Mediamark Research 
Fall 2006 Technical Guide

Psychographic Ascription

MRI has historically released psychographic data for only those respondents who have completed all or almost all of the battery of questions in that topic area (e.g., Buying Styles). This restriction necessarily led to a unique sample balancing solution for each of the batteries and, in turn, unique weights for each psychographics sub-sample. Accessing these bases and unique weights had the potential to cause confusion and tabulation errors among our users. Beginning in Fall 04, MRI employed a new ascription procedure that allowed users to access almost all of MRI’s psychographic batteries using a single population weight.

The new ascription procedure uses the following three-step approach to ascribing items for a given psychographic battery:

    (1) For those who filled out at least one item within the battery, the missing items are ascribed collectively based on respondents’ responses to other psychographic items, as well as their responses to both demographic and behavioral questions

    (2) For those who returned the product booklet and did not answer any items within the battery, the missing items are ascribed collectively based on respondents’ responses to only demographic and behavioral questions

    (3) For those who did not return the booklet, all psychographic batteries are ascribed collectively based on MRI’s traditional booklet ascription procedure.

This ascription procedure is currently used for the following psychographic batteries:
Intent to Purchase, Buying Styles, Interest in Advertising, Health Attitudes, Consumer Confidence, Automotive, Food, Finance, Vacation Travel, Technology, Media and Interest in Sports (first released in Wave 53).

The following tables disclose for each of these batteries the amount of ascription done both on average by item (column: average item recovered ascribed) and for the total booklet (not recovered ascribed). These are the two major steps of ascription described above.

 

Intent to Purchase Battery - 46 items in Wave 54, 47 items in Wave 55

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 5,317 2,335 4,940 56.10% 60.29% 57.80%
Wave 55 7,588 5,212 2,376 5,114 57.2% 61.2% 59.0%

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Buying Styles Battery - 43 items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 6,454 1,198 4,940 46.05% 54.03% 48.70%
Wave 55 7,588 6,362 1,226 5,114 47.0% 54.8% 49.9%

 

 

Health Care Battery -  12 items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 6,074 1,578 4,940 48.32% 53.80% 51.80%
Wave 55 7,588 6,097 1,491 5,114 48.7% 53.9% 52.0%

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Consumer Confidence Battery - 4 items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 6,460 1,193 4,940 48.51% 48.86% 48.70%
Wave 55 7,588 6,382 1,206 5,114 49.5% 50.0% 49.8%

 

 

Interest in Advertising Battery - 56 items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 5,309 2,343 4,940 53.77% 62.54% 57.80%
Wave 55 7,588 5,246 2,342 5,114 54.7% 63.3% 58.7%

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Automotive Battery - 20 items in Wave 54, 21 items in Wave 55

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 5,934 1,718 4,940 51.53% 53.39% 52.90%
Wave 55 7,588 5,746 1,842 5,114 53.5% 55.1% 54.8%

 

 

Food Battery - 19 items in Wave 54, 21 items in Wave 55

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 6,437 1,215 4,940 47.42% 49.50% 48.90%
Wave 55 7,588 6,221 1,367 5,114 49.2% 51.7% 51.0%

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Finance Battery - 16 items in Wave 54, 18 items in Wave 55

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 5,877 1,775 4,940 52.17% 53.88% 53.30%
Wave 55 7,588 5,688 1,900 5,114 54.0% 55.8% 55.2%

 

 

Vacation Travel Battery - 18 items in Wave 54, 20 items in Wave 55

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 5,651 2,001 4,940 54.02% 55.74% 55.10%
Wave 55 7,588 5,494 2,094 5,114 55.3% 57.3% 56.7%

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Technology Battery - 12 items in Wave 54, 13 items in Wave 55

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 6,044 1,608 4,940 51.38% 52.19% 52.0%
Wave 55 7,588 5,644 1,944 5,114 54.9% 55.9% 55.6%

 

 

Media Battery - 10 items

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 5,944 1,709 4,940 49.54% 59.69% 52.80%
Wave 55 7,588 5,720 1,868 5,114 52.0% 60.8% 55.0%

 

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Interest in Sports - 8 items in Wave 54, 9 items in Wave 55

Total Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Answered Average Item Recovered Ascribed Not Recovered Ascribed

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 54 7,652 4,508 3,144 4,940 62.5% 66.28% 64.2%
Wave 55 7,588 4,240 3,348 5,114 64.6% 68.5% 66.6%

 

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Copyright 2006,  Mediamark Research