Mediamark Research 
Spring 2005 Technical Guide

Psychographic Ascription

MRI has historically released psychographic data for only those respondents who have completed all or almost all of the battery of questions in that topic area (e.g., Buying Styles). This restriction necessarily led to a unique sample balancing solution for each of the batteries and, in turn, unique weights for each psychographics sub-sample. Accessing these bases and unique weights had the potential to cause confusion and tabulation errors among our users. Beginning in Fall 04, MRI employed a new ascription procedure that allowed users to access almost all of MRI’s psychographic batteries using a single population weight.

The new ascription procedure uses the following three-step approach to ascribing items for a given psychographic battery:

    (1) For those who filled out at least one item within the battery, the missing items are ascribed collectively based on respondents’ responses to other psychographic items, as well as their responses to both demographic and behavioral questions

    (2) For those who returned the product booklet and did not answer any items within the battery, the missing items are ascribed collectively based on respondents’ responses to only demographic and behavioral questions

    (3) For those who did not return the booklet, all psychographic batteries are ascribed collectively based on MRI’s traditional booklet ascription procedure.

This ascription procedure is currently used for the following psychographic batteries:
Intent to Purchase, Buying Styles, Interest in Advertising, Health Attitudes, Consumer Confidence, Automotive, Food, Finance, Vacation Travel, Technology, Media.

The following tables disclose for each of these batteries the amount of ascription done both on average by item (column: average item recovered ascribed) and for the total booklet (not recovered ascribed). These are the two major steps of ascription described above..

 

Intent to Purchase Battery - 45 Items in W51, 46 Items in W52

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51 7,879 5,328 2,551 5,124 57.15% 61.41% 59.0%
Wave 52 7,617 5,238 2,379 4,992 56.84% 61.04% 58.5%

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Buying Styles Battery - 43 Items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51           7,879          6,343         1,536 5,124 47.36% 57.43% 51.2%
Wave 52           7,617          6,201         1,416 4,992 47.36% 56.71% 50.8%

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Health Care Battery - 10 Items in W51, 11 Items in W52

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51 7,879 6,048 1,831 5,124 50.30% 54.87% 53.5%
Wave 52 7,617 5,933 1,684 4,992 49.85% 54.66% 52.9%

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Consumer Confidence Battery - 4 Items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51            7,879            6,640          1,239    5,124 48.67% 49.32% 48.9%
Wave 52            7,617            6,436          1,182    4,992 48.70% 49.14% 49.0%

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Interest in Advertising Battery - 56 Items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51           7,879          5,345         2,534          5,124 54.78% 64.09% 58.9%
Wave 52           7,617          5,218         2,399          4,992 53.99% 64.29% 58.7%

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Automotive Battery - 20 Items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51            7,879          5,834          2,045          5,124 53.56% 55.75% 55.1%
Wave 52            7,617          5,720          1,897          4,992 53.03% 55.16% 54.7%

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Food Battery - 18 Items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51          7,879           6,409          1,470          5,124 49.10% 51.34% 50.7%
Wave 52          7,617           6,271          1,346          4,992 48.77% 50.91% 50.3%

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Finance Battery - 16 Items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51           7,879         5,745         2,134         5,124 54.63% 56.44% 55.8%
Wave 52           7,617         5,683         1,935         4,992 53.60% 55.50% 55.0%

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Vacation Travel Battery - 18 Items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51         7,879         5,538         2,341         5,124 55.84% 58.03% 57.4%
Wave 52         7,617         5,482         2,135         4,992 55.26% 57.20% 56.6%

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Technology Battery - 12 Items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51           7,879         5,936         1,943          5,124 53.44% 54.76% 54.4%
Wave 52           7,617         5,860         1,757          4,992 52.66% 53.97% 53.5%

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Media Battery - 10 Items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate
Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 51             7,879             5,819  2,060 5,124 51.90% 62.71% 55.2%
Wave 52             7,617             5,757 1,860 4,992 51.14% 62.53% 54.4%

 

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For more information regarding Mediamark Research, contact MRI at info@mediamark.com
Copyright 2005,  Mediamark Research