The Consumers’ Choice Award is like the Academy Awards for local area businesses. It commissions a leading independent research firm to conduct an annual unbiased survey. The Consumers’ Choice Award is unique as the recipients are determined by consumers and not by a panel of judges or referred by friends. It identifies and honors those businesses that have been voted by consumers as being their choice for providing excellence in value and service. The Award is currently offered in a number of North American cities including Indianapolis, Indiana. <br />

METHODOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE
2004 CONSUMERS’ CHOICE AWARD- INDIANAPOLIS<br />

OBJECTIVES: This study is aimed at establishing consumers’ opinion with regard to their perception of their establishments of choice. Consumers were divided into two major groups: general public and top ranking managers from small and medium sized businesses.

METHODOLOGY:
Sample: For the Indianapolis area, 1100 persons were interviewed in December 2003. Among this number 700 consumers and 400 top-ranking managers of small and medium size businesses counting 250 employees or less. All were randomly selected in the Indianapolis region either from the households listed by the United States Sample software or from business lists provided by companies such as Dun & Bradstreet. Upon initial contact with a company, the most top-ranking manager available was chosen for the interview. In the general public, the respondent was randomly selected among the persons 18 years of age or older, present in the household at the time of the call. Up to five attempts to call back were conducted to reach the designated respondent. Stratified quotas were established to maintain sample representativity.

Interviewing: Interviews were conducted using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI). Businesses were contacted for daytime interviewing, whereas the general public was contacted evenings and weekends (daytime). Respondents expressing a preference for a different than usual period of day contact were respected.

QUESTIONNAIRE: The study was conducted in two phases: the Nomination phase and the Voting phase.

Nomination phase: For every category included in the questionnaire, respondents were asked to name their choice of the year. The first 15% to 20% of the interviews allowed the respondents to nominate a company of their choice. Companies with significant number of mentions were then included in the main list for each category before entering the voting phase.

Voting phase: The question asked was the following: “We would like to know your opinion about Indianapolis companies in various sectors which have distinguished themselves the most in the last year. To help in your choice, please base your answer on aspects such as quality, value, service, and appearance of the business, as well as any other elements you might consider important in making your choice. In your opinion, among the following companies, which one is your choice of the year in the category of…?”. Relevant demographic data concerning respondents and companies were also collected, in addition to demographic data concerning respondents’ age, gender, language spoken, education, occupation and income.

DATA ANALYSIS: Data was analyzed according to the total number of respondents having chosen the various business establishments, distributed according to the sociodemographic data obtained. For each category, when a sufficient number of respondents were able to make a choice, the following information was also provided: the total number of respondents answering the question, the number of respondents who gave their opinion and the percentage of persons having chosen one or another of the preferred establishments.