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Glossary of Market Research Terms – P |
Paid survey: |
Paid surveys
are marketing research studies for which the panellists are
paid for their participation. The payments can be made
either in cash or gifts or entry into contests with
different prizes, depending upon the company policies. The
amounts and modes of payments also differ from company to
company, and from study to study conducted by the same
company.
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Panel: |
Panel is a group of people from different demographic
sections who regularly participate in many marketing
research studies. They participate in many surveys conducted
over longer durations of time. These respondents usually
participate in studies for the associated incentives. The
panels are usually very diverse and are used for various
types of surveys. There are specialty panels also, which are
generally a group of people with similar demographic
configurations.
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Personal interview survey: |
It is a survey conducted by personally interviewing the
respondent in a one-on-one situation. These are mainly
qualitative studies involving only the moderator or
interviewer and a single respondent.
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Poll: |
Polls are mainly short surveys aimed at collecting opinions
of the respondents. These are generally used to gather quick
opinions about certain aspects of a product or service. Also
they are very frequently used during elections to gather
public opinions and inclinations towards certain candidates.
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Pop-up: |
Pop-up is a window that opens up automatically while surfing
the Internet. These normally present all of a sudden and
tend to block the previously opened page. They are used
frequently by advertisers to display their products and
services. They are also used by marketing research
organizations to conduct short on-the-spot surveys.
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Privacy Policy: |
Each marketing research website adheres to certain privacy
policies, which are aimed at providing security to the
personal data of the panellists. These are listed on the
“Privacy Policy” section of the website and explain the
privacy rights clearly regarding data collection, data
storage, data usage and accessibility to the data.
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Prize draw: |
Some companies hold prize draws for respondents of surveys.
Prizes may be in the form of cash or a variety of gifts.
Each participant who has successfully completed a survey is
entered into a pool and winners are chosen. Some sites
clearly display the percentage or odds of winning. The prize
draws may be held as the only incentives for participation
in surveys or in addition to other individual incentives.
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Prize: |
Prizes are the incentives won in the prize draws. These may
be in cash or a variety of gifts.
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Product Concept Testing: |
This is the study conducted by pre-testing a product with a
group of potential consumers before launching the product in
the marketplace. Most common type of product testing is done
by letting the consumers try out the product at their place
of residence for certain duration of time. This is called
at-home testing or product placement study.
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Product tester: |
Product testers are the respondents who agree to test a
certain product before its launch.
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Profile: |
Personal information of the panellists given by them at the
time of registration into the panel is called profile
information. This is matched with the survey requirements to
select the potential respondents for a certain study through
the process of recruitment.
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Packaging Tests: |
Packaging Tests are the tests conducted on packaging
designs and materials for the purpose of market research in
order to suggest better, more feasible and less expensive
packaging designs, materials and strategies.
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Paired Comparison: |
Paired Comparison is an evaluation of two products that are
given values based on set criteria as means of comparing the
two items. Many product attributes can be scrutinised under
paired comparisons for developing better understanding of
them. These are done usually to compare the product
attributes of the company with those of competitors’.
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Paired Depths: |
Paired Depths are referred to in-depth interviews conducted
with two respondents at the same time. This technique is
often used when the main respondent is a child who is
interviewed with a parent or friend to lessen the
apprehension of the interview situation; or when two
children are interviewed together. In some situations, it is
seen that the responses can become biased so additional care
needs to be taken. These interviews are generally conducted
by highly trained and skilled interviewers.
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Panel: |
A panel is a group of respondents participating in multiple
surveys over an extensive period of time. These respondents
voluntarily participate in the market research projects
usually in return for some incentives. Panels can be of many
types. Some of them are specialty panels only for
professionals like doctors, executives, lawyers, techies,
and people from younger generation and others. Specialty
panels are used for specialized studies. General panels are
for normal consumers and are used for wider research needs.
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Pantry Check: |
Pantry Check is an audit conducted by the respondent of a
specialized study. The respondent is requested to create an
inventory of the products and brands found in their kitchen
pantry or refrigerator. This data is used later and helps in
preventing corruption of the research study because it does
not completely rely on the respondent’s memory.
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Paper and Pencil Interviewing (PAPI): |
Paper and Pencil Interviewing (PAPI) is a conventional
method of survey. In this the respondents fill out a
physical paper questionnaire, which is administered by an
interviewer.
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Paradata: |
Paradata is the general information about the research
process. It includes time and date of interviews, duration
of interviews or the entire study, number of questions
answered, number of errors, length of text used in
open-ended questions and other similar information.
Maintenance of this information makes the research process
more efficient and streamlined.
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Participant: |
Participant is a person volunteering to be involved in a
survey, focus group, or any other market research study. He
or she is also referred to as a subject, unit, experimental
unit, unit of analysis, or respondent.
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Past Participation: |
Past Participation is the process where the respondents who
have participated earlier in some research studies are
excluded from further participation. Some researchers opine
that such participants are unsuitable for research studies
of the same topic during a particular time frame. This
process can remove potential bias and repetition of
responses can also be curtailed, which invariably corrupt
the study results.
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People Reader: |
This is the ability to document a participant’s reading
material as well as their eye reaction at the same time by
using a machine.
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Per Capita Income: |
Per Capita Income is the average income per unit of an
entire population. This is computed by dividing the total
income of a country by its total population.
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Permission Based Research: |
Permission Based Research is the research where only the
people who have agreed to be contacted are reached out to
participate in research studies. This list is expanded by
also including the people who have not disagreed to be
contacted. Most companies follow this process so as to not
disturb the consumers unnecessarily without their
permission.
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Phone-Mail-Phone: |
Phone-Mail-Phone is a research methodology where the
respondent is contacted initially by phone. Thereafter they
are sent a lengthy questionnaire through the mail. When the
respondent completes the questionnaire they are contacted by
phone again and the responses are collected. This is a
lengthy process and is used only where the research
requirements absolutely demand it. Also it is a good method
because enough ‘stroking’ is done to boost the morale of the
respondent.
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Photo Sort: |
Photo Sorting is a study methodology used for collecting
customer perceptions about a certain product or service. In
this technique the respondents are given pictures of several
different people and are asked to associate them with the
products or services that they think might be used by them.
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Physical Control: |
Physical Control is the maintenance of the consistency of
extraneous variables throughout the duration of a study so
as to prevent these variables from affecting the final
outcome.
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Pilot: |
Pilot is the preliminary research conducted before the
commencement of the actual study. This is done in order to
assess project logistics like the sample size, methodology,
procedure, time involvement and expenditure. The aim of a
pilot study is to streamline the actual research for
improvement in accuracy and efficiency.
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Placement Interview: |
Placement Interview is a study where a participant is given
a product to use and test in a PMSA (primary metropolitan
statistical area).
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Population: |
Population is the entire set of subjects that an experiment
is attempting to identify. Usually samples of the population
are used to represent a population because owing to the
large size, it is next to impossible to collect information
from each unit or subject in a population.
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Portal: |
Portal is a web interface for users to login and access
information pertaining to a certain website. Services
offered in portals include news, links, email, articles,
audios and videos, advertising, and entertainment
possibilities.
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Positioning: |
Positioning is basically the presentation of a product or
service to a certain segment of the population. It is the
way in which a product or service is introduced to its
target market audience. This includes pricing, packaging,
prestige, brand identity, store placement, customer
perception of the product or service as opposed to that of
the competitors’.
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Post Hoc Segmentation: |
Post Hoc Segmentation is dividing the markets using
empirical data to be able to identify different segments
within those markets.
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Pre-Coding: |
Pre-Coding is a technique of computing the data received
during an interview. This is done before the interviewing
process. Computer codes are created and added to the
questionnaire in order to accelerate the processing of data
of the respondent’s answers.
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Pre-Experimental Design: |
Pre-Experimental Design is a research design that is set
and does not have control over extraneous factors.
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Pre-Recruited Central-Location Test: |
Pre-Recruited Central-Location Test is an interview located
at a location that is convenient for the participants. The
participants are contacted and qualified or pre-screened
before the actual process of the interview.
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Pre-Test: |
Pre-Test is an evaluation of a questionnaire prior to its
distribution for the research process. The survey can be
sent to a smaller test sample to ensure that questions are
comprehended correctly and the responses generated are
sufficiently clear.
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Primary Research: |
Primary Research is the research conducted in which new
data is collected through the usage of fresh methodologies
in order to solve a marketing information discrepancy or to
resolve a strategic situation.
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Primary Sampling Units: |
Primary Sampling Units are the geographic units that are
decided to be covered under the scope of a survey.
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Product Concept Testing: |
Product Concept Testing is testing of a particular product
with a consumer group before the product is actually placed
in the market. This technique gives a fair idea of how the
product may fair in actual usage conditions and how well it
would be adapted by the consumers.
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Probing |
Probing is a process where follow-up questions are asked to
clarify the respondents intentions behind answering a
certain question in a certain way. This process also
verifies the correctness of answers given by the
respondents. This method is used in both quantitative and
qualitative research methodologies.
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Product Placement Study: |
Product Placement Study is a study in which the actual
consumers are recruited as respondents who volunteer to try
the products in their own homes. They are then asked
questions either through a written survey, phone interview
or face-to-face interview. The consumers use the product in
their daily life just as they would normally use any other
product. Since this is a study conducted outside a lab
setting, it is a kind of field study. It is also called a
product test.
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Product Positioning Research: |
Product Positioning Research is the study performed to
measure how brands are perceived compared by the customers
based on many attributes and dimensions. This study is
essential so that a product can be placed as per the cost
and other brand factors and can be properly positioned in a
target market.
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Product Pricing Research: |
Product Pricing Research studies the consumers’ sensitivity
to a range of prices for a particular product. This gives an
idea about how to price the products in a certain way so
that it is best acceptable by the customers, at the same
time doing enough justice to the brand.
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Product Prototype Tests: |
Product Prototype Tests are the tests conducted on the
basic preliminary samples or the archetypal samples of the
final products made. They are made in order to determine how
target consumers would react to early editions of new
products.
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Professional Respondent: |
Professional Respondent is a term associated with
respondents who participate often in market research studies
with different companies. They mostly participate in
research studies for the incentives rather than truly
contributing to the marketing research efforts. Generally
the companies do not encourage these respondents because
their opinions tend to corrupt the research results.
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Programmatic Research: |
Programmatic Research is the study performed for better
understanding more efficient marketing processes by looking
at market segmentations, conducting opportunity analysis,
and consumer attitudes and product usage studies.
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Projectability: |
Projectability is the application process of adjusting the
research results derived from the study of the samples and
applying them by extending them so that they apply to the
entire population. This process assumes and deduces that the
sample was a true representative of the population.
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Projective: |
Projective Techniques are the techniques used in focus
groups or interviews to stimulate the creative thinking
process of the participants. Through these techniques the
respondents are encouraged to enhance their level of
participation and accuracy of responses. Some techniques are
sentence completion, expressive drawing, word associations,
dialogue completion and others.
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Proportional Allocation: |
Proportional Allocation is a study where the proportions
between the sample, stratum and population are maintained.
The study is conducted with a sample wherein a proportion is
maintained between the sample and the size of the stratum
and between the sizes of the stratum compared to the size of
the population.
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Proprietary Research: |
Proprietary Research is the market research that is owned
exclusively by the client for whom the research is
conducted.
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Psychographics: |
Psychographics is the research process that is targeted to
explain why the consumers behave in the way they do.
Research is conducted by observing and analysing the
personality traits and values. This is a kind of lifestyle
research.
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