PPM Evidently Doesn't Solve All The Problems

"NEW YORK -- October 12, 2007: Recruiting 18-34-year-olds to join Portable People Meter panels is still a problem, said Arbitron SVP/Chief Research Officer Bob Patchen at Friday's conference call to discuss the status of the PPM rollout. "

So reports today's Radio Ink email.

Things are not getting better, are they?

For years, we worried about the difficulty of getting 18-24 men to fill out and return diaries. And we still worry. But now, the entire 18-34 demo is a problem? The 18-24 group is coming at 62% of the target rate. And in some parts of New York, the entire 18-34 group is coming in at 55%.

This is progress?

The answer from Arbitron is to show them the money.

Yes, that will work. But there is a real danger here. It is possible that people who won't carry a harmlesss little PPM around unless you pay them a lot of money are in some important ways different from the people who cooperate for a lower incentive.

Given the complexity of human motivations, how are we going to understand this? I think it could be argued that every participant should receive the exact same incentive. Instead, Arbitron will do this only when needed to get the response rate needed. But in the world of research, "more quantity" does not mean "more quality".

It is a problem with no easy answer. If it were easy, Arbitron would not still be struggling with it after 30+ years.

What is it about 18-34 year olds? I understand the difficulty of filling out a diary. But the little pager? It seems so easy.

What do you think?