Database Guide - Simmons Insights: Understanding Your Results

The Crosstab table needs interpreting to make sense out of the results of your query. First, lets look at what the numbers mean and then we will figure out what the data is telling us. For this Crosstab report  we chose the survey question - Which brand of cola do you drink most often? and only selected the Coke and Pepsi answers.

Survey Question - Which brand of cola do you drink most often? 

• Total:
• Total Row shows the total number of people who answered the question and the total respondents who drink either Coke or Pepsi most often. 
• Total Column shows the total total number of people who answered the question and the total number who were men and total who were women.
• Note: The numbers Total/Total box include ALL respondents to the question, not just Coke and Pepsi drinkers. There were more answer options on the survey.

• Sample: For this survey question, 24,456 people responded to the question.
• Weighted: If the whole adult U.S. population answered the survey, 225,702,000 people would have responded to this question.
• Vert%:
• Of the people who chose Pepsi as the brand they drink most often, 50.8% are Male and 49.2% are Female.
• Of the people who chose Coke as the brand they drink most often, 53% are Male and 47% are Female.
• Horz%: 
• Of the Males that answered the question, 44.2% drink Coke most often, 30.9% drink Pepsi most often.
• Of the Females that answered the question, 36.7% drink Coke most often, 28% drink Pepsi most often.
• Index:
• Males are more likely (110 and 105) to choose Coke or Pepsi as the brand they drink most often.
• Females are less likely (91 and 95) to choose Coke or Pepsi as the brands they drink most often.
• Total %:
• Males were 48.3% of the total respondents. Females made up 51%.
• Of all the Males who answered the question, 21.3% chose Coke and 14.9% chose Pepsi as the brand they drink most often.
• Of all the Females who answered the question, 19% chose Coke and 14.5% chose Pepsi as the brand they drink most often.

What valuable insights can you gain from this data? 

1. Men are more likely to drink Coke or Pepsi than average. The index values for men are 110 for Coke and 105 for Pepsi which are more than the base of 100. This also tells us that men are more likely to choose Coke over Pepsi when they select one of these as the brand they drink most.
   
   
2. Women are less likely than average to drink Coke or Pepsi as their preferred brand. The index values for women of 91 for Coke and 95 for Pepsi are less than the base of 100. When they do choose one of these brands, women are more likely to choose Pepsi over Coke as the brand they drink most. 
   
   
3. Of the total number of people who answered this question, only 40.3% drink Coke and 29.4% drink Pepsi most often. That means that the 30.3% chose some other brand as the brand they drank most often.
   
   
4. 53% of Coke's business is coming from men and 47% from women. Pepsi has 50.8% male users and 49.2% female. 
   
   
5. Only 28% of women are Pepsi drinkers and only 36.7% of women are Coke drinkers. 
   
   
6. It is estimated that 90,998,000 U.S. adults drink Coke most often and 66,380,000 drink Pepsi most often. 

What is this data not telling you?

1. Why they choose Coke or Pepsi more often. This data gives us no information about why someone likes Coke or Pepsi better.
    
2. What other brands people choose most often. We could go back and add that data to the chart using the Edit bar.
   
   
3. What are the rest of the women and men from the survey drinking? Adding in the rest of the brands from the answer and possibly doing a brand summary for diet drinks will give a better picture.
   
   
4. Who are these people? We could go back and add addtional demographic data such as age, race, income and if they own a dog or not to get more infomation on people who prefer Coke and Pepsi. This would require using the Coding Box.
   
   
5. Do the brand chosen most often Coke drinkers every choose a Pepsi? This question only asked about which brand they choose most often. It does not tell us anything about their overall choices and habits when selecting colas or other non-alcoholic drinks.

Sample: The number of people surveyed who meet both the column & row criteria. 

Weighted: The projected number of adults (18+) in the US who meet both the column & row criteria. Expressed in thousands.

Vert%: Percentage of the column category that matches/agrees with/uses the row category. NOTE: If you place brands in columns, use the Vert% to compare different brands on the % of their business coming from the categories shown in the rows.

Horz%: Percentage of the row category that matches/agrees with/uses the column category. 

Index: The likelihood of a target to meet a specified criteria, expressed in relation to the base of 100. Used to show how likely a consumer is to use a product, agree with a statement, etc. Numbers above 100 show MORE likely to use, buy, eat or wear something. Less than 100 shows LESS likely to do something.

Asterisk Notations: 
* means projections are relatively unstable and should be used with caution. 
** means results are from fewer than 30 respondents and are not be considered authoritative.