Mediamark Research 
Spring 2008 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, Interest in Sports (first released in Wave 53) and Alternative Advertising (first released in Wave 55).

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 - 48 items 

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 8,268 5,994 2,274 4,667 52.0% 55.9% 53.7%
Wave 58 8,333 6,230 2,103 4,538 49.6% 53.6% 51.6%

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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 57 8,268 7,214 1,054 4,667 41.6% 49.4% 44.2%
Wave 58 8,333 7,326 1,007 4,538 39.9% 48.6% 43.1%

 

 

Health Care Battery - 22 items

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 8,268 6,942 1,326 4,667 43.2% 48.2% 46.3%
Wave 58 8,333 7,290 1,043 4,538 40.1% 45.3% 43.4%

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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 57 8,268 7,116 1,153 4,667 44.8% 45.1% 45.0%
Wave 58 8,333 7,151 1,182 4,538 44.2% 44.6% 44.4%

 

 

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 57 8,268 6,037 2,231 4,667 49.1% 58.7% 53.3%
Wave 58 8,333 6,317 2,017 4,538 46.8% 55.8% 50.9%

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Automotive Battery -  21 items 

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 8,268 6,735 1,533 4,667 46.6% 48.3% 47.9%
Wave 58 8,333 6,875 1,458 4,538 45.5% 46.9% 46.6%

 

 

Food Battery -  21 items

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 8,268 7,141 1,127 4,667 43.2% 45.3% 44.8%
Wave 58 8,333 7,228 1,105 4,538 42.3% 44.4% 43.8%

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Finance Battery -  18 items 

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 8,268 6,671 1,597 4,667 47.4% 48.8% 48.4%
Wave 58 8,333 6,842 1,491 4,538 45.8% 47.2% 46.8%

 

 

Vacation Travel Battery -  20 items 

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 8,268 6,389 1,879 4,667 49.3% 51.2% 50.6%
Wave 58 8,333 6,401 1,932 4,538 49.1% 50.9% 50.3%

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Technology Battery -  13 items 

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 8,268 6,607 1,661 4,667 48.2% 49.2% 48.9%
Wave 58 8,333 6,794 1,539 4,538 46.6% 47.5% 47.2%

 

 

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 57 8,268 6,617 1,651 4,667 45.6% 55.3% 48.8%
Wave 58 8,333 6,643 1,690 4,538 44.9% 55.9% 48.4%

 

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Interest in Sports -  9 items 

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 8,268 4,984 3,284 4,667 59.1% 63.2% 61.5%
Wave 58 8,333 5,417 2,916 4,538 56.2% 59.6% 57.9%

 

Alternative Advertising Places - 14 items

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 8,268 7,081 1,187 4,667 44.5% 46.1% 45.3%
Wave 58 8,333 7,102 1,231 4,538 44.2% 45.4% 44.8%

 

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Fashion & Style - 24 items

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Wave 58 8,333 6,906 1,427 4,538 44.9% 46.9% 46.3%

 

Cellular - Mobile 1 - 10 items

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Wave 58 8,333 5,616 2,717 4,538 54.5% 59.2% 56.4%

 

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Cellular - Mobile 2 - 20 items

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

Item Ascription Rate

Min. Max. Avg.
Wave 57 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Wave 58 8,333 5,839 2,494 4,538 52.7% 56.0% 54.6%

 

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Copyright 2008,  Mediamark Research