If you’re an upwardly mobile professional male, you probably know more about ISO 9001 registration than your female, blue-collar peers. Such were the findings of a study performed in the United Kingdom. Study authors James Tannock, of Nottingham University Business School, and Henry Brown, an undergraduate student at the university, used an in-home, face-to-face survey method to interview 1,012 British adults about their perceptions of the ISO 9000 series of standards, in particular, ISO 9001. Their goal: To figure out if consumers care about ISO registration when making purchasing decisions.

Just 26 percent of the respondents were aware of ISO 9000. Knowledge about the series was higher among men, those in higher-income groups, those in higher-status social groups and those between the ages of 35 and 54, the study found.

The survey also reports generally positive attitudes about ISO 9001 among those who knew about the standard. The best perceptions of ISO 9001, Tannock and Brown say, came from consumers who were “spontaneously” aware of it, and those who had purchased a product or service that was produced by an ISO 9001-registered company.

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