companies undertake surveys to learn about people's knowledge beliefs preferences and satisfaction and to measure these magnitudes in the general population. A company such as ANA might prepare its own survey instrument to gather the information it needs or it might add questions to an omnibus survey that carries the questions of several companies at a much lower cost it can also put the questions to an ongoing consumer panel run by itself or another company it may do a mall intercept study by having researchers approach people in a shopping mall and ask them questions