Glossary of market
research terms

ANOVA

Analysis of variance. A test for the differences among the means of two or more variables.

Access panels

A database of individuals who have agreed to be available for surveys of varying types and topics. Rising rates of refusals and non response, make it more difficult to recruit for a single survey, therefore sampling from a pool of potentially willing marketing research respondents can be seen as an appropriate way of saving time and money.

Accompanied shopping

A specialised type of individual depth interview, which involves respondents being interviewed while they shop in a retail store and combines observation with detailed questioning.

Alternative hypothesis

The hypothesis where some difference or effect is expected (i.e. a difference that cannot occur simply by chance).

Ambiguous question

A badly constructed question which results in respondents and researchers reading different meanings into what is being asked, resulting in inappropriate or unexpected answers.

Animatics

A type of stimulus material where key frames for a television advertisement are drawn or computer generated with an accompanying sound track.

Annotation method

An approach taken to analyse qualitative data using codes or comments on the transcripts to categorise the points being made by respondents.

Area sampling

A type of cluster sampling in which the clusters are created on the basis of the geographic location of the population of interest.

Audience's thinking sequence

The sequence of thoughts that people go through when they are being communicated with.

Audits

An examination and verification of the movement and sale of a product. There are three main types: wholesale audits, which measure product sales from wholesalers to retailers and caterers, retail audits, which measure sales to the final consumer, and home audits, which measure purchases by the final consumer.

Some content reproduced from the book, Market Research: An Integrated Approach (2012) by Alan Wilson. For use of this information more widely, copyright permission must be sought by the user directly from the book's publisher.