U. S. Radio (Jan-Dec 1960)

How To Conduct A Mail Survey With competition for the advertising doUar increasing steadily, radio stations are making every effort to present a total picture of their sales potential. Research of every sort has become one of the most frequently used "brushes" in helping to paint a station's sales portrait. Research dealing with ratings is not within the province of the station, and should be restricted to the professional organizations in this area. However, the station often can undertake certain projects designed to provide additional information about its audience. The mail sinvey is one method ol obtaining such listener data. A survey, in order to be effective, must be properly formulated and executed. To determine what would constitute a mail survey that would be valid and valuable to the station and the advertiser, u. s. radio obtained the opinions of a nvunber of researchers who are experts in this field. "There is no reason why a station cannot conduct mail surveys that will teach it something valid about its audience," says Arthiu" }. Morgan of the research firm of Erdos and Morgan, New York. "\\'hen a survey is done by a broadcaster, the kinds of information he coidd hope to uncover would, of course, be limited by his knowledge of research technicjues. "While it would be impractical for him to undertake conclusive surveys on, say, the ninnber of listeners he has at aiiv "iven time, or the nimiber of effective impressions a commercial has made on his listeners," Mr. Morgan states, "he may learn something about what kinds of people listen to his station, what income group they are in, how old they are, how large a iamily they have or what kind of possessions they own. Or, to put it another way, the station coidd imdertakc indicative, rather than conclusive, research." Wording the Questions After the surveyer has defined his problem and decided what cpiestions he wants answered, he nuist face the task of wording the cjucstion. "This is perhaps the most difficidt part of the project, and the area in which guidance most certainly should be sought," says Mrs. Doris Selinger. jjiesident of Aiulience Analysts Inc., Philadelphia. "There are some standard rules. The cpiestions must be short. There must not be too manv of them. They must be clear and simple and not in any way confusing. "However," she asserts, "one of the things my experience in the field has taugfit me is that there are many pitfalls in formulating the questions for a survey. If a station does not want to make the expenditine for a professional service to do the complete job, it can try to obtain such services on a considting basis. The station can do the legwork, sudi as sending out tjuestionnaires and compiling the residts, while benefiting from expert guidance in shaping the qtiestions or interpreting the results." U. S. RADIO • .\pril 1960 29