Item-by-item sampling for promotional purposes

Abstract

In this paper we present a method for sampling items that are checked on a pass/fail basis, with a view to a statement being made about the success/failure rate for the purposes of promoting an organisation’s product/service to potential clients/customers. Attention is paid to the appropriate use of statistical phrases for the statements and this leads to the use of Bayesian credible intervals, thus it exceeds what can achieved with standard acceptance sampling techniques. The hypergeometric distribution is used to calculate successive stopping rules so that the resources used for sampling can be minimised. Extensions to the sampling procedure are considered to allow the potential for stronger and weaker statements to be made as sampling progresses. The relationship between the true error rate and the probabilities of making correct statements is discussed.