A Halloween Scare -- Should Others be Scared?

It was early Sunday afternoon on October 31, 1999 (Halloween).  There was a knock at the door.  Opening the door was not the scary part, actually it was a pleasant surprise.  Standing before me was a young female interviewer.  She was conducting door-to-door interviews.  Her briefcase contained a neatly stacked pile of questionnaires, each with a specific name of a family member (one per household).  she asked if she could have a few minutes of my time to participate in an interview.  There was no question about it, the answer was, "yes."  How could a market researcher turn down an in-home interview?  After about 40 minutes, the interview was completed, almost.  She asked if I would, during the next week, fill out a questionnaire?  She would call after one week and if it was completed, she would come back and pick it up and give me $20.  I agreed.  She proceeded to remove a 96-page, 9 x 12-inch book from her briefcase.  Yes, that was the questionnaire!

This questionnaire/book was a Habits and Practices/Consumption study covering the past year.  The topics included:  health and beauty aids (only 11 pages were devoted to these topics), prescription drugs, cigarettes/cigars, candy, beverages, all kinds of vehicles and their accessories, recreation, travel, catalog usage, financial, insurance, tools, household equipment, television viewing, cameras, computers, food purchasing, household products, etc.  You name it, it was there.

Can you imagine answering questions about 218 weekly television programs?  There were questions about how much attention were you paying to the program (which one of the four during the past month?)  My favorites were the questions dealing with "Sports Programs."  There was a series of four questions for each of the following programs:  ABC College Basketball Games, ABC College Football, ABC Monday Night Blast Pre-game show, ABC NFL Monday Night Football, ABC Wide World of Sports.  I could go on but basically they covered all networks including Fox.  that is four networks in all sports.  Now tell me, who watches sports by network?  I can't tell you what network I was watching but I can tell you the teams and the games.  I watch sports depending upon who is playing and not the network carrying the games.

The FOOD section was even worse.  Can you remember what brands and types of ice cream, candy bars, yogurt, margarine, frozen desserts, cereals, etc., your family has purchased in the past six months and how many packages were consumed in the past 30 days?  (Some items were asked about purchases in the past year and number consumed in the past six months).  Can you remember the types and brands of all types of beverages you have consumed in the past six months and how many drinks/glasses of each you have consumed in the past 7 days?

I could go on and on about what I consider to be the absurdity of this type of questioning.  If you really need this type of data, memory is not the solution.  Your money would be better spent on a diary study.  Or in this case where so many product categories are studied, diary studies.  I know we need the data now, but a little pre-planning can be of great help.

My concern deals with the validity of this type of research.  Who is designing such research and more importantly, who is paying for it and who is utilizing it in their planning?

You may think this is an unusual event but within 30 days, I found six other similar projects.  And most importantly, these projects were from other research companies.

Is your company paying to have this type of data collected?  Is your company purchasing this type of data?

Yes, I took the time to fill out all 96 pages to the best of my ability.  I wanted to quit after the first five pages but my wife would not let me.  She said I agreed to do it, so I had to keep my word.  I don't think she was concerned about the $20.