Sample profiles are collections of statistics that provide a demographic, attitudinal, and/or behaviour descriptions of the respondents from a survey.  Such profiles are typically, though not always, defined a priori to the questionnaire design and data collection phases of activities in a research project and directly tied to the research objectives and hypotheses.

For example, if it is hypothesized that the market can be segmented based on demographic variables such as gender, age, income, education, and the like, such variables become the key defining characteristics when presenting the results of the sample survey.  Systematic descriptive analyses will be conducted on these variables and an overall picture/description of the segments developed.  Additionally, some combinations of these variables can be used to form sub-groups of interest for further investigation.

Specific definitions of sample profiles are dependent on the research objectives and hypotheses, however, other possible sample segments could be along the following lines:

• Customer value segments (Top 20% customers vs. other 80%) if it is hypothesized that high volume customers may differ in terms of product features preferences than low volume, occasional users.
• Customer loyalty segments (Satisfied vs. dissatisfied customers) if it is hypothesized that satisfied customers are more likely to repurchase and/or advocate the companies products/services than dissatisfied customers.