Marketing Research Glossary

The base is the required number of interviews to be completed.

Back Translation is a validation process where a survey is first translated into another language and then translated back into the original language by a different person. The objective is to ensure that the original translation is accurate.

Back Checking: see validation.

Awareness is a measure of respondents’ knowledge of an object or an idea. There are two main measures of awareness: spontaneous (or unaided) and prompted (or aided) awareness.

Average Opportunities: see frequency.

The average is a general term that is used to represent or summarise the relevant features of a set of values. The arithmetic mean is often used as a measure of average, but the median and the mode can also be used to summarize a set of values.

The audit has two definitions in the context of Marketing Research. A Store Audit is a method of determining the number of product units that have been sold by counting physical units in stores and combining that with a knowledge of the number ordered and stock levels.

Aided Awareness: see prompted awareness.

Ad Hoc Research is research that is specifically designed to address a particular problem or issue. Ad hoc research is usually conducted when there is insufficient existing information. Ad hoc projects are usually single pieces of research rather than part of a continuous program.

Accompanied Shopping is a form of observation study where an interviewer accompanies a respondent (with his or her agreement) as they go shopping.