respondent. Refusal Rate : The percentage of people contacted who refuse to participate in a particular study. Refusals (Ref): Respondents who will not participate in an interview. Refusals are tracked at various points within a survey, i.e., initial refusal, qualified refusal, etc. Response: A reply or answer to a question or statement on the questionnaire. Respondent: The person who is interviewed. No matter what type of survey is being conducted, the person being interviewed is always called the respondent. Replicate: Representative sub-sample, which is systematically selected from the entire sample. S Sample: A subset of the population of interest selected for a research study. It is a finite portion that is used to study the characteristics of concern in the population and for telephone research has an associated phone number. Sample distribution: A frequency distribution of all the elements of an individual sample. Sample population: The population from which the sample is obtained. Sampling: The method of selecting a specified portion, called a sample, from a population, from which information concerning the whole can be inferred. Sampling distribution of the proportion: A frequency distribution of the proportions of many samples drawn from a particular population. It is normally distributed. Sampling distribution of the sample means: A frequency distribution of the means of many samples drawn from a particular population. It is normally distributed. Sampling distribution of the sample statistic: The probability distribution associated with the various values that the statistic could assume in repeated sampling. Scales: A measurement device that allows a respondent to report the “degree” or his/her opinion. Scales are usually in the form of statements or number. Screener: Questions used to screen for appropriate respondents to identify qualified respondents. Screening: The procedure; conducted at the very beginning of the interview, involves interviewers asking specified questions to determine if respondents are eligible or qualified for a particular study. Segment: Portion selected on the basis of a special set of characteristics. Skip Patterns: Skip patterns involve the process of skipping particular questions, depending on how the respondent answers on e or more previous question(s). Supervisor's instructions: Written directions to the field service on how to conduct a survey. Survey research: Research in which an interviewer interacts with respondents to obtain facts, opinions and attitudes. T Topline: Preliminary results from a project, usually showing responses of the total sample to a few key questions. Tracking: Studies repeated over time to monitor changes in a brand or product category. U Unbiased Questions: Questions that are read in such a way that they do not influence the respondents or provide information which may influence the opinions of the respondents. V Validation:The process of independently verifying survey results. Variance: The measure of the variability of the variable. The statistical measure of how similar a population is in a characteristic being studied. It is the average squared distance of all measurements from the mean. Verbatim:A transcript of the actual comments made by a respondent in replying to a question. Z |
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