ICAR Research Data Repository for Knowledge Management

This is one of over 400 major media market
consumer surveys which have been gifted to Washington State University (WSU) by
Leigh Stowell & Company, Inc. of Seattle, Washington, USA. This is a market research firm
which
specializes in providing newspapers, television affiliates and cable
operators with market segmentation research pertinent to consumer purchasing
patterns and the effective marketing of goods and services to program audiences.
The data in the Stowell Archive were collected via random digit dialing and
computer-aided telephone interviews (CATI). Most of the surveys focus on the
marketing needs of mass media clients and contain demographics, psychographics,
media exposure information, and purchasing behavior data about consumers in
major metropolitan
areas of the United States
and Canada starting in 1989. The sample
sizes of the surveys range from 500 to 3,000 respondents, averaging 1,000
observations per study. Data are available at the respondent level, and all
observations are keyed to zip code or other geographic identifiers. Additional
surveys are anticipated, with over twenty new media marke
t studies being donated
annually.

The University's relationship with Leigh
Stowell & Company, Inc. was cultivated by Dr. Nicholas Lovrich, Director of
WSU's Division of Governmental Studies and Services (DGSS) and by Dr. John
Pierce, former Dean of the WSU College of Liberal Arts over the course of a
decade.

DGSS collaborated with WSU Libraries
Digital Services to process the gifted data files into this digital archive
which features powerful search and download capabilities. Further refinement of
the archive in accordance with the Data Documentation Initiative is progressing
with support from the Office of the Provost, the College of Liberal Arts
and the WSU Libraries.

It is important to note that the year
indicated by the study's title is the year that the original survey was
published, and is not necessarily the year in which the interviews were
conducted. Refer to the metadata field "Dates of Collection" to di
scern the
interview dates of each specific survey. Refer also to date fields within the
data file itself.