The Market Research Toolbox: A Concise Guide for Beginners by Edward F. (Francis) McQuarrie

Author:Edward F. (Francis) McQuarrie [McQuarrie, Edward F. (Francis)]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2011-10-10T14:00:00+00:00

COST FACTORS

Sample Size

Small samples of about 100 can often be professionally surveyed for less than $10,000. Larger samples of 1,000 or more can drive the cost to well over $100,000, $250,000, or more, depending on mode of administration. (Of course, it can be quite inexpensive to obtain a sample of 1,000 if you begin with an e-mail to 375,000 people; but how much confidence in the representativeness of the results can there be when the response rate is less than 0.33 percent?)

Sample Accessibility

If lists of these people are expensive, or if the lists are bad so that many calls are wasted, or e-mail is returned as undeliverable, or if these people are hard to reach on the phone, or if many refuse to participate, or if many terminate the interview prior to completion, then the cost goes up accordingly.

Survey Length

The longer the survey, the more it costs, either in dollar terms or the way in which it erodes sample quality (longer surveys produce more partial completions and early terminations, which depresses the effective response rate). Length has no effect on Web survey dollar costs, but what kind of nerd of a customer will spend 37 minutes working through 62 screens’ worth of questions? Someone who represents the central tendency in the population of interest, or a very unusual individual with way too much time on his hands?

Keep it short and simple. Shorter is always better, up until the point where no relevant information is gained.

Analysis

If you want many cross-tabulations, more sophisticated statistical analyses, or more elaborate reporting, then the cost increases. However, analysis costs are generally modest relative to the three factors named above.

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