What will pollsters do now?
Now that the election is over, polling companies need something to do. Nancy Marshall Genzer takes a look at how they pay the bills -- from polling for media companies to conducting market research.
A voter casts her ballot November 4, 2008 on the west side of Chicago (Michal Czerwonka/Getty Images)
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TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: Pollsters were on a feeding frenzy during the presidential election. And now that the election is over, they're taking a deep breath and thinking, now what? Marketplace's Nancy Marshall Genzer takes a look at how polling companies make money after the election.
Nancy Marshall Genzer: This was the fourth presidential election John Zogby has polled for. He's exhausted.
John Zogby: I'm ready to kind of slow it down, a little bit.
But things never really slow down for Zogby, the CEO of Zogby International. Political polling is dessert for Zogby. His bread and butter? Polling for governments and consumer surveys.
Zogby: We turned a foot cream into a foot ointment because that's what the public said that they wanted.
Zogby does most of his election polling for media companies. That only accounts for about 9 percent of his revenues.
Same thing for pollster Mike Riley. He's CEO of Riley Research Associates. His post election plans? Marketing research.
Mike Riley: Will the customers buy this new product? Where will they buy it? What color should it be?
Not as riveting as predicting the next leader of the free world, but hey, it pays the bills.
In Washington, I'm Nancy Marshall Genzer, for Marketplace.
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