BUS 347: Consumer Behavior
Spring 2016
Mark Bodnar (mbodnar@sfu.ca)
ONE resource for finding reader/viewer demographics:
1.
TWO resources for product/consumer information (and also statistics!):
1.
2.
THREE ways to get help from a librarian:
1.
2.
3.
Key Library Resources for BUS 347
Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) Category Reports: http://tinyurl.com/sfu-pmb
Reports on Canadians' self-reported usage of over 3,500 products and services, based on a survey of Canadian
magazine readership. Covers consumers’ demographics, attitudes & media consumption for many key brands.
BUS 347 Research Guide: http://tinyurl.com/bus347
Information on searching for articles, books, and data on your topic, as well as sections on recognizing scholarly
articles, getting research help, giving presentations, and citing your sources in APA style.
Passport GMID: http://tinyurl.com/sfu-passport
Data and reports on consumers, markets, companies, and economies in over 350 markets and 207 countries
IBISWorld: http://tinyurl.com/sfu-ibisworld
Global industry, company, and country profiles and strategic analysis.
IPSOS News Center: http://tinyurl.com/sfu-ipsos
Survey-based reports with detailed data tables, demographic breakdowns, charts, and/or PowerPoint slides.
APA Business Citation Guide: http://tinyurl.com/sfu-apa-business
Descriptions and examples for citing a variety of documents, including scholarly journal articles.
Need more help?
Visit http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/ask-us/
Send us a text message! 604.724.5898
Scan the QR Code for the library’s mobile site!
Print Measurement Bureau Category Reports (aka “PMB Reports”)
Practice Questions
Access: http://cufts2.lib.sfu.ca/CRDB4/BVAS/resource/11020 or http://tinyurl.com/sfupmb or
Be sure to carefully read the database description at the link above. There are three different types of
reports available (Demographics, Readership, and Lifestyles/Attitudes), and some technical issues
involved in accessing them.
Not sure how to interpret the numbers in the reports? Start with our Reading the PMB Reports guide at
the end of this document. Check with one of the Business Librarians if you need help.
Demographics
1. Which age ranges tend to be over-represented among those who reported being Medium
drinkers of Energy/Sport drinks in the 7 days prior to the last study? ANSWER
2. Compare the demographics of those who reported heavy consumption of beer and those who
reported heavy consumption of wine (7 or more glasses in the 7 days prior to the study in both
cases). Do you see any differences in the ages and education levels of the two groups? Any
geographic similarities between the two groups? ANSWER
Readership
1. Is it accurate to claim that the readers of The Hockey News tend to be males in their late
teens/early 20s? ANSWER
2. Almost 1 in 6 (14.9%) of all Canadian households with kids under 3 read Today’s Parent
magazine: True or False? ANSWER
Lifestyles/Attitudes
1. What other leisure activities are the people who go golfing 10+ times a year (the heavy/frequent
golfers) most likely to be involved in? How about their least likely leisure activities? ANSWER
2. If you wanted to advertise a new car in a knitting magazine, should you stress the car’s reliability
and safety features or its appearance and speed? What if it was a magazine aimed at those who
are frequent downhill skiers? ANSWER
ANSWERS
Demographics
1. Medium users of Energy/Sport drinks who were over-represented were 12-17 (Index=132), 1824 (Index=163), and 25-34 (Index=190). Those aged 35-49 are also slightly over-represented
with an index number of 110.

This is based on the “01 PMB 2015 Spring - 2 YR DATABASE (DE)” survey results. When
newer surveys are published (a couple times a year), the numbers may change slightly, but
it’s unlikely that the significant trends will change that quickly.

Note that the index number compares the demographics of the people who say they
used/bought the product or service to the demographics of the population overall. An index
number of 100 means that the percentage of the product consumers who fit that
demographic category (e.g., “12-17 years old”) was the same as the percentage in the
whole population who fit that same category. An index number greater than 100 means
that the product consumers were more likely to be in that category than you’d expect given
the population overall. And, because the numbers are rough, the survey authors
recommend looking for numbers of 120 or greater to be sure that the trend is statistically
significant.
Back to Questions
2. Frequent beer vs frequent wine drinkers

Heavy beer drinkers are more likely to be 18-34, male, and West Asian, when compared to
their proportion of the population overall. Heavy wine drinkers, in contrast, are more likely
to be over 50, to be either male or female (slightly better chance of male, but not as strong
a connection as with beer drinkers), and to be Korean.

Both heavy beer drinkers and heavy wine drinkers are likely to have $50K+ in personal
income, to have no kids at home, and to live in Quebec.

(Note: this is based on the “01 PMB 2014 Fall - 2 YR DATABASE (DE)” survey results. It might
be interesting to change the survey to an older year to see if there has been a trend over
time.)
Back to Questions
Print Measurement Bureau Category Reports (aka “PMB Reports”): Practice Questions
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Readership
1. The Hockey News: Sort of... as with any statistics, it depends on how you look at the numbers:

Male? Yes. 76.9 of THN readers are male (vertical percentage), and, since close to 50% of
the population overall is male, that means that not just a large portion of the readers are
male, but that the number of male THN readers is significantly larger than you’d expect
given the population balance of male/female. (Index number of 156 indicates that males are
around 50% over-represented in this case.)

In their late teens/early 20s? This one is trickier. Although people in the 18-24 age range
are significantly over-represented in THN readership (an index number of 162), they only
make up 17.9% of all THN readers. A larger portion of the readers (27.7%) are 35-49. It’s
just that there are more 35-49 year olds in Canada overall (because it’s a 14-year range
compared to a 6-year range), so their index number is only 117.
The percentage of THN readers are in the 12-17 year old range is also quite high ((19.6), but
considering the number of 12-17 year olds in the population overall, they are definitely
over-represented among THN readers (index number of 251 means that there are more
than twice as many under-17 THN readers than you’d expect).
Back to Questions
2. 14.9% of households with babies (under 3 years old) are Today’s Parent readers?

TRUE – and note that this time you are looking at the behaviors of a specific demographic
group, so the number to pay attention to is the horizontal percentage (H%). Note that if I’d
asked about the percentage of Today’s Parent readers who have babies, you would instead
be looking at the vertical percentage.
Back to Questions
Lifestyles/Attitudes
1. What other leisure activities are the people who golf 10+ times a year (the heavy/frequent
golfers) most likely to be involved in? How about their least likely leisure activities?
For this one, go to Leisure, Restaurants, Tobacco and choose “Leisure Activities: Personally
Participate.” Then click on the link for the people who said they are Frequent/Heavy (10+/yr)
Golfers. Then change the report type in the upper left to “02 Report Type – Leisure.” (If you
don’t see that option, you may not have remembered to clear your cookies or change browsers
before viewing a different report type!) You’ll be scanning the vertical (V) percentage column to
see which activities are most/least frequently reported among the serious golfers.
Print Measurement Bureau Category Reports (aka “PMB Reports”): Practice Questions
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Most likely:


Walking/Hiking: 50.3 % of the frequent golfers like to go for walks. Again, not surprising.
Baking from scratch: 41.9% of the group enjoys baking.
Least likely:



Wind surfing (1.6%)
Attend figure skating events (1.6%)
Attend wrestling events (1.6%)
Back to Questions
2. If you wanted to advertise a new car in a knitting magazine, should you stress the car’s reliability
and safety features or its appearance and speed? What if it was a magazine aimed at those who
are frequent hunters?
Short answer: Assuming that the most likely readers of each of these magazines are going to be
those who most frequently (10+ times/year) take part in the activity, the knitters will likely care
more about safety and the hunters may prefer a car that is dependable and versatile.
Longer answer: Go to Leisure, Restaurants, Tobacco and choose “Leisure Activities: Personally
Participate.” Then click on the links for the people who said they are Frequent/Heavy (10+/yr)
Knitters or Hunters. Then change the report type in the upper left to “03 Report Type –
Clusters”.
You should find that:
 41.7% of the Knitters are in the “Driven by Safety” cluster vs. only 11.5% in the
“Capitalist Roadsters” or 8.9% in the “I Love My Wheels” group.

31.4% of the Hunters are in the “Car is a Tool” cluster while only 12.6% were classified
as “Driven by Safety.”

To find the description of these clusters, go to the main PMB site (it should already be
open in one of your windows/tabs) and click on “SEARCH/Resource Centre,” then on
“Cluster Descriptions.”
Back to Questions
Print Measurement Bureau Category Reports (aka “PMB Reports”): Practice Questions
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Reading the PMB Reports
Note: this data is from an older PMB
report. The current numbers in the
database will be somewhat different.
Vertical (V) percentage:

A measure of the demographic profile of the users of the product/service.

Of people in Canada who reported that they use [product/service & frequency], V% were
[demographic characteristic on the left side].

From the image above: Of people in Canada who reported that they drink Red Bull
Regular most often of all the Energy drinks, 22% were 18-24.
Horizontal (H) percentage:

A measure of the product/service choice of the people in a narrow demographic slice.

Of people in Canada who were [single demographic characteristic on the left], H%
reported using [product/service & frequency].

From the image above: Of people in Canada who were 18-24, 2.3% say they drink Red
Bull Regular most often of all the energy sport drinks.
Print Measurement Bureau Category Reports (aka “PMB Reports”): Practice Questions
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Index (I):

Gives you an indication of whether the V% is significant (i.e., substantially different from
background population numbers). How does the reported V% compare to the number
of people in the country overall who fit in that same demographic category?

For example, if 40% of the users of a product are 12-17 (a V% of 40), but only 10% of the
population is 12-17, then the Index (I) would be roughly (40/10)*100=400.

From the image above: The Index number of 18-24 year-olds who drink Red Bull Regular
most often is almost 200 (198), so the proportion of Red Bull Regular drinkers who are
18-24 is roughly twice the proportion of the population overall who are in the same age
range.

An I=100 means that for that demographic characteristic, the same percentage of
people are using the product/service as are in the population overall. An index number
considerably higher than 100 means that demographic characteristic is overrepresented among users of the product. Conversely, an index number significantly
below 100 equals under-representation. Both over- and under-representation are often
of interest to marketers.
Back to Questions
Print Measurement Bureau Category Reports (aka “PMB Reports”): Practice Questions
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