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Target market population. First off, the big companies asking the questions (and paying for the answers) have a particular market or population segment in mind. If they sell, let's say, ladies underwear, for example, they want to know the opinions of those people who buy ladies underwear. Probably the segment of the overall population that is likely to buy ladies underwear can be narrowly defined to include the ladies themselves (principle buyers) and the ladies' husbands and boyfriends (also sometime buyers). So the only valid opinions, the only opinions the big company is interested in, are those of that segment of the population that is composed of people in one of those three categories, with major focus on the first group, the ladies themselves. All other opinions are irrelevant and worthless to the researchers because they have no predictive value in the ladies underwear market. Further, if they distribute and sell their products only in the USA in states east of the Mississippi and south of Pennsylvania, the only valid opinions would be from ladies, husbands and boyfriends who live in that specific area where their products are sold. So before you can reasonably ask anyone your survey questions you have to determine whether or not that individual is a member of the relevant target population. If the prospective survey taker is thus qualified you can go on to the next point,
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