Data-gathering

[magid]

In my mailbox this evening was an invitation to join AC Nielsen's Homescan Consumer Panel. Fill out a questionnaire, then they send you a scanner to use on the UPC barcodes for all household purchases. And you earn points! And can win prizes! Just give them your privacy; they'll reward you!

No mention that there might be things that don't have barcodes (quelle horreur! not living up to my consumer potential!), such as, oh, my farm share and produce deliveries, or second-hand/bartered items.

I looked at the questionnaire. Here it is (capitalization all theirs), with a few annotations:

1. Including yourself and any other family members, how many people live in your home?
   1/ 2-4/ 5-7/ 8+
   [How do roommates count?]
   
   
2. Is there a Male Head of your Houshold?
   Y/N (If no, skip to question 6)
   [Insert official gripe about capitalization, also lack of period.
   Also, whose definition are they using? If it's the IRS, then there's only one head of household. If not, there could be multiple heads, perhaps even (*gasp*) more than two.]
   
   
3. What is the age of the Male Head of your Household?
   18-24/ 25-29/ 30-34/ 35-44/ 45-54/ 55-64/ 65+
   [What's with the very uneven interval sizes? I assume it has to do with accepted demographic groups, but it still seems odd to me, especially if one is trying to get a representative sample.]
   
   
4. What is the highest level of education completed by the Male Head of Household?
   Grade School/Some High School/ Graduated High School/ Some College/ Graduated College/ Post College Graduate
   [Grammar nit: if asking "highest level", shouldn't it be "high school graduate"?]
   
   
5. During a typical week, how many hours does the Male Head of your Household work for pay?
   Under 30 hours/ 30-35 hours/ More than 35 hours/ None
   [This seems a bit odd, not having a distinct interval for anything more specific than 35+ hours. There's a huge difference between working 35 hours, or, say, 60 hours (one one or multiple jobs.]
   
   
6. Is there a Female Head of Household?
   Y/N
   [See question 2.. And so on through the female questions]
   
   
7. What is the age of the Female Head of Household?
   18-24/ 25-29/ 30-34/ 35-44/ 45-54/ 55-64/ 65+
   
   
8. What is the highest level of education completed by the Female Head of Household?
   Grade School/Some High School/ Graduated High School/ Some College/ Graduated College/ Post College Graduate
   
   
9. During a typical week, how many hours does the Female Head of your Household work for pay?
   Under 30 hours/ 30-35 hours/ More than 35 hours/ None
   
   
10. Which of the following best describes your family background?
    White/ Black/ Asian/ Other
    [There's that question of family if it's roommates or multiple adults. Heck, if there's a multiracial marriage, whose heritage counts more for this question.
    And there's a small rant in here about how if the goal is a tolerant, racial-neutral society, why are we always asking people to classify themselves, in this box but not that, though I suppose it makes sense from a marketing point of view.]
    
    
11. a. Is the Male and/or Female Head of your Household of Spanish/Hispanic origin or descent?
    Y/N (If no, skip to question 12)
    
    b. If yes to 11a, which language is primarily spoken in your household?
    English/ Spanish/ Both English and Spanish
    [I'm just assuming this is about advertisement placement...]
    
    
12. Please indicate your household's total annual income for the most recent calendar year.
    Under $25,000/ $25,000 - $35,000/ $35,000 - $50,000/ $50,000+
    [Again, I'm surprised by the relatively small number of intervals. But then, I live in MA, where the cost of living is rather higher than most parts of the US...
    I'm a bit amused about how this is worded as a non-question, with the "please" at the front, when it could've been another question like the rest. Is that because people are assumed to be touchier discussing money?]

They're particularly interested in people who are younger than 30, or living on less than $25K/year, or Hispanic, or African American. I'm none of those, nor am I particularly interested in giving my privacy away. I'm not particularly representative either, I suspect, though that didn't stop them last time when they asked me to be a Nielsen TV family for a week*. A little bit of me wonders whether I should do this exactly because I'm not a typical consumer, to show that there are other styles of living that aren't focused on acquisition/expenditure nearly as much.

Nah.


* List all shows watched on any home TVs during the week. Not having one, this was rather easy.

Comments

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Oh, but you could have so much fun skewing the statistics!

The uneven groupings definitely are concerned with market segmentation for marketing purposes. There's much more difference (in lifestyle and purchasing) beween 25 and 34 than between 35 and 44.

Have you looked at You Are Where You Live (http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp?ID=20)? See your neighborhood reduced to postage-stamp clipart stereotypes. Here's mine! (http://www.claritas.com/eImages/mybestseg/PRIZMNE/prizmne_16.jpg)

[magid.livejournal.com]

That would be my only inducement to doing this, actually. I wonder what I'd look like to their aggregator, since so many of the things I spend money on are not barcoded: utilities, car insurance, a lot of produce, theater tickets...

I can see the age segments, but it seemed odd, after the census divisions, to have so few race options, if one is going to ask at all.

$OldOffice used to have a subscription to American Demographics, which was fascinating reading (also maps by county for all sorts of interesting metrics). I think I looked at the Prizm stuff when you posted about it.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

my ex did this (was quite excited to, really) and a lot of what he bought wasn't barcoded, either. he lived in a vegetarian co-op that got most of its food from farm shares and local farmers' markets. it was a *lot* of extra work for him.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

In fact, American Demographics was in the corporate library of ((((job--)--)--)--), which is how I got an interest in this whole field!

[magid.livejournal.com]

I wondered how inconvenient it would be; sounds like a total nuisance.

Sudden thought: I wonder if there's time data attached to purchases... I'd totally skew things with not acquiring stuff on Shabbat...

this kind of made me giggle...

[zebraartist.livejournal.com]

how long did I stay in your home?
and I have NO recollection of looking for/wanting to find a television while I was there!

funny, that.

Re: this kind of made me giggle...

[magid.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder how much more interesting things would be if no one had a TV, or of they were only available at places like community centers.

(I did hear about one that was exerbike-powered, which sounded intriguing.)

[bitty.livejournal.com]

It appeared inconvenient to me, but he really enjoyed the marketing aspect of it (he was in charge of direct mail, remember) and skewing the results with his hippie ways while he was at it.