Simmons Study of Media and Markets: A Basic Tutorial
| Overview of Simmons |
Overview of Simmons
Simmons surveys the consumer buying behavior and media usage of 25,000 adults, 18 years of age and older. The survey's participants are carefully chosen to represent demographically a sample of the entire U.S. population. Simmons covers a wide range of consumer products/services, with data often at the brand level. Simmons also covers many types of media, including magazines, newspapers, television, and the Internet. The survey is conducted in the Fall and Spring. Choices 3 is the name of the Simmons interface.
Purpose of the database
Simmons enables creation of customized data tables that cross tabulate demographic characteristics (age, gender, race, income, etc.) with product/service buying behavior or the usage of various types of media. For example, you can determine whether females in the 18-24 or the 45-54 age groups are more likely to buy Nike sneakers.
Limitation of Simmons
Since the data that Simmons supplies to the library is two to three years old, the Simmons data may not be useful for investigating products/services that undergo rapid technological change, for example, computers or cell phones.
Location of the database
Simmons is a CD-ROM database located on a workstation in the Main Library Reference Room. It is not available from the Internet. The database is entitled Simmons Choices 3 in the Program Manager on the Desktop. The Fall survey is the default survey on the workstation.
Example to be used in this tutorial
This basic tutorial will explain how to create a data table. Our example will be:
A comparison of the consumer preferences of females in the 18-24 and 45-54 age groups who bought Nike or Reebok sneakers.
Basic components of a Simmons data table
A Simmons data table usually has three components: a Filter (or Base), Rows, and Columns.
- The Filter is the group or universe to be analyzed. The default filter is the total Simmons adult sample. In our table we will change the filter to Females.
- The Rows usually contain the demographic characteristics to be compared. Our rows will be the 18-24 and 45-54 age groups.
- The Columns usually contain the various products/services or media to be compared. Our columns will be Nike sneakers and Reebok sneakers.
The Simmons workscreen
There are six boxes on the workscreen.
- The Question box lists the types of questions that Simmons asks the participants in its survey. These include questions about demographic characteristics, media usage, and buying of products/services. A + before an item indicates that a further level of detail is available.
- The Answer box contains the answers that the participants gave to the questions. These include Yes/No answers and indication of specific brands of products/services that were bought. It is populated when the last level of question detail is selected in the Question box.
- The Filter/Rows/Columns boxes contain the answers that have been selected. They represent your specific requirements for the data table.
- The Coding box is used when combining two demographic characteristics for a Filter.
Creating a filter with one demographic
Choose a demographic that encompasses a fairly large group, for example, a gender, or a particular racial or ethnic group, to increase the reliability of the data. We will create a filter with a single demographic, Females.
1. Select the demographic.
- In the Questions box, click the + next to Lifestyle (Demographics). A list of demographic factors appears.
- Click the + next to Demographics (Personal). A long list of demographic characteristics appears with yellow question marks in front of them. Yellow question marks mean that the last level of question detail has been reached.
- Select Gender to display a list of genders in the Answer box to the right.
2. Select the answer Female.
3. Click the 
Change Filter icon, above the Answer box. That pastes Female into the Filter box to the right.
Creating a filter with two demographics
Combining demographics in a Filter should be done with caution, especially when using brand level data. It may result in very small sample populations, thereby decreasing the reliability of the data. Two demographics should be the maximum. Choose large groups, for example, an ethnic or racial group. We will create the Female Hispanic filter by combining Females and Hispanic origin, using the AND connector.
- Select the gender demographic, Female, following steps 1 and 2 in the preceding section.
- Above the Answer box, click the […] Insert into Coding icon. That pastes Female into the Coding box at the bottom of the screen.
1. Below the Coding box, click the 
Insert logical AND into coding box icon. That pastes the AND connector after Female.
2. Select the second demographic.
- Return to the Demographics (Personal) list.
- Select Respondent-Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin?. That displays Yes/No answers.
3. Select the answer Yes.
4. Click the [...] Insert into Coding icon. That pastes Hispanic into the Coding box.
5. Below the Coding box, click the Add to Filters icon. That pastes the Hispanic Females combination into the Filter box.
Creating rows
The rows contain the demographics to be compared. We will create two rows, age groups 18-24 and 45-54.
1. Select the demographic.
- Return to the Demographics (Personal) list.
- Select Age to display a list of age groups in the Answer box to the right. Scroll to the bottom to view the entire list. There are various groupings.
2. Select the age groups.
- Select 18-24.
- Hold down the Control key and select the other age group, 45-54.
3. Above the Answer box, click the 
Add to Rows/Media icon. That pastes the two age groups into the Rows box to the right. The Filter box disappears when the Columns and Rows boxes display, and vice-versa. To redisplay any of these boxes, click the Filter or Cols/Rows tabs below the box.
Creating columns
The columns contain the brands of products/services to be compared. In our table we will create two columns, Nike sneakers and Reebok sneakers.
1. Select the product/service.
- Scroll down the products/services categories in the Questions box.
- Click the + next to Apparel. A list of apparel products appears.
- Click the + next to Sneakers/Athletic shoes. Another list appears.
- Select Sneakers/Athletic shoes-Brands to display a list of brands in the Answer box.
2. Select the brands.
- Select Nike.
- Hold down the Control key and select another brand, Reebok.
3. Above the Answer box, click the 
Add to Columns/Targets icon. That pastes the two brands into the Columns box to the right.
Alternate way to find products, services, and brands
If you cannot locate a product/service or brand by scanning the list in the Questions box, try the search function.
1. Above the Questions box, click the 
search icon on the far left. An Alpha Search window opens.
2. In the box labeled Search string, type the product/service or brand name. Click Search. If any terms in the Choices 3 dictionary match, they will appear in the Results box below.
3. Select a term in the Results box and click OK. The long list in the Questions box disappears, replaced by only the name of the product/service category that covers the term that you selected.
4. Drill down to find the product and select your answers, as you did in the previous section.
To restore the full products/services list, click the Questions tab, below the Questions box.
Running the CrossTab
Once you have specified all of the table's requirements, run the cross tabulation.
- Near the top center of the screen, click the
Run Analysis icon. After a few seconds the completed data table appears.
- To more easily view all of the columns or rows, click the
Zoom Out icon, at the top of the screen.
Interpretation of a Simmons table
Below is an interpretation of selected types of data from our Simmons table. Click the table image to enlarge; you may then move the table to read the related interpretation.
Sample |
13,679 adult female respondents to the Simmons survey |
| (000) | 110,301,000 (110,301 x 1,000) is the U.S. adult female population. It is a weighted projection of the Simmons sample onto the adult female population. |
(000) |
21,401, 000 (21,401 x 1,000) females bought Nike sneakers. |
| Horizontal | 19.4% of females bought Nike sneakers. |
| Sample | 410 female Simmons respondents in this age group bought Nike sneakers. |
| (000) | 3,477, 000 ( 3,477 x 1,000) females in this age group bought Nike sneakers. |
| Vertical% | 16.2% of females who bought Nike sneakers are in this age group. The percentage was computed by dividing 3,477 by 21,401 (the number near the top of the Nike column). |
| Horizontal | 27.0% of females in this age group bought Nike sneakers. The percentage was computed by dividing 3,477 by 12,863 (the number to the left of it). |
| Index | The index of 139 expresses the likelihood of females who bought Nike sneakers to be in this age group, when compared to all females who bought Nike sneakers, a base index of 100. The index was computed by dividing 27.0 (the horizontal % in the Nike column) by 19.4 (the horizontal % in the cell above it) and multiplying by 100. Females in this age group are 39% (139 minus 100) more likely than all female adults to have bought Nike sneakers. Note that the buyers of Reebok in the column to the right have an index of 69, which means that 18-24 year olds are 31% (100 minus 69) less likely than all females to buy that brand. |
Changing the filter, rows, or columns
- On the screen with the data table, click the
Return to Choices 3 icon, on the far left. The Choices 3 work screen reappears.
- To view items in the Filter, Columns, or Row boxes, click their respective tabs under the lower, far right box.
- To delete any item in these boxes, right click it and choose Delete.
- To add items, follow the directions in the appropriate sections above for creating filters, rows, and columns.
Printing and downloading a table
- To give the table a title, select the File function, then Header & Footer, and type in the title on that screen.
- Since the table is in Excel format, you can adjust the size of the columns and rows, and change font sizes, to produce a more pleasing, printable version.
- You can also download the table to a floppy disk or a flash/jump drive.