1525-0012-0195 US Mint Quantitative Consumer Research Ultra High Relief Gold Coin Silver Medal Research

1525-0012-0195

UNITED STATES MINT

QUANTITATIVE CONSUMER RESEARCH – Ultra High Relief Gold Coin / silver medal Research

7/18/2014

1. Introduction /Purpose of the Research

This collection request is for the United States Mint to conduct a new product research study seeking information about customer interest in a Ultra High Relief (UHR) gold coin and also a silver medal, both of which would have the same design, an image of Walking Liberty on the obverse and a redesigned Eagle on the reverse. This study is similar to several recent quantitative new product assessments the United States Mint has undertaken. Conducting research to test interest in new products is imperative before investing substantial resources in developing a new offering.

The results from this research study will assist the United States Mint’s Product Management Branch in validating interest and understanding the potential demand for both of these 2015 product offerings, including: 1) Ultra High Relief 24K gold coin and 2) silver medal with the Ultra High Relief gold coin design. The data collection will help ensure that customer interest and preference will inform the development of these product lines, which will in turn help ensure customer satisfaction and that the investment of organizational resources is maximized.

Part of the United States Mint’s mission is to produce and make collectible coin products available directly to the American public. Executive Order No. 12862 (September 1993), titled “Setting Customer Service Standards,” establishes a mandate for the government to improve and adhere to best practices when providing customer service directly to the American people, such as by conducting research to determine satisfaction with existing services and to ensure the kind and quality of services offered are aligned with those the public wants (Section 1b). To effectively accomplish these goals, the United States Mint utilizes a combination of accepted research methods that shed light on the awareness, satisfaction and preferences among the public as they relate to collectible coin products and services. The United States Mint Ultra High Relief Gold Coin/Silver Medal research survey is one of these instruments.

Conducting market research in advance of introducing new products and services, or before making changes to existing products and services, is vital to ensuring those decisions are as likely as possible to enhance customer satisfaction and maximize organizational efficiency. The United States Mint knows from experience that making new product and service decisions in the absence of a reliable information collection is likely to lead to undesirable outcomes in terms of customer satisfaction and organizational performance. The United States Mint is placing renewed emphasis on advance testing of new product concepts and changes to existing products to inform our decision making and improve customer and operational outcomes.

The consequences of not performing this collection are the United States Mint’s diminished ability to produce and offer collectible coin products that the public is interested in, and to maintain service levels that satisfy customers.

II. Sample Design and Methodology

The United States Mint Ultra High Relief Gold Coin/Silver Medal survey is designed to be web-based, with customers receiving an e-mail invitation to complete the survey. The targeted sample is a total of 2,800 United States Mint customers divided into five groups:

Description	Targeted Sample
Platinum and/or Gold coin who have also purchased medals	400
Platinum and/or Gold coin who have not also purchased medals	400
Silver (but not Gold and/or Platinum) who have also purchased medals	400
Silver (but not Gold and/or Platinum) who have not also purchased medals	400
General customers (not Platinum/Gold/Silver)	1,200
Total	2,800

The customer sample for the survey will be obtained from the customer database lists and will be selected randomly among the population of customers fitting the defined criteria.

Potential customer respondents will be sent email invitations to take the survey on-line. The survey should take no more than eight minutes to complete. Based on our historic response rates and our experience with this type of survey, we anticipate inviting 56,000 customers to respond to the survey in order to achieve the targeted 2,800 sample size. Collected survey data will be cleaned, weighted and tabulated.

Each of these groups will be divided among 4 monadic cells as follows:

	Plat and/or Gold coin who have also purchased medals	Plat and/or Gold coin who have not also purchased medals	Silver (but not Gold and/or Plat who have also purchased medals	Silver (but not Gold and/or Plat) who have not also purchased medals	General cust. (not Plat/ Gold/ Silver)	Sample for each Monadic Cell
UHR Alone (Monadic Cell A)	100	100	100	100	300	700
UHR with silver medal, each sold separately (monadic cell B)	100	100	100	100	300	700
UHR with silver medal as a set (monadic cell C)	100	100	100	100	300	700
UHR alone plus UHR and silver medal as a set (monadic cell D)	100	100	100	100	300	700
Total	400	400	400	400	1,200	2,800

3. Survey Design

As stated, this will be a web-based survey taking approximately eight minutes to complete. The survey is designed to assess interest in two areas: 1) UHR gold coin and 2) silver medal.

After asking several standard questions pertaining to screening, purchasing history, future intent and purchase likelihood, the survey presents a set of questions exploring appeal, likelihood to purchase, the quantity likely to purchase and the reason for their likelihood to purchase answer. Each respondent will answer for only 1 of the 4 monadic cells, which are explained in the previous section. Lastly, all respondents are asked a set of standard demographic questions, after which they have completed the survey.

3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates

This survey approach is designed to minimize the amount of intrusion and burden that is placed on customers. Accordingly, calls will not be made to them, nor will other “intrusive” measures that normally might be used to maximize response rates. We plan to send e-mail invitations to respondents explaining that participation is totally voluntary and that their feedback will be used to help improve the products and services we offer. Multiple reminder emails (e.g., one to two) will be sent to potential respondents to invite them to complete the survey. Respondents can complete the survey at a time convenient to them.

No monetary incentive will be offered to customers.

We ensure that our data provide reliable population-level inferences by carefully designing the sampling plan with appropriate strata and sample sizes and by weighting the data to account for the survey design and to adjust for non-response.

The United States Mint deals with non-response bias in a number of ways. First, question non-response (those who don’t answer a question but would otherwise complete the survey) is minimized by the survey tool, which requires respondents to make a selection for all questions. Second, survey non-response (people who don’t respond to the survey invitation and those who respond but don’t complete the survey) is minimized by keeping the survey short and as simple as practicable, allowing respondents to take the survey at a time convenient to them, and by sending reminder emails (usually one to two) to invitees who have not yet responded.

The United States Mint will account for non-response bias by weighting the survey data and applying other adjustment techniques where appropriate and available.

3. Estimate of the Burden Hours

The collection of information will involve completion of the survey via the Internet with up to 2,800 randomly selected customers. The average time to complete the survey will be approximately 8 minutes. Therefore, the total estimated burden for this survey is 373 hours.

	UHR Gold Coin / Silver Medal Survey
All respondents	2,800
Average minutes to complete survey	8 mins
Total estimated burden hours	373 hrs

If you have questions related to the review of this collection request, you may contact any of the following individuals at the United States Mint’s Sales and Marketing Department:

• Kathy Chiarello – kchiarello@usmint.treas.gov; 202-354-7809

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