Confidence level or confidence interval in market research is defined as the amount of certainty that the true values of the data lie within the stated number in your market research study. The industry standard for confidence level in market research is typically 95%. Other common confidence levels used in market research are 90% or 99%.
Confidence interval usually ties into a margin of error in market research which is typically aimed to be +/- 5% or lower. Political polling is normally +/- 2%. So if you are reading a report that states the margin of error is +/- 5% at the 95% confidence interval, what this means is that if the survey was conducted 100 times, 95 out of the 100 times, the results would yield within 5% of each stated total in the report. I have always thought that was a nice summary of confidence level in market research. Clear and succinct like this blog post.
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