ESOMAR picks the best venues, has the best dinner party, and has the most fanfare of any conference we attend.  The sessions can be memorable as well.   One in particular resonates with us.   The question from the audience related to a comment from a panel that stated that we had not worked from representative samples for a long time—thirty years.   Thus the audience member asked if being consistent didn’t hide possible changes in the underlying sample frame that might represent valuable changes in sentiment.   If in fact the predilection to purchase dropped but was stabilized by researchers seeking to have consistent data, when is it that the dangerous trend would be discovered?  The response from the panel was nothing less than, “In the sales data.”

A memorable comment indeed.   We suggest that it should be a rally cry for all researchers.  This came from a powerful end user who simply made it clear that what we do was of diminishing value as they would rather purchase data that might potentially mask a dangerous trend rather than pursue the collection of accurate data that would protect us all.

Our view is that the failure of the sample frame to be reflective of real changes in the data is our worst enemy.   Everytime an important trend is missed our credibility goes out with the numbers.

No analyst looking back on such an important oversight would blame the purchasing agent who wouldn’t pay for something short of excellence.