C
Call Disposition:
The tabulation of the outcome of calls.
Call Record Sheet:
A working document that interviewers use to record which numbers they have tried as well as the results of the attempt.
Callback:
Pursuing contact with a person that was not contacted on the first attempt or used to describe a follow-up with someone where contact was established (after an interview).
Cartoon Tests:
A technique that allows participants to compose dialogue for a drawn character within a cartoon.
Categorical Data:
Responses with no numeric value to one another. Such response could be hair color, or eye color.
Category Usage:
Certain products or services among a population requiring a study. This is an incident rate for that product or service. For example, the category usage of powder laundry detergent is 40% of the population that uses laundry detergent.
Causal Research:
Research that attempts to explain the relationship between two variables (if A cause s B to occur).
Causation:
The conditional statement of inferring that the change in a single variable is responsible for a resulting change in another variable.
CCENSPAC:
The United States Census Bureau’s computer program to aid in the 1980 census.
Cell Size:
The most basic unit that can be varied during a study.
Census:
A survey that is administered to an entire population.
Census Areas:
Zones identified by the United States Census Bureau. There are four census regions and nine census divisions.
Census Divisions:
The groups of states that are included in the nine census divisions 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 groups of states that are included in the four census regions 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.
Census Tract:
Segments that identify similar social and economic households within the ZIP code group. Tracts usually include 2,500 to 8,000 households.
Census Undercount:
Percentage of Americans that were not accounted for by the census due to not answering the census.
Central Limit Theorem:
Theory that states that if you have a collection of a large number of sample means, the means will have a normal distribution regardless of the population used for the sample.
Central-Location Study:
A study that takes place at a physical site that is convenient for all participants to access.
Centroid:
Points on a map that indicate the center of the 260,000 block groups and enumeration districts that exist in the United States.
Chi-Square:
A statistical test that measures significance of the accuracy between the expected distribution and the observed distribution.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA):
A 1998 law passed in the United States that protects children on the Internet by setting guidelines and regulations for websites that attract children or could deal with children of the United States in fashion.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPR):
The rules that outline the regulation used for COPPA. An example is the rule that requires privacy statements to be linked on all websites that children of the United States might visit.
Choice Modeling:
Discrete choice analysis involves conjoint research in which the results must match closely with the current market responses.
Choropleth Maps:
Maps that use shading to specify certain characteristics in geographical areas with colors and shading.
Churn:
This is the amount of respondents that leave a panel during a specific time frame.
Clarifying:
A technique used to follow up on open-ended responses by asking participants to further explain their response to make it clearer. Can also be referred to as probing.
Click Rate:
A percentage measuring the amount of people that click on an ad compared to the amount of people that are exposed to the ad.
Clicks and Mortar:
These are companies that exist both in a physical location and on the Internet. E-tailers are clicks and mortar companies if they use both stores and websites to conduct business, but are considered pure-play if they only exist online. Clicks and mortar evolved from the terms bricks and mortar which describes physical location stores only.
Clinical Focus Groups:
Focus groups that are looking to expose a consumer’s behaviors and the moderator uses techniques to explore the participants subconscious motivation. Focus group software can simplify this process for online research.
Closed-End Question:
A question that offers the respondent answers from which they must choose from.
Cluster:
Describes a group of homes that are assumed to have similar demographic, social, and economic characteristics as one another within a neighborhood.
Cluster Analysis:
A statistical technique that helps in determining which category individuals of a population belong to. Multiple characteristics are used to determine the groups, and differences within a category need to be less than differences between categories. Cluster analysis is a good demographic tool for consumer segmentation in marketing research.
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:
A process used to quantify data so that it can be used to statistical analysis and data processing.
Coefficient of Determination:
A statistics term used with regression. The coefficient represents the percentage that the independent variable explains in the dependent variable.
Cognitive Component of Attitudes:
The interpretation of a particular attitude projected at a person, object, or event.
Cognitive Dissonance:
The emotion that runs through a consumer after they have made a major purchase and begin to rethink their purchase when new alternatives are exposed. Consumers will try to rationalize their purchase by focusing on the advantages to the product that they bought.
Cohort:
Those in a study with similar demographic characteristics.
Cohort Measures:
Recording and analyzing a cohort’s activities for an extended period of time.
Collinearity:
A bias in statistical procedure due to the correlation of multiple independent variables that influence a single dependent variable. This makes it difficult to recognize which independent variable is really causing the change in the dependent variable.
Comparative Scales:
Scales that require respondents to judge an object, concept, or person as compared to another in the same category.
Complement of Event "A":
A group containing all events that do not occur in event A.
Completes:
Interviews that have been completed.
Completion Rate:
A percentage representing the number of qualified respondents involved with completed interviews or surveys.
Computer-Aided Personal Interviewing (CAPI):
An interview that is administered through a computer-based survey. CAPI software can streamline the interview process.
Computer-Aided Self-Administered Interviewing (CASI):
A computer-based survey that respondents complete usually at a central location after being recruited.
Computer-Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI):
Interviews that are conducted over the telephone between a consumer and a computer. CATI software will increase call center productivity.
Computer-Aided Web Interviewing (CAWI):
A form of interviewing that is conducted over the Internet.
Concentric Circle:
A geometric study area with a common center. Also called a ring.
Concept Description:
The brief summary to describe a new product or service.
Concept Testing:
Gauging market responses new ideas or their implementation.
Conceptual Mapping:
A qualitative technique used to understand how participants view products or services by asking them to assign the products/services to certain areas of a diagram. Primarily this is used to stimulate a discussion on the certain products or services and why they are viewed a particular way.
Conclusions:
The findings that are presented in the final report of a research project. A conclusion usually includes an explanation of what was uncovered by the conducted research.
Concomitant Variation:
The observed relationship between causes and effects and the degree to which they occur together.
Concurrent Validity:
Using past results to predict a current very similar project because of valid measurement techniques.
Conditional Probability:
Additional information offered that changes the initial probability of an event occurring.
Confidence Intervals:
A statistical range that is placed to ensure that the true population parameter will be included in the survey results.
Confidence Level:
A probability that is used to determine, with confidence, that the true population value is represented in the statistical distribution.
Confounded:
The result of an independent and an extraneous variable indistinguishably affecting a dependent variable. Control groups are often used to prevent confounding in research.
Conjoint Analysis:
A way to quantify consumer’s values associated with different product attributes using multivariate techniques. Participants compare products to establish preferences and can then explain the importance of different attributes. Functional brands benefit more from conjoint analysis than do fashionable brands as the analysis relies on utility theory and consumer rationality. There are several conjoint analysis tools.
Conjoint Association:
A technique that allows moderators to present hypothetical products or services with different attributes to respondents in an effort to stimulate conversation on the importance of certain attributes to products or services to help the researchers understand the value associated with each attribute.
Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA):
A group made up of primary metropolitan statistical areas (PMSA), examples include Minneapolis-St. Paul. CMSAs can be subdivided into metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).
Constant Sum Scales:
Scales asking participants to assign their individual values perceptions of certain attributes so that the sum of all attribute values equals a certain number of points (100 is a common number).
Constitutive Definition:
A construct is defined by other constructs in the set and the relationship that occurs between the constructs. This helps in setting boundaries for constructs.
Construct:
An idea that powers research, for example, hypotheses or concepts are considered constructs.
Construct Validity:
The accuracy of the construct, determined by observations and measurements, that allows legitimate inferences to be made from the construct.
Consumer Behavior:
The buying trends and habits of consumers in the purchasing and usage of goods and services.
Consumer Drawings:
A qualitative method in which participants are asked to express their feelings or perceptions about a product by drawing it.
Consumer Expenditure:
The dollar amount that expresses what consumers put toward a purchase on goods and services.
Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX):
An ongoing survey administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that monitors consumer expenditures.
Consumer Orientation:
After identifying target markets, it is the process of finding specific firms or individuals that might be interested in purchasing the company’s product or service.
Consumer Price Index (CPI):
A way of measuring inflation that is computed by taking a basket of goods and services and determining the price of those goods and services in a base year and the current price. The values can then be compared over several years to determine the increase in nominal value of the goods and services.
Consumer Unit:
A household represented by an individual, related families, or unrelated roommates that make consumer purchasing decisions together.
Contact:
When the interviewer has actual interaction with a potential research respondent.
Contact Rate:
This is the amount of respondents reached for a survey that are responsible members of the household.
Contamination:
A sample group that possesses an individual or group that does not represent the population.
Content Analysis:
A process used to examine a prepared report based on predetermined criteria to ensure that all required information is included in the write-up. Content analysis is often applied to advertising copy.
Content Integration:
The act of combining advertising information with actual web content rather than placing an ad on the site. An example would be to write a report featuring an advertiser to gain exposure for the advertising company by mentioning it and talking about its features.
Continuous Variable:
A variable that has the potential to represent infinite numbers falling between a given interval. Continuous variables are usually used as part of a measuring process. Grade Point Averages are continuous variables (can exist anywhere between 0.0 and 4.0).
Control & Test:
Two study groups are comprised of members from a similar population. One study group will interact with a stimulus while the second study group will not receive that stimulus. The first group is the test group, and the second group is the control group.
Control Cell:
Otherwise known as the control group. The control cell does not receive the stimulus that the test group receives. The control cell is compared to the results of the test group.
Controlled Substitutions:
Replacing current subjects in a study with a different subject that is consistent with the parameters of the initial subject.
Convenience Sample:
A non-random sample that is collected based on those units that are made easily available to the researchers. There are no quotas or qualifications necessary for sample selection in a convenience sample.
Convergent Validity:
Understanding how constructs that should be related to one another actually are related to one another through measurement processes that prove the relationships.
Co-op Payment:
Compensation paid to research participants as an incentive for participation in focus groups, interviews, or surveys. The difficulty level of recruiting participants correlates to the amount that respondents receive. Also referred to as an honorarium or incentive.
Cooperation Rate:
The percentage of qualified respondents that actually participate in the research project. The cooperation rate is subject to the research topic, length of interview and other various factors.
Copy Testing:
The process of determining the level of understanding, impact, awareness and credibility that your advertisement generates.
Corporate Marketing Research Department:
An internal department that conducts research in order to sustain and improve their company’s marketing effectiveness.
Correlation Analysis:
A statistical technique that helps in determining the strength of the relationship between variables.
Cost Per Interview (CPI):
The dollar value of completing an interview in a survey research project.
Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO):
CASRO is a trade organization for survey research. They provide guidelines, codes of ethics and much more.
CPH:
Completes per hour.
Criterion Related Validity:
The effectiveness of forecasting a criterion variable using a measurement instrument.
Criterion Variables:
Variables in a study that the researchers are examining in an effort to understand the causes behind past performances as well as predicting future results. Can be called the dependent variable as well.
Critical Industry Restriction:
Respondents might be disqualified for the survey research based upon their industry of employment. It is typical that the research study excludes those participants that are employed in the industry related to the research subject matter.
Cross-Elasticity:
Consumer behavior that proves which products are acceptable substitutes for one another. Marketers attempt to reduce cross-elasticity by differentiating their products and by establishing brand equity.
Cross-Tabulation:
A process used to analyze data that attempts to better understand the results of a survey by comparing the answers of one question to the way each respondent answered one or more questions on the rest of the survey. Crosstab can generate statistical outputs from research tables.
Current Population Survey (CPS):
A monthly survey administered by the United States Census Bureau to 60,000 households in an effort to monitor changes that occur between the decennial censuses.
Custom Marketing Research:
Market research that is tailored to a specific client’s needs.
Customer Relationship Management/Marketing (CRM):
A method of identifying and creating a relationship with long-term customers through customer service techniques that track information about a given customer such as their activities and preferences. Customer feedback research is important intelligence for improved CRM.
Customer Satisfaction Research:
Conducted research to better understand how satisfied customers are with particular products or services and the attributes of the product or service.
The tabulation of the outcome of calls.
Call Record Sheet:
A working document that interviewers use to record which numbers they have tried as well as the results of the attempt.
Callback:
Pursuing contact with a person that was not contacted on the first attempt or used to describe a follow-up with someone where contact was established (after an interview).
Cartoon Tests:
A technique that allows participants to compose dialogue for a drawn character within a cartoon.
Categorical Data:
Responses with no numeric value to one another. Such response could be hair color, or eye color.
Category Usage:
Certain products or services among a population requiring a study. This is an incident rate for that product or service. For example, the category usage of powder laundry detergent is 40% of the population that uses laundry detergent.
Causal Research:
Research that attempts to explain the relationship between two variables (if A cause s B to occur).
Causation:
The conditional statement of inferring that the change in a single variable is responsible for a resulting change in another variable.
CCENSPAC:
The United States Census Bureau’s computer program to aid in the 1980 census.
Cell Size:
The most basic unit that can be varied during a study.
Census:
A survey that is administered to an entire population.
Census Areas:
Zones identified by the United States Census Bureau. There are four census regions and nine census divisions.
Census Divisions:
The groups of states that are included in the nine census divisions 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 groups of states that are included in the four census regions 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.
Census Tract:
Segments that identify similar social and economic households within the ZIP code group. Tracts usually include 2,500 to 8,000 households.
Census Undercount:
Percentage of Americans that were not accounted for by the census due to not answering the census.
Central Limit Theorem:
Theory that states that if you have a collection of a large number of sample means, the means will have a normal distribution regardless of the population used for the sample.
Central-Location Study:
A study that takes place at a physical site that is convenient for all participants to access.
Centroid:
Points on a map that indicate the center of the 260,000 block groups and enumeration districts that exist in the United States.
Chi-Square:
A statistical test that measures significance of the accuracy between the expected distribution and the observed distribution.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA):
A 1998 law passed in the United States that protects children on the Internet by setting guidelines and regulations for websites that attract children or could deal with children of the United States in fashion.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPR):
The rules that outline the regulation used for COPPA. An example is the rule that requires privacy statements to be linked on all websites that children of the United States might visit.
Choice Modeling:
Discrete choice analysis involves conjoint research in which the results must match closely with the current market responses.
Choropleth Maps:
Maps that use shading to specify certain characteristics in geographical areas with colors and shading.
Churn:
This is the amount of respondents that leave a panel during a specific time frame.
Clarifying:
A technique used to follow up on open-ended responses by asking participants to further explain their response to make it clearer. Can also be referred to as probing.
Click Rate:
A percentage measuring the amount of people that click on an ad compared to the amount of people that are exposed to the ad.
Clicks and Mortar:
These are companies that exist both in a physical location and on the Internet. E-tailers are clicks and mortar companies if they use both stores and websites to conduct business, but are considered pure-play if they only exist online. Clicks and mortar evolved from the terms bricks and mortar which describes physical location stores only.
Clinical Focus Groups:
Focus groups that are looking to expose a consumer’s behaviors and the moderator uses techniques to explore the participants subconscious motivation. Focus group software can simplify this process for online research.
Closed-End Question:
A question that offers the respondent answers from which they must choose from.
Cluster:
Describes a group of homes that are assumed to have similar demographic, social, and economic characteristics as one another within a neighborhood.
Cluster Analysis:
A statistical technique that helps in determining which category individuals of a population belong to. Multiple characteristics are used to determine the groups, and differences within a category need to be less than differences between categories. Cluster analysis is a good demographic tool for consumer segmentation in marketing research.
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:
A process used to quantify data so that it can be used to statistical analysis and data processing.
Coefficient of Determination:
A statistics term used with regression. The coefficient represents the percentage that the independent variable explains in the dependent variable.
Cognitive Component of Attitudes:
The interpretation of a particular attitude projected at a person, object, or event.
Cognitive Dissonance:
The emotion that runs through a consumer after they have made a major purchase and begin to rethink their purchase when new alternatives are exposed. Consumers will try to rationalize their purchase by focusing on the advantages to the product that they bought.
Cohort:
Those in a study with similar demographic characteristics.
Cohort Measures:
Recording and analyzing a cohort’s activities for an extended period of time.
Collinearity:
A bias in statistical procedure due to the correlation of multiple independent variables that influence a single dependent variable. This makes it difficult to recognize which independent variable is really causing the change in the dependent variable.
Comparative Scales:
Scales that require respondents to judge an object, concept, or person as compared to another in the same category.
Complement of Event "A":
A group containing all events that do not occur in event A.
Completes:
Interviews that have been completed.
Completion Rate:
A percentage representing the number of qualified respondents involved with completed interviews or surveys.
Computer-Aided Personal Interviewing (CAPI):
An interview that is administered through a computer-based survey. CAPI software can streamline the interview process.
Computer-Aided Self-Administered Interviewing (CASI):
A computer-based survey that respondents complete usually at a central location after being recruited.
Computer-Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI):
Interviews that are conducted over the telephone between a consumer and a computer. CATI software will increase call center productivity.
Computer-Aided Web Interviewing (CAWI):
A form of interviewing that is conducted over the Internet.
Concentric Circle:
A geometric study area with a common center. Also called a ring.
Concept Description:
The brief summary to describe a new product or service.
Concept Testing:
Gauging market responses new ideas or their implementation.
Conceptual Mapping:
A qualitative technique used to understand how participants view products or services by asking them to assign the products/services to certain areas of a diagram. Primarily this is used to stimulate a discussion on the certain products or services and why they are viewed a particular way.
Conclusions:
The findings that are presented in the final report of a research project. A conclusion usually includes an explanation of what was uncovered by the conducted research.
Concomitant Variation:
The observed relationship between causes and effects and the degree to which they occur together.
Concurrent Validity:
Using past results to predict a current very similar project because of valid measurement techniques.
Conditional Probability:
Additional information offered that changes the initial probability of an event occurring.
Confidence Intervals:
A statistical range that is placed to ensure that the true population parameter will be included in the survey results.
Confidence Level:
A probability that is used to determine, with confidence, that the true population value is represented in the statistical distribution.
Confounded:
The result of an independent and an extraneous variable indistinguishably affecting a dependent variable. Control groups are often used to prevent confounding in research.
Conjoint Analysis:
A way to quantify consumer’s values associated with different product attributes using multivariate techniques. Participants compare products to establish preferences and can then explain the importance of different attributes. Functional brands benefit more from conjoint analysis than do fashionable brands as the analysis relies on utility theory and consumer rationality. There are several conjoint analysis tools.
Conjoint Association:
A technique that allows moderators to present hypothetical products or services with different attributes to respondents in an effort to stimulate conversation on the importance of certain attributes to products or services to help the researchers understand the value associated with each attribute.
Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA):
A group made up of primary metropolitan statistical areas (PMSA), examples include Minneapolis-St. Paul. CMSAs can be subdivided into metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).
Constant Sum Scales:
Scales asking participants to assign their individual values perceptions of certain attributes so that the sum of all attribute values equals a certain number of points (100 is a common number).
Constitutive Definition:
A construct is defined by other constructs in the set and the relationship that occurs between the constructs. This helps in setting boundaries for constructs.
Construct:
An idea that powers research, for example, hypotheses or concepts are considered constructs.
Construct Validity:
The accuracy of the construct, determined by observations and measurements, that allows legitimate inferences to be made from the construct.
Consumer Behavior:
The buying trends and habits of consumers in the purchasing and usage of goods and services.
Consumer Drawings:
A qualitative method in which participants are asked to express their feelings or perceptions about a product by drawing it.
Consumer Expenditure:
The dollar amount that expresses what consumers put toward a purchase on goods and services.
Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX):
An ongoing survey administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that monitors consumer expenditures.
Consumer Orientation:
After identifying target markets, it is the process of finding specific firms or individuals that might be interested in purchasing the company’s product or service.
Consumer Price Index (CPI):
A way of measuring inflation that is computed by taking a basket of goods and services and determining the price of those goods and services in a base year and the current price. The values can then be compared over several years to determine the increase in nominal value of the goods and services.
Consumer Unit:
A household represented by an individual, related families, or unrelated roommates that make consumer purchasing decisions together.
Contact:
When the interviewer has actual interaction with a potential research respondent.
Contact Rate:
This is the amount of respondents reached for a survey that are responsible members of the household.
Contamination:
A sample group that possesses an individual or group that does not represent the population.
Content Analysis:
A process used to examine a prepared report based on predetermined criteria to ensure that all required information is included in the write-up. Content analysis is often applied to advertising copy.
Content Integration:
The act of combining advertising information with actual web content rather than placing an ad on the site. An example would be to write a report featuring an advertiser to gain exposure for the advertising company by mentioning it and talking about its features.
Continuous Variable:
A variable that has the potential to represent infinite numbers falling between a given interval. Continuous variables are usually used as part of a measuring process. Grade Point Averages are continuous variables (can exist anywhere between 0.0 and 4.0).
Control & Test:
Two study groups are comprised of members from a similar population. One study group will interact with a stimulus while the second study group will not receive that stimulus. The first group is the test group, and the second group is the control group.
Control Cell:
Otherwise known as the control group. The control cell does not receive the stimulus that the test group receives. The control cell is compared to the results of the test group.
Controlled Substitutions:
Replacing current subjects in a study with a different subject that is consistent with the parameters of the initial subject.
Convenience Sample:
A non-random sample that is collected based on those units that are made easily available to the researchers. There are no quotas or qualifications necessary for sample selection in a convenience sample.
Convergent Validity:
Understanding how constructs that should be related to one another actually are related to one another through measurement processes that prove the relationships.
Co-op Payment:
Compensation paid to research participants as an incentive for participation in focus groups, interviews, or surveys. The difficulty level of recruiting participants correlates to the amount that respondents receive. Also referred to as an honorarium or incentive.
Cooperation Rate:
The percentage of qualified respondents that actually participate in the research project. The cooperation rate is subject to the research topic, length of interview and other various factors.
Copy Testing:
The process of determining the level of understanding, impact, awareness and credibility that your advertisement generates.
Corporate Marketing Research Department:
An internal department that conducts research in order to sustain and improve their company’s marketing effectiveness.
Correlation Analysis:
A statistical technique that helps in determining the strength of the relationship between variables.
Cost Per Interview (CPI):
The dollar value of completing an interview in a survey research project.
Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO):
CASRO is a trade organization for survey research. They provide guidelines, codes of ethics and much more.
CPH:
Completes per hour.
Criterion Related Validity:
The effectiveness of forecasting a criterion variable using a measurement instrument.
Criterion Variables:
Variables in a study that the researchers are examining in an effort to understand the causes behind past performances as well as predicting future results. Can be called the dependent variable as well.
Critical Industry Restriction:
Respondents might be disqualified for the survey research based upon their industry of employment. It is typical that the research study excludes those participants that are employed in the industry related to the research subject matter.
Cross-Elasticity:
Consumer behavior that proves which products are acceptable substitutes for one another. Marketers attempt to reduce cross-elasticity by differentiating their products and by establishing brand equity.
Cross-Tabulation:
A process used to analyze data that attempts to better understand the results of a survey by comparing the answers of one question to the way each respondent answered one or more questions on the rest of the survey. Crosstab can generate statistical outputs from research tables.
Current Population Survey (CPS):
A monthly survey administered by the United States Census Bureau to 60,000 households in an effort to monitor changes that occur between the decennial censuses.
Custom Marketing Research:
Market research that is tailored to a specific client’s needs.
Customer Relationship Management/Marketing (CRM):
A method of identifying and creating a relationship with long-term customers through customer service techniques that track information about a given customer such as their activities and preferences. Customer feedback research is important intelligence for improved CRM.
Customer Satisfaction Research:
Conducted research to better understand how satisfied customers are with particular products or services and the attributes of the product or service.
