Our primary mission is to constantly improve the research methodology NPD employs. We measure our success by comparing the results of our methodologies with other industry sources, to make sure we are best reflecting actual marketplace performance.

Last year at this time, NPD initiated the Quality First initiative, an internal partnership between our Research Sciences and Operations teams. Its goal is to significantly improve data quality for our customers, across all of the products and services we deliver. We laid the foundation with methodology protocols and a series of process improvements in production. Our work is not done, but we are energized by our progress. We also launched several “research-on-research” projects to guide our research staff as it tailors solutions to the different industries we service.

In this special Research Edition of NPD Insights, Dr. Mark Kinnucan, research director for NPD’s fashion division, summarizes some of the results from a parallel study examining differences between online and offline consumers. We wanted to know definitively if we were introducing measurement risk by relying on online panels. Online samples afford significant benefits to our customers, particularly in terms of very large sample sizes. Of course, those benefits are of little value if they introduce inaccuracies in the measurement. Mark found that most of the differences between the two populations were demographically described, and that contemporary methods of sample balancing do a good job of compensating for those differences, aligning both purchase behavior and attitudinal differences back to the total population.

Additionally, we have outlined a quality control technique that we are rolling out across NPD divisions. You may find that you can apply this technique in your own tracking studies. We even provide a link to a spreadsheet where we have laid out the formulae for your use.

We hope you will find this newsletter informative and thought-provoking. Based on your feedback, we will continue to publish NPD Insights Research Editions throughout 2006. Do let us know what you think!

Very best wishes for a great 2006.

Steve Coffey
Chief Research Officer
THE NPD GROUP, INC.