In response to major societal, demographic, and media-consumption shifts among America’s affluent population, Ipsos Mendelsohn recently announced that it is giving its well-known Mendelsohn Affluent Survey one of the biggest overhauls in its 33-year-old life.
As a result, the new 2009 study – for which results will be available in September – will result in the collection of 40% more data than last year’s survey.
In an attempt to better serve the marketing industry’s need for more comprehensive and insightful data about the affluent population in the US, Ipsos Mendelsohn has added hundreds of new questions to the survey in numerous categories, ranging from specific web behaviors to travel, shopping, financial and digital media habits, pet ownership, cosmetic surgery, ‘do-it-yourself’ repairs, and interest in equestrian events and boating.
The new survey also will collect new usage and ownership data on hundreds of brands in more than 20 spending categories and – new this year – psychographic data about affluents’ attitudes and opinions in more than 100 areas:
Evolving with Digital
The growing influence and use of digital media and technology has also been a major driver in the revision of the survey, and has resulted in Ipsos Mendelsohn’s inclusion of usage and preference data for hundreds of websites, as well as a battery of questions about word-of-mouth influence, decision-making behaviors and involvement in personal, business and online networks.
As an example, the questionnaire will include 41 new measures relating to publication use, 24 new measures relating to TV behaviors, 34 relating to TV network viewing and 316 related to website use:
Listening to Clients
To bring about the needed changes to the survey questionnaire, Ipsos Mendelsohn hosted several meetings with its Mendelsohn Advisory Council (MAC), which includes more than 30 clients and other stakeholders who provided guidance and suggestions in terms of how the survey could be most useful and relevant.
“As our annual survey has dramatically grown in size and scope, we felt that adding key subscribers’ input to our planning would benefit everyone by getting closer to them through listening to their challenges and changing needs,” said Bob Shullman, president of Ipsos Mendelsohn. “We gave our subscribers the opportunity to be listened to and we listened closely. In turn, we were able to create a more desirable survey that is more attuned to what they need to know and use.”
