A Bayesian Survey Technique for Rare Subjects

We propose a methodology to draw a representative sample from a population with a small fraction of potential customers for a certain product or a service. The objective is to increase the expected number of potential customers in a sample of fixed size representing the whole population. The method also provides a useful way of incorporating subjective judgement and uncertainty into the sampling plan. This approach has produced very satisfactory results for rare event problems in a number of telecommunications applications.