"No survey is error free"
Before we begin, the all
important 'Ground Rules:
•
No. Noise!
•
Don’t Prompt. “You’ll not open
your mouths until you’ve my permission to do so”
•
Patience is a Virtue…
•
Punctuality is a value your
generation doesn’t know much about. “None will enter my class after I’ve done
so. Period.”
Concepts.
Concepts are the very
basics of this Industry, it is akin to a foundation of a building it has to be
strong lest the building will fall, rest assured.
Research
Indian Readership Survey
began in 1971, Dr. Bhouser the father of Operations Research Group (Baroda)
covered only Urban India, 1981 a joint research by
IMRB and Operations Research Group with both Urban and Rural Group
1983 another joint
research with IMRB was published.
1989 another joint
research with IMRB was published.
The research were far and
few and the surveys needed to
have shorter time gaps between
them and there was very
little co-operation between
Research and Advertising
Agencies. Roda Mehta
the Legend, Iconic and the Goddess of Research knew the true objective of media
research and knew well enough to know that it wasn't immersive enough. With
much resistance, a joint industry commission in 1989 was formed.
With the founding members
of MURC being:
|
Mohini Bhullar
Living
Media (I) Ltd
|
Shekar Swamy
R K
Swamy/BBDO Advtg
|
|
Pheroza Billimoria
Business
India
|
Mukul Upadhyaya
Bajaj
Electricals Ltd
|
|
K Kurian
Radeus
Advertising
|
Brahm Vasudev
Hawkins
Cookers Ltd
|
|
O P Nijhara
Cadbury
India
|
Roda Mehta
O&M /
Hansa Vision
|
Media Research Users
Council was formed in 1994. The one main trait that they did want to tackle at
the earliest was that there be continuous research instead of being spaced out
over such long intervals. It is an industry body that is non-profit.
•
Research conducted at regular
intervals
•
Capturing relevant information on
growing media and product ownership & consumption based on industry needs
•
Well-validated data, ensuring
high levels of accuracy, adequate sample size, good representation on sample
spread
The key intents of MURC are:
|
•
1. To
determine the needs and frequencies of research and/or surveys required for
the assessment of various media for advertising.
2. To
conduct surveys and/or research into the readership, viewership and/or
listenership of various media for advertising such as newspapers and
periodicals, television, radio, outdoor hoardings and all other media, which
carry advertisements.
3. To
maintain and propagate the highest possible standards of integrity, fairness
and reliability in media research and to ensure that its output are not
misused to convey a misleading impression by or to any party.
4. To
disseminate the findings of such surveys and/or research as are mentioned in
Point 2 above through any medium with or without charge.
5. To
develop and disseminate software and other methods of handling media research
and other data.
6. To
provide a forum for the discussion and resolution of disputes and/or issues
relating to media research.
7. To
provide, maintain and uphold fair, sound, ethical and healthy principles and
practices of media research.
8. To
promote better understanding of the benefits of fair, sound and ethical media
research amongst media, advertisers and advertising agencies.
9. To
represent, protect, inform and guide the members of the Company on matters
relating to media research.
|
IRS came out with
their reports in 1995, 1997 respectively. This was mainly with
respect to print media, since print readers don't change
overnight, the 2 year gap was an accepted norm.
Sample : A representative sample, There are
two main kinds of a sample, one being Heterogeneous mix and the other
Homogenous. A large sample needs to be present.
The IRS questionnaire
takes almost 4 hours to administer the questionnaire.
A Rolling
Sample : Divide the country into 2 main parts, South-West and North-East, first
6 months North-East and the next 6 months South-West, today IRS comes out once
a quarter.
IRS is the world's largest sample survey, wherein it's sample survey
is about 3 lakhs and costs crores to bring about.
IRS bases it's
report on the following yardstick
- -> Consumers (Indian)
-
-> Media
-
-> Brand (only if there are enough subscribers)
But 'respondent fatigue' is a real
danger whilst administering the questionnaire and this needs to be
kept in mind.
Fundamental Object :
--> Habit
-->
Frequency
"Have you read or looked at an issue of -- in the last -
?" this is the exact question of for both 'habit' and
'frequency'.
India has over 40, 000 publications and thus
invariably the questionnaire is area specific.
The name of the publication
is never spoken out for every publication has a DNA and this can influence
the one who's answering the questionnaire. Thus the 'Masthead Recognition
Method' is used where as the name suggests a publication's masthead is used to
identify the said publication.
Habit
Frequency
Daily
Yesterday
Last
7 Days
Weekly Last
7 days Last
4 Weeks
Fortnight Last
2 Weeks
Last 3 Months
Monthly
Last Month
Last
6 Months
Why
do we need ese two questions?
AIR
or Regular Readerships is assured by Habit question whilst the Frequency gives
out
the claimed readership.
Principle
of Audience Accumulation.
Conditions
for the same:
->
Even f you look at something you're considered a reader
->
Which issue doesn't matter
->
Where you read the paper also doesn't matter
All
media metrics, reach and opportunity to see are essentially derived
from this
question.It
is also to establish some demographics.
Schedule
1 and Schedule 2.
Schedule
1 is an 'household schedule' under which you've the following fields:
Social
Class, Ownership of consumer durables with the likes of TV, Refrigerator
etc.
Schedule
2 is an 'individual schedule where you've the following fields:
Age,
Gender, Deos, Soap, etc.
Usually
the survey is done in such a way as to randomise the sample that
a voters list
is
picked and then a right hand/left hand side rule is followed.
The
questions that establish demographic are
·
Age
·
Gender
·
Occupation
·
Population of the Household
·
Education
·
Monthly Household Income
·
Socio Economic Class
With
Monthly Household Income being the most unreliable part of IRS,
underclaim
and overclaim is a serious problem and calculation of household
income
is very difficult.
In
1978, IIM-A was approached to device a new way of getting household
income
and then they came up with SSC.
Where
the concept of Chief Wage Earner was instrumental in knowing one's SSC and
factors
influencing that were two primarily:
Education
Occupation.
Someone
with a plum job, meant that he was highly educated as well and thus his SSC-A
and this was proportional, lesser degree of education meant lower the
tier
of occupation
and this entitled you to SSC-D.
New
SSC is based on ownership specific durables.
Non-Standard-Demographic
(Family Structure)
||
Education
of the Housewife
||
Improving
the way of living
A
Discriminant Variable (needs to be identified)
Advertising
is 30, 000 Crores industry. IRS does not take into account Psychograpgic
but
only depends on Demographic
What
you think (Psychographic)|What you are (Demographic)|What you do
(Lifestyle)
Opinion
is psychographic.
IRS
takes only two yardstick for lifestyle, them being 'foreign travel' and 'credit
card'
There
is a dire need for psychographics. Target Group Index that covers both the
psychographic
and demographic but the sample size of it is too small (30, 000)
though.
TGI's data is not vey rich but it is better than nothing.
IRS
takes its sample from any individual who's 12 years and above. TGI considers
only
SSC C and above.
