Field and tab
Field and tab refers to a limited set of services provided in the marketing research industry. The name refers to the task of fielding a questionnaire (that is, interviewing consumers or whomever is the target market, to get their response data to an array of questions), then tabulating the resulting data into convenient two-dimensional tables (called "cross-tabulations"), based on answers to at least two of the questions included in a survey.
| Answer choices | All Respondents | Males | Female |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voted for Democrat | 55% | 50% | 60% |
| Voted for Republican | 45% | 50% | 40% |
A field and tab research vendor will typically not be responsible for drafting a questionnaire or assisting on high-level sampling design discussions. Likewise, after the data has been collected and tabulated, the vendor will typically not interpret the resulting data nor prepare a deck of presentation slides. These responsibilities fall on the client (the research buyer) or on a consultant that the client may hire.
Field and tab is always a part of the offering of a full service research vendor. A full-service firm will sometimes offer only their field and tab component when the budget for a particular study is limited.
Bibliography
- Hague, Paul N., Market research: a guide to planning, methodology & evaluation (3rd edition), Kogan Page publisher, 2002.
