For market research firms, survey response rates are critical. If they dip too low, the industry will decry the quality and usefulness of the data altogether. This was a problem facing Nielsen Media Research’s TV ratings research in the US when, two years ago, response rates fell as low as 20%.
According to a report on
Mediaweek.com, in May Nielsen introduced a $5 incentive for every home that completed the survey whose head of household was under 50 years of age. Response rates grew to around 32%. Hard cash can work wonders, it seems.
Nielsen is also planning to ‘double’ the number of people meter homes in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal (see Forecasts).
