This paper is about Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) and in particular looks at one technology - the pen computer - and its application and use in the largest market research company in the United Kingdom. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the use of CAPI in market research, to discuss the benefits and potential drawbacks of CAPI and to highlight the key-stages of implementing such a system in a major research organisation. Some comparisons are given from a series of parallel runs of paper and PEN CAPI based surveys. It concludes by looking at some of the issues that the growth of CAPI will bring over the next few years.
In this paper we seek to show that the market research industry in the UK has had two distinct phases in which it has thought very hard about quality. These phases can be linked with different aspects of product performance as described by Levitt's quality model, which in turn links with a changing definition of 'quality' as a result of an increasing importance being attributed to the service element. This means that the criteria of 'suitable for the purpose', against which research products are judged, is itself changing.
The phenomenon of the ageing society in Western Europe is one with which we are aware but with which we have not even begun to come to terms. We still think of the older age group as a homogeneous unit, whereas they are more heterogeneous than younger groups, having traced out individual and unique life-paths. Marketing research involving older groups needs to have a clear understanding of this diversity. In particular, health related activity requires careful segmentation in the over 40 population. We show how narrow age band focussing reveals key transition stages. Using a large sample survey in Great Britain we have investigated how health attitudes and behaviour vary with age. By constructing a health index ranking for low risk behaviour and comparing that with attitudes and behaviour we know that there is an association between them. The health index ranking enables us to provide a profile of the âhealth behaviourâ of the population which we consider will have predictive value.