Archive for September 1st, 2002

Lies, Damn Lies, and Sample Size

Posted September 1, 2002 By Pattie Gillett

Hey there. Yeah, you. What magazines do you read? What programs do you watch on television? What radio stations do you listen to? What web sites do you visit? No, I haven’t started channeling John Ashcroft., I’m asking the kind of questions decent marketers ask – if they want to keep their jobs.

In marketing, it’s all about knowing your audience. Or, rather, knowing what a statistically accurate sub-sample of your given audience would do under a given set of parameters. Let’s face it, only the federal government is crazy enough to try and count every single human being in America and even they are trying to get out of the business. Even spaced at ten-year intervals, that can be a pain. Read the remainder of this entry »