Market Research Glossary

A fully completed survey that has been screened for bias, insufficient responses and bots

The rate at which surveys are completed as compared to the number of surveys started by respondents

Empirical testing of new marketing strategies, advertising media or products at a relatively early stage of development

Multivariate analysis methods to determine customer preferences

Valuable information on the preferences, opinions, habits and emotions of your most valuable customers

Survey participants split into two groups–an experimental group and a control group that is neutral

Used to check whether the respondent has answered another question truthfully

The price you pay per completed survey

The main purpose is to measure customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and their causes

Systematic evaluation of surveys. Special statistical programmes such as SPSS, SAS or Statistika are usually used for data analysis of quantitative studies

Removing unqualified, biased or incomplete responses from a survey. This process improves data quality and protects against survey bias

Algorithm from the field of machine learning which clusters participants with the same response behavior in a variable of interest in homogeneous groups based on binary decisions

Also descriptive statistics. By means of graphs, cross-tabulations and statistical measures (e.g. mean and dispersion), descriptive statistics present the relevant information contained in the sample data. Descriptive statistics should be distinguished from inferential statistics

An individually assigned ID given to a Respondent’s device to differentiate them from other respondents. This ID, along with demographic information respondents give on their first survey, are collected and used for targeting and filtering purposes in the future

Method for analysing, for example, media use, shopping or consumer behaviour. The test person enters his or her behaviour relevant to the study (e.g. all media contacts) in a structured diary for a specified period of time

Question with only two possible answers (e.g. yes/no question)

Market research conducted using a self-service platform, as opposed to partnering with a market research agency or research consultant. Most DIY market research is conducted in-house to avoid the speed and cost limitations of working with outside entities

When a respondent begins a survey and doesn’t complete it. These are also called Starts. Drop-offs are not counted as completes and, therefore, clients won’t be charged for them

In online market research, the dropout rate provides information on how many participants called up an online questionnaire but did not complete it. Questionnaire design and appropriate incentives can help to reduce the dropout rate. The opposite is the completion rate

It can refer to a high degree of focus and interest in stimuli. In market research, engagement refers to how users interact with your survey. Does their time spent on each question indicate they are confused or don’t understand how to choose an answer? If so, your completion rate could be impacted.

Extent to which the same behaviour/responses of a test person are always evaluated in the same way

A feasibility study is designed to determine the likely success of a project, product or service. There are many factors that go into a feasibility study, including existing competitors, production limitations, timing, estimated pricing and more. Brands or researchers may conduct feasibility studies to determine the market interest in a new product or service

The survey period within the framework of a study (interview, observation)

Fielding refers to the distribution of the survey questionnaire

Respondents are directed to a specific point in the questionnaire based on their answer to a filter question

A method to determine the optimal price of a product or service by using a price-demand function

A visual representation that shows "hot" and "cold" sections of a market based on business activity.

A reasoned assumption regarding a certain question, which is tested through empirical investigations

The assessment of a company's or product's image by respondents based on indicators that reflect the image

The independence of test results from the person conducting the test and the spatial conditions

Information that is not provided directly by respondents, but is gathered from available data

Research methods concerned with the study of attitudes and behaviors based on implicit (unconscious, intuitive) knowledge

A primarily stimulus-driven, emotional purchase of a brand/product when rational control is undermined

Usability testing conducted at subjects' homes or workplaces rather than in a usability lab.

Market research conducted within a company

A measure of the frequency of occurrence of a characteristic in a population related to a point in time or time span

Inductive statistics used to test which conclusions can be drawn from the sample to the population, or groups can be analyzed with regard to differences

Market research institutes that specialize purely in conducting surveys

Any type of data collection and analysis conducted by an independent institute

Measure of how the items in a scale are related to each other. Internal consistency is a roundabout way to measure the accuracy of an instrument when no retest or parallel test is available to determine reliability. 

Extent to which the same test scores are interpreted in the same way

Can only be determined if there are multiple observers/raters. Indicates the agreement between observations/raters with respect to the same test subject

Characteristics whose differences and distances can be compared and interpreted. However, the characteristic values do not have an absolute zero point, which means that meaningful ratio statements are not possible. For example, temperature in degrees Celsius: The claim that 10°C is twice as warm as 5°C is not valid

An item refers to a single statement or question within a questionnaire. A battery of items is a set of statements or questions about the same subject with the same answer format, e.g. a series of questions that measure a customer's attitude towards a particular product

Classification of features according to their impact on customer satisfaction

Visual brand element in the sense of a key image. In a broader sense, key visuals also include brand names, imagery and product (packaging)

The higher the level of significance, the lower the probability that a measured result is based only on randomness. Increasing the level of significance, e.g. from 95% to 99%, lowers this probability of error (cf. error of the 1st kind), but at the same time increases the probability of committing an error of the 2nd kind

Specific form of rating scale for measuring attitudes in which the numerical anchoring of the respective scale levels is supported by a verbal anchoring

Researchers performing a longitudinal study will run the same survey many times over short or long periods, in an effort to observe how the opinions, behaviors or habits of the same population change over time

Survey of the same questions across multiple measurement time points. The aim of the longitudinal study is to observe developments (trends). Extrapolation of the longitudinal section into the future results in a forecast.

Margin of error, also called the confidence interval, is a statistical measurement of difference between survey results and the population value, expressed as a percentage.

Market research is an essential marketing tool and involves the targeted, systematic procurement and analysis of information and data, carried out according to scientific criteria, as the basis for procurement and sales policy decisions.

Trade–off Analysis based on a list of items / features / messages to calculate importance scores

The mean represents the central value of a characteristic distribution. Depending on the scale level, these are mode, median, or arithmetic or trimmed mean

The median (central value) denotes the middle of a characteristic distribution. Half of all values lie above, the other half below the median. The median is suitable for ordinal scales and metric scales, especially when outliers are present.

These studies involve launching the quantitative research project in two or more countries. It allows for analyzing data across markets, uncovering patterns, attitudes, similarities, differences and new opportunities.

Repeated participation of individual respondents in the same survey, leading to biased results.

Key figure that correlates with a company's success, calculated by the difference between promoters and detractors of the company in question.

Equal-ranking answers, no gradation possible between different characteristics.

Sampling method that excludes some of the population in the sample, making it difficult to determine characteristics of the population.

Quality criterion of a study, independent of framework conditions and distorting third-party factors.

Recruiting method using classic offline methods such as face-to-face, telephone, or postal.

Standardized survey in which several different clients share the basic costs.

Address pool of potential participants in online surveys.

Cost-effective method of market research with high accessibility, but with potential for self-selection bias.

Online panels collect responses either via a fully opt-in structure, including a signup page, or start with some form of digital outreach to potential respondents who have agreed to take surveys in advance. Panelists are then recruited to participate in specific surveys, for example via email invitation to the page of the panel provider. Appinio avoids the pitfalls of traditional online panels by asking users to take surveys while they are using apps or games in real-time, increasing data quality and reducing biased responses.

Survey conducted via the Internet using programmed online questionnaires that can be processed by local browsers. The respondent goes to the website where the questionnaire is stored and can fill in the questions online. Advantages and disadvantages of online surveys: The main advantages of online surveys are, in particular, the possibility of convenient, program-controlled filter guidance, the possibility of randomizing the order of questions or answer categories, and automated error correction. Specific target groups that are difficult to recruit offline can often be reached better online than by telephone.

Questions that do not have a set response format. Respondents' answers are recorded as full text and later combined into categories and quantified if necessary (coding). Open-ended questions prevent answers from being "put in the mouth" of the respondent and loosen up the interview. Most standardized surveys also include some open-ended questions.

Also demoscopy. Neighboring discipline to market research. Opinion research examines the attitudes and moods of the population with regard to economic, political, cultural and other issues. There are overlaps with market research if the opinions collected are relevant to corporate decisions. A special form of opinion research is election research.

Order effects can occur when several answer options are listed and when test material (e.g., products, advertisements) is presented and can lead to a distortion of the results. As a rule, the first (cf. primacy effect) and last (cf. recency effect) answers or templates stick best in the memory. Therefore, with a large amount of stimuli, a memory aid should always be present. One means of reducing sequence effects in standardized surveys is randomization.

Also rank scale: Sortable characteristics i.e. different answers can be put in a meaningful order without there having to be equal distances between these answers (e.g. school grades, school-leaving qualifications).

An outlier is an extreme measurement that can lead to misinterpretation in data analysis (e.g., the mean).

The sum of all behavioral changes resulting from increased or repeated participation in surveys.

Quality assurance instrument for panel surveys.

A collection of potential respondents who have agreed to take a survey in advance of the survey’s fielding process.

The same persons are presented with two tests/questionnaires that are very similar to each other.

Piping allows researchers to personalize surveys by ‘piping’ an answer from a previous question into a later question.

The population is the total group of respondents who you attempted to survey.

POS research (point of sale research) is concerned with researching specific customer behavior at the POS by combining quantitative and qualitative methods.

Measurement of the effect of an advertising medium, marketing or advertising strategy during or after actual use for the purpose of monitoring success.

Empirical testing of advertising media, marketing strategies, products, etc. before they are used or introduced.

Primary data refers to the data collected by researchers directly from respondents using surveys, interviews or direct observation.

Primary research refers to the methodology of using only data collected directly from respondents.

Probability sampling refers to a randomized method of respondent selection.

Probability is the chance of a particular event occurring.

Product tests are part of the proven repertoire of methods such as the conjoint analysis used in market research. 

Psychographics seek to explain why people do what they do. They are often culled from qualitative studies and aim to understand attitudes, habits, and challenges.

Public opinion refers to the opinions of a majority of people in a certain population. Polling the public opinion requires taking as broad of a study as possible and asking direct, quantifiable questions about specific issues.

The qualification rate is the estimated percentage of people you expect to qualify for your survey based on your targeting criteria, screening questions and other filters.

Qualitative survey questions aim to gather data that is not easily quantified such as attitudes, habits, and challenges. They are often used in an interview-style setting to observe behavioral cues that may help direct the questions.

Quantitative research is about collecting information that can be expressed numerically. Quantitative research is usually conducted through surveys or web analytics, often including large volumes of people to ensure trends are statistically representative.

A questionnaire is the list of questions you plan to ask your respondents. There are many different types of survey questions one can ask, depending on the survey goals.

Quotas are limits you can set for the number of responses your survey collects from a particular group. They can be set across the entire survey or on a given question or segment.

Randomized presentation of items or answer specifications, for example within online or telephone surveys. In particular, it is intended to counteract approval or rejection tendencies in item batteries and response bias due to sequence effects in selection lists.

Values correspond to interval scaled values, but here there is an absolute zero point (e.g. length, price, age). The scale level of the measured values must be taken into account in the selection of statistical tests and in calculations of characteristic values.

Classic quality criterion of a study (in addition to objectivity and validity). Measure of the formal accuracy or reliability of a measurement. For example, a measurement with high reliability produces the same result when repeated (under otherwise identical conditions)

Is always given if each element of the population (i.e. all potential respondents) has a clearly defined and non-zero probability of being included in the sample ("random selection"). Only representative samples provide a true reflection of the population and allow the result to be generalized to the population.

Term originating in research for persons who undergo scientific tests. The term is sometimes also used for respondents or participants in market research surveys.

Proportion of respondents within the addressed group as opposed to the proportion of non-respondents

Reliability when a measurement is repeated

Number of completes your survey receives

Different scale levels in a survey

Fixed response format of a standardized survey

Short questionnaire to understand the number of participants available in a certain target group

Summary or synthesis of existing research towards a new research goal

Separating larger audiences into smaller segments based on similar tastes, interests, perceptions and other secondary factors

Form of rating scale in which two opposite adjectives are placed at the two ends of a scale

Survey method used in performance management to understand the amount of business a company gets from specific customers

Holistic research into the experience, perception and decision-making behavior of customers (shoppers) in the real purchase situation at the POS (point-of-sale).

Statistical significance of a study result. A result is significant if, with a certain probability, it is not based on randomness.

Respondents are more likely to express opinions and attitudes that they assume are in line with the social norms and values of society - and thus also those of the interviewer.

The part of a questionnaire in which the respondent's sociodemographic data are collected, e.g., age, gender, income, household size.

A form of parallel test reliability in which a test/questionnaire is split in half and the two halves are then correlated.

A questionnaire delivered either in person or online that a researcher administers in service of a research study.

An instrument used to present pictorial templates of objects (e.g., products, advertisements, logos, packaging) in arbitrarily short time segments and for arbitrarily short time intervals.

Group of consumers that a company or supplier considers as potential buyers for its brand/product (determined via market segmentation).

Refers to the criteria you select to screen potential survey respondents. Once targeting is selected, a population is created and your survey is delivered.

A relatively self-contained submarket in which a new product is tested in real life.

Premises set up for special tests or surveys, usually in central locations in a city or region. Test studios usually also handle the recruitment of respondents.

Uses the same questionnaire, delivered over time, to track brand awareness, monitor customer satisfaction, study consumer interest in new products or services, analyze the effectiveness of advertising creative and more.

Determines which product portfolio, marketing mix or product variants appeal to the highest number of customers.

Tests the appeal, aesthetics and usability of online offerings or corresponding prototypes. The objective is to design a product that is optimized for different user groups and that supports all users as effectively as possible in their actions.

Classic quality criterion of a survey (in addition to objectivity and reliability). Validity indicates how accurately a survey measures what it is supposed to measure. Important forms of validity are internal and external validity.

Conducted to determine consumer price preferences. What is the maximum amount of money a consumer would pay for a particular product? And how much higher can the price be to still buy the product?

Measure used in statistical data analysis to structurally align the net sample with the population under study.