Glossary of Terms – C
Completion Rate:
When a number of people are offered to participate in a paid online surveys the completion rate refers to the number of people who actually do finish and submit it over the people who do not in the allocated time frame.
Customer Satisfaction Research:
To get an understanding of how happy a companies customers are people who have utilised the product or service in the passed are invited to give honest feedback on their experience.
Callback:
Callback is when participants are requested to return to a market research project so that they are able to collect additional information.
Causal Research:
Casual research is the process of identifying the relationship that two objects have with each other.
Census:
When making reference to an attribute of the worlds population you are referring to its census. It can also be study conducted world wide.
Census Tract:
These are large household level surveys. In Australia these occur very rarely. The Australian bureau of statistics sometime distribute mandatory surveys to households, this is a good example of a census tract.
Central-Location Study:
When a market research group is organised in a location that is convenient to all the attendants.
Churn:
Churn refers to the number of respondents that leave a panel in a specific time.
Clarifying:
When multiple questions are used aimed at getting very specific responses to the one end this is clarifying or probing.
Click Rate:
Click rate is the ratio between the number of people who actually click on an ad and the number of people who are exposed to the ad. There is also a common term used called “click through rate” this is similar only that it is always represented as a percentage.
Clicks and Mortar:
This term has evolved due to the huge impact the internet has had on physical business and refers to companies with both a physical location as well as a presence online.
Clinical Focus Groups:
Focus groups in which clinical techniques are used to explore the participants’ subconscious motivation levels are called clinical focus groups. These focus groups aim to expose the consumer behaviours and the subconscious motivations that go behind them. For online focus groups specialised software are available that can simplify the process for online research.
Closed-End Question:
Closed-End Question are the ones which offer the participants many choices from which they are supposed to choose their answers.
Cluster Sampling:
Cluster sampling is selecting a cluster of units in a population and then performance of the census on each cluster. The cluster samples can be selected randomly or the selection could be based on some desirable characteristic or feature.
Cognitive Dissonance:
Cognitive Dissonance is an after- purchase emotional behaviour depicted by the consumers in which they are in a process of re-thinking their decision after making a major purchase; when they are exposed to other alternate products or services. In this state of mind the consumers try to rationalise their purchase by focusing on the attributes and advantages of the products.
Comparative Scales:
Comparative Scales are the scales that require the respondents to judge an object, concept or person as compared to another in the same category.
Completes:
Any form of research be it surveys or interviews that are carried out to completion and considered completes.
Computer-Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI):
Computer-Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI) technique is the one where the interviews are conducted over the telephone. CATI software is available, which greatly reduces the manual inputs in this methodology. They tremendously increase the call centre productivity.
Concept Testing:
Concept testing means testing the market responses generated after the launch of any new marketing ideas. The technique of concept testing also involves generating new implementation areas for the new marketing plans.
Conceptual Mapping:
Conceptual mapping is a type of qualitative technique used to understand exactly how the research participants view a product or service. This is done by asking the respondents to assign positions to product or services to certain areas on a diagram. This serves as a platform to initiate a discussion on the assigned products and services as to why they may be viewed in a certain way.
Conclusions:
Conclusions refer to the findings that are presented in the final report of a research project. These deductions are explained in a rational, scientific and logical way in the project report. The conclusions give a final ending explanation to the new facts discovered through the research conducted.
Confounded:
Confounding in a research project happens when an independent and extraneous variable indistinguishably affects a dependent variable. To prevent this from happening generally control groups are used to stabilize the research results so that they can be matched up with the data of the group, which has not been exposed to the variables in question.
Conjoint Analysis:
Conjoint Analysis is a technique to quantify the consumers’ values associated with different product attributes using multivariate techniques. Participants are asked to compare products to establish preferences so that they can then explain the importance of different attributes. Many different kinds of mathematical and analytical tools are used for conjoint analysis. Generally it is seen that conjoint analysis works better for functional brands and not so much for fashionable brands because they can benefit more from the usage of utility theory and consumer rationality theories used frequently in conjoint analysis.
Conjoint Association:
Conjoint Association is a technique wherein the moderators present hypothetical products or services with different attributes to respondents of a research study in order to stimulate conversations on the importance of certain attributes in different products and services. This helps the researchers to better visualize and understand the value associated with each attribute.
Consumer Behaviour:
Consumer Behaviour refers to the collective buying trends and patterns associated with the decision making of a consumer while choosing a product or service.
Consumer Drawings:
Consumer Drawings are the figurative techniques used in qualitative research. In this method the respondents are asked to produce some drawings as per their perceptions, of the products or services under scrutiny.
Consumer Expenditure:
Consumer Expenditure is the amount that is generally put out towards the purchase of a certain product or service by the consumer. This is usually expressed in dollars, for uniformity of application.
Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX):
The consumer expenditures are constantly monitored through an ongoing survey administered by the Bureau of Labour Statistics. This is called Consumer Expenditure Survey.
Consumer Orientation:
Consumer Orientation is the technique which is used to determine the specific firms or individual buyers who may be potential clients in the sense that they may be interested in buying the company’s products or services. This is usually done after the target markets are identified.
Consumer Price Index (CPI):
Consumer Price Index is a way of measuring inflation. In this technique a basket of goods and services are taken and their price is taken in a base year, and then their current price is taken. After computing in this way the values can be compared over several years to determine the increase in nominal value of the goods and services.
Consumer Unit:
Consumer Unit is represented by the people who may be making consumer purchasing decisions together or in conjunction with each other. They may be individuals, related families, or unrelated people living together like roommates or others.
Contact:
Contact is said to have happened when a researcher or interviewer has actually established an interaction with a research respondent.
Contact Rate:
The number of respondents who are contacted for a study who are responsible members of a household is called the contact rate.
Contamination:
In terms of market research contamination is referred to a situation where the sample contains an individual or a group which is not representative of the population.
Content Analysis:
Content Analysis is a process in which a prepared report based on predetermined criteria is examined and scrutinised to ensure that all the necessary information is included in the report. This technique is often applied to inspect advertising copy.
Continuous Variable:
Continuous Variables are those variables, which have the potential to represent infinite numbers falling between given intervals. Continuous variables are usually used as part of a measuring process.
Control and Test:
In research studies the sample population is generally divided into two or more groups. One study group is not exposed to any extra stimulus; the other groups are exposed to the stimuli. The group that is not exposed is called the control group. The group or groups, which are exposed, are called test groups.
Control Cell:
Control cell is the other name for control group. This group is not exposed to any external stimuli during the course of the study. The results of the test groups after the exposure to the stimuli are compared with the results of the control group.
Controlled Substitutions:
Controlled substitutions happen when the current participants of a study have to be replaced with some others due to certain reasons. Care is taken that the substituted participants match all the attributes, desirable for the study in question, that were present in the initial subjects.
Convenience Sample:
Convenience samples are non-random samples of the population that are conveniently available to the researchers. There are no quotas or qualifications necessary for sample selection in a convenience sample. The chances of error content are high in studies conducted with convenience samples because samples may not be accurately representative of the population.
Convergent Validity:
Convergent Validity is the process of understanding how constructs that should be related to one another actually are related to one another through measurement processes that prove the relationships.
Co-op Payment:
Co-op Payment refers to the incentives received by the respondents as a result of participation in market research activities conducted through focus groups, interviews or surveys. It is also known as incentives or honorarium. It is directly in consonance with the difficulty that is encountered in recruiting the participants.
Cooperation Rate:
Cooperation rate is the percentage of respondents that actually participate in the research project. The cooperation rate is subject to the research topic, length of interview and other various factors.
Custom Marketing Research:
Custom Marketing Research studies are the research studies that are tailored to suit the clients’ specific requirements.
Customer Relationship Management/Marketing (CRM):
Customer Relationship Management/Marketing (CRM) is the process in which an organisation keeps a track of its customers through various tracking methods. This helps in identifying and creating a long-term relationship with customers. It also helps gather important information about customers’ activities and preferences. For improving CRM, customer feedback research is very important.
