Questioning the research method

I was very much interested in the article KIDS in the Winning Strategy by Mr. Handi Irawan D, the managing director of Frontier Marketing & Research Consultants, in the May 23, 2001 edition of Marketing magazine, which was circulated on May 9. The current children's world is developing tremendously in line with the quick flow of information, products and services.

In that article, Mr. Handi used data from a survey made early in May 2001, involving 4,000 respondents in five cities. What surprised me was that his article appeared in the May 10 edition. How can all that research have been prepared so quickly? If the article's deadline for the May 23 edition was several days beforehand, Mr. Handi would have had to complete all that research and the article in a very short time.

To me, that seems very strange. As far as I know, this sort of research involves several phases preceded by a certain period of time for making questionnaires, collecting data and sifting through that information before the report analysis. I would like to know the method used by Mr. Handi to complete this survey within such a short time.

Every professional researcher should feel the need to achieve perfect results so they can be reliably used by those needing the data. I keep asking myself whether Mr. Handi's survey results were legitimate. I need an explanation!

YENI P. BAMBANG

Jakarta