Transcript Marketing Research

Marketing Research
Aaker, Kumar, Day
Ninth Edition
Instructor’s Presentation Slides
1
Chapter Twelve
Designing the Questionnaire
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Designing the Questionnaire
Questionnaire building
is an art!
A questionnaire
is always custom-built!
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The Process of Questionnaire Design
PLANNING WHAT TO MEASURE
Revisit the research objectives
Decide on the research issue of your questionnaire
Get additional information on the research issue from secondary data
sources and exploratory research
Decide on what is to be asked under the research issue
FORMATTING THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Determine the content of each question.
Decide on the format of each question
QUESTION WORDING
Determine how the question is worded
Evaluate each research question on the basis of comprehensibility, knowledge and
ability, willingness/inclination of a typical respondent to answer the question
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The Process of Questionnaire Design
(contd.)
SEQUENCING AND LAYOUT DECISIONS
Lay out the questions in a proper sequence
Group all the questions in each subtopic to get a single questionnaire
PRETESTING AND CORRECTING PROBLEMS
Read through the whole questionnaire to check whether it makes sense and it
measures what it is supposed to measure
Check the questionnaire for error
Pretest the questionnaire
Correct the problems
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Designing the Questionnaire
Planning What to Measure
 Specify research objectives and information to be collected
 Determine relevance and scope of the study
 Pretest preliminary versions of the questionnaire
Translating Research Objectives Into Information Requirements
 Questions should address hypotheses to be tested
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Designing the Questionnaire (Contd.)
Formatting the Question
Decide on the degree of freedom to be given to the
respondents in answering the questions
Alternatives
• Open ended with no classification
• Open ended where the interviewer uses pre-coded
classifications to record the response
• Close ended or structured format in which a question
or a supplementary card presents the responses to
be considered
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Open-Response Questions
 For introduction to a survey or to a topic
 When it is important to measure the salience of an issue to a
respondent
 When there are too many responses to be listed, or they cannot be
foreseen
 When verbatim responses are desired to give the flavor of people's
answers or to cite examples
 When the behavior to be measured is sensitive or disapproved
How do you feel about the public
transportation in downtown Hartford?------------------------------------------------------------------------Marketing Research 9th Edition
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Open Response Questions (Contd.)
Advantages
 Wide range of responses
 Responses obtained without any influence
 Free choices
Disadvantages
 Variability in the clarity and depth of the responses depends
on
 Articulateness of the respondent in personal interview
 Willingness to compose a written answer for a mail survey
 Interviewer's ability to record the verbatim answers quickly
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Open Ended Questions (Contd.)
Disadvantages (Cont.)
 Time consuming
 Involves subjective judgements during summarization and
are prone to error
 Expensive
 Answers expand or contract depending on the space or time
available
 Respondents may not use the same frame of reference
when the options are not available
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Closed Response Questions
Two Basic Formats for Closed Ended or Structured Questions:
 Choice from a list of responses
 Appropriate single-choice rating on a scale
Advantages
 Easier to answer
 Require less effort by the interviewer
 Tabulation and analysis is easier
 Less potential error in the way the question is asked and the way
it is recorded
 The responses are directly comparable from respondent to
respondent
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Closed Response Questions (Contd.)
Limitations
 Disagreement among researchers on the type of responses to be
listed
 The answer to a closed response question will be received no matter
how relevant or irrelevant the question is in that context
 May not produce meaningful results
 Dichotomous questions are prone to a large amount of measurement
error because the alternatives are polarized
 Provides fewer opportunities of self expression
 Alternative responses provides answers not considered by the
respondent , leading to selection of a "reasonable" response
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Designing The Questionnaire (contd.)
Number of Response Categories
 Generally five to seven categories
 Ideally the multiple choices should be mutually exclusive
Order of Response Categories : can affect responses
What factor influences your fast-food restaurant choice most ?
 Convenient location
 Menu selection
 Reasonable prices
 Cleanliness
 Quality of food
 Fast service
 Brand name
 To prevent order bias, place the average or expected response at
various positions in the sequence of categories
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Range of Response Categories
 Respondents who do not know the answer might take
categories as cues.
How many long-distance calls do you make in a week?
 less than 5
 5-10
 less than 10
 10-20
or
 More than 10.
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 More than 20.
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Handling Uncertainty and Ignorance
Concerns the handling of “don’t know” and neutral
responses
 May be advisable to provide the interviewer with an
additional “no answer” category to identify these people
correctly
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Using Both Open-Response And ClosedResponse Questions
Probe:
Using an open-response question to follow up a closedresponse question
Two general purposes for the use of probes:
 Pinpoint questions that were particularly difficult for
respondents
 Aid researcher interpretation of respondent answers
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Question Wording
 Is the vocabulary simple, direct, and familiar to all respondents?
 Do any words have vague or ambiguous meanings?
 Are any questions " double-barreled”?
 Are any questions leading or loaded?
 Are the instructions potentially confusing?
 Is the question applicable to all respondents?
 Are the questions of appropriate length?
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Question Wording (contd.)
 Avoid ambiguous words
How many times per month do you visit a fast-food restaurant?
 Never
 Occasionally
 Sometimes
 Often
 Check if any of the questions are loaded
1) Don’t you think, because it’s so greasy, fast-food is one of the worst
types of food?
2) Do you prefer a hamburger that is grilled on a hot stainless-steel grill
or cooked by passing the raw meat through an open gas flame?
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Question Wording (contd.)
 Are any questions "double-barreled”?
Are you satisfied with the price and the service of Taco Bell?
 Is the question applicable to all respondents?
Why do you like fast-food?
Assumes that respondent likes fast-food!
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Asking Sensitive Questions
Example : Consumption of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes

The casual approach
“Have you eaten ‘Frosted Flakes’ within the last week?

The numbered card
“Would you please read off the number on this card that
corresponds to what you had eaten for breakfast in the last
week?” (Hand card to respondent)
1.
Pancakes
2.
Frosted Flakes
3.
Other (what)?
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Asking Sensitive Questions (Cont.)
 The everybody approach
“As you know, many people have been eating Frosted Flakes for
breakfast. Do you eat Frosted Flakes?”
 The “other people” approach
“Do you know of any adult who eats Frosted Flakes?”
“How about yourself?”
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Asking Sensitive Questions (Contd.)
The sealed ballot technique
Explain that the survey respects people’s right to anonymity with
respect to their eating habits
and
Respondents themselves are to fill out the answer to the question,
seal it in an envelope, and drop it in a box conspicuously labeled
“sealed ballet box” carried by the interviewer
The Kinsey approach
Stare firmly into respondent’s eyes and ask in simple clear-cut
language “Do you eat Frosted Flakes for breakfast?”
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Asking Sensitive Questions (Cont.)
Randomized Response Technique
 The respondent is asked to answer one or two randomly selected
questions without revealing which question has been answered
 Questions:
 Sensitive
 Innocuous
Since the interviewer records a “yes” or “no” answer without knowing
which question has been answered, the respondent feels free to
answer honestly
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Randomized Response Technique
P[Yes] = P[Yes|S.Q] * P[S.Q] + P[Yes|I.Q] * P[I.Q]
where
S.Q = Sensitive Question
I.Q = Innocent Question
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Sequence And Layout Decisions
 Open with an easy and non-threatening question
 Ensure that questionnaire has smooth and logical flow from
one topic to the next
 Proceed from broad general questions to more specific ones
 Do not place sensitive or difficult questions dealing with
income status, ability etc at the beginning of the
questionnaire
 Use good quality of paper
 Make physical layout appealing and interesting
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Organization of a Typical Questionnaire
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Order Bias: Does The Question Create The
Answer?
Questions Preceding Buying
Interest Question
Percentage of Respondents
“Very Much Interested” in
Buying New Product
1. No question asked
2.8
2. Asked only about
advantages
16.7
3. Asked only about
disadvantages
0.0
4. Asked about both
advantages and disadvantages
5.7
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Pretest Design
 Pretesting Specific Questions For:

Variation
 Meaning
 Task difficulty
 Respondent interest and attention
 Pretesting the Questionnaire to:

Test flow of the questionnaire for clarity and logic
 Ensure that skip patterns are clear and well laid out
 Time each section so that questionnaire does not appear very long
 Capture and maintain respondent interest and attention
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Considerations in Questionnaire
Design for International Research
 Open-ended questions avoid the imposition of cultural bias by the
researcher since they do not impose any structure or response categories.
 If the topic is perceived as sensitive by the respondent, it is better to use
an indirect format than a direct one.
 Where research is conducted in countries or cultures with high levels of
illiteracy, it is often desirable to use nonverbal stimuli such as show cards.
 The wording of questions has to be changed according to the country in
which the questionnaire is being administered since categories, such as
income, education, occupation, or the dwelling unit, are not always exactly
comparable from one culture or country to another.
 The most significant problems in drawing up questions in multi-country
research are likely to occur in relation to attitudinal, psychographic, and
lifestyle data.
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