SURVEY METHODOLOGY

The key to delivering high resolution research is the methodology.

Some survey companies talk a great deal about their research results, and not so much about how they arrive at them. A different approach is taken at MRI, where the focus is first on reliability. We know that looking only at research results will tell you little or nothing about their reliability, about how well they reflect the reality of the marketplace.

For the Survey of the American Consumer™, the focus on reliability calls for a methodology based on in-person, in-home interviews. At every stage of the research process - from recruiting respondents, to interviewing them in their homes, to working with them to understand and complete a comprehensive product and lifestyle questionnaire - MRI relies on direct personal interaction to advance the reliability of the Survey of the American Consumer™ research results.

The reason is simple: technology has not yet found a way to gather the detailed and reliable consumer information on print usage that in-person, in-home interviews make possible.

Personal interviews generate a level of detail and confidence that other data collection methods cannot match. Telephones, for example, are a great tool for conducting short, focused surveys, but not as useful for long, in-depth interviews. With in-home interviews, more time can be spent with respondents, visual aids such as magazine logos can be used to help clarify answers and jog memories, and interviewers can ask more, and more complex, questions, probing for accurate and meaningful responses - all while verifying that what they are told agrees with what they see.

At MRI we publish not just the results of our research, but the methodology used to get those results.

The Technical Guide for the Survey of the American Consumer™ is available here.