ChangeWave also surveyed consumers on how much of an effect Apple's iCloud announcement had on their plans to purchase an Apple product.

For four years, the agency has conducted the annual "PR Week" / Barkley Cause Survey, which surveys consumers, corporations and non-profits about cause marketing trends [1].

Sergei Nazarov, who surveyed stores and consumers in Sverdlovsk, theorized about why most consumers had not noticed a drastic falloff in their living standard.

"It's lowest-common-denominator humor," said David Blum, senior vice president at Eisner Communications in Baltimore, which surveys consumers each year on expectations about Super Bowl advertising.

So why weren't consumers surveyed on that choice?

"I do not think that people will stop buying," said Florence Skelly, of the Daniel Yankelovich Group, which surveys consumers.

The Cooper Marketing Group, a research company in Oak Park, Ill., has surveyed consumers the last several years and divided them into three color personalities.

Music companies like Warner and Sony are currently surveying consumers to see what they would buy.

"It does not surprise me that people are going out of business," said Phillip Barone, an analyst with Cyber Dialogue, a New York-based company that surveys online consumers of entertainment.

The society is surveying consumers and tour operators to help prepare the final questionnaire it will send to organizers of tours.