Sunday, October 17, 2010

Sample Universe Case Study:

Sample Universe Case Study:

Respondent Qualifying Criteria


  • Respondent must be an amateur video and audio software editor.
  • Respondent must own a video and/or audio editing software product; purchased under $200.

We could either go out to the general population to see what percentage would qualify or we could use available targeting like:

Available Counts/Possible Targeting Options


  • Mac Users – As a group, they do more editing and creative manipulation projects than PC users
  • Very Interested in Computers and Very interested in Fine Arts – higher incidence of editing
  • Very Interested in Computers and Very interested in Music – slightly higher incidence of editing
  • Very Interested in Computers and Very interested in Photography – higher incidence of editing
It would be important for us to know the end client of the research or at least to make sure that the targeting options we use are appropriate for your end client.  For example, if your end client was a PC software provider, then using Mac users as a targeting would not give an accurate indication of their customer behavior, perception in the marketplace, etc.

--Carter Cathey
2010 (c)

What is your ideal Sample Universe?

What is your ideal Sample Universe?

A sample universe can be defined in any number of ways.  Basically, we need to know from what group of people do you want us to search for your ideal respondent.  Do you want to ask questions of the general population to find your ideal respondent or do you want to use available targeting to reach them more efficiently and more directly.

We have two basic targeting options which both have pros/cons:

  • General Population – US Census Balanced
    • Pros:
      • Able to project results to the general population
      • Able to use for market sizing among different age, ethnic, geographic and other market segments.
      • Able to apply weighting controls
    • Cons:
      • Very low incidence
      • Much higher costs
      • Could require longer field time
  • Targeted Population Segments
    • Pros:
      • Higher Incidence
      • Much Lower Costs
      • Faster to field the study
    • Cons:
      • Only representative of the targeted group.  Ergo, not able to project the results to the general population
      • Only able to use for market sizing among the targeted group.
      • Difficult, if not impossible, to apply weighting controls accurately.
--Carter Cathey 2010

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Identification of Your Ideal Respondent

The first step in any research engagement is to identify your ideal respondent from whom you wish to collect insights. It is typically a good exercise to make a list of declarative statements about characteristics that your ideal respondents have or don't have. The more information you provide in the earlier stages, the better the survey will be designed, the better your panel providers can assess feasibility and costs, and the better the overall process will be from design to fieldwork.

B2C Details Include things like:

  • Respondent Gender
  • Respondent Age
  • Respondent Ethnicity
  • Respondent Geographic Location
  • Respondent Education Level
  • Respondent Income Level

B2B Details Include things like:

  • Respondent Industry Type
  • Respondent Title
  • Respondent Decision-Making Authority (over x,y,z product or service)
  • Respondent Company Size (number of employees or revenue)
  • Respondent Company Geographic Location

Examples of Declarative Criteria Statements:

  • Respondent must be 18-49 years old.
  • Respondent must be female.
  • Respondent must have a household income of $75,000 or greater.
  • Respondent must live in Texas.
  • Respondent must have a swimming pool.

--Carter

(c) 2010

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Financial Details on Sinclair Re-Transmission Deal


UPDATE: Discussed in depth in a previous post, Broadcast / Cable Re-Transmission Agreements: Why Should We Care?, the details of the re-transmission agreement between Sinclair Broadcasting Group and Time Warner Cable were not originally available.

As a publicly traded company, Sinclair Broadcasting Group has reported some of the details of their agreement with Time Warner in their earnings statement for 4th Quarter 2006.

Sinclair owns and/or operates 58 stations and has signed re-transmission agreement with 75% of the cable systems in their local markets. According to the
Baltimore Sun, Sinclair reported today that this will generate an additional $48 million in 2007 compared to the $25 million they earned in 2006.

Sinclair anticipates that this revenue stream could double again by 2010 to almost $100 million.

The compensation will be distributed among stations based on market size and other factors, but just an average shows this to be an additional $827,000 per Sinclair station for 2007.

--Carter Cathey
(c) 2007