Essentials of Marketing Research

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Essentials of Marketing Research

• Kumar, Aaker, Day
• Instructors Presentation Slides

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Chapter Eleven

• Designing the Questionnaire

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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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Designing the Questionnaire

• Logical Steps to Develop a Good Questionnaire
• Plan what to measure
• Formulate questions to obtain the needed
  information
• Decide on the order and wording of questions and
  the layout of the questionnaire
• Using a sample, test the questionnaire for
  omissions and ambiguity
• Correct the problems (pretest again, if necessary)

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Designing the Questionnaire (Contd.)

• Planning What to Measure
• Specify research objectives and information to be
  collected
• Relevance of the study
• Translating Research Objectives Into Information
  Requirements

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Designing the Questionnaire (Contd.)

• Formatting the Question
• Decision to be made regarding 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 precoded
  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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Organization of a Typical Questionnaire
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Questions must meet 4 requirements

• ? You must ask the right questions
• ? Respondents must understand the questions
• ? Respondents must know the answers
• ? Respondents must be willing to tell you those
  answers.

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Types of Questions

• 1. Open-response question
• People look for different things in a job. What
  would you prefer most in a job?
• 2. Close-response question
• People look for different things in a job. What
  would you prefer most in a job?
• Work that pays well
• Work that gives a sense of accomplishment
• Work where you make most decisions by yourself
• Work that is steady with little chance of being
  laid off.

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Open Ended Questions

• Open Ended Questions Are Good for the Following
  Circumstances
• Introduction to a survey or to a topic
• When it is important to measure the saliency of
  an issue to a respondent
• When there are too many responses to be listed,
  or they can't 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

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Open Ended Questions (Contd.)

• Advantages
• Wide range of responses
• Responses obtained without any influence
• Free choices

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Open Ended Questions (Contd.)

• Disadvantages
• Variability in the clarity and depth of the
  responses
• 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
• These type of questions are also time consuming
• Involves subjective judgements during
  summarization and are prone to error
• Expensive
• The answer to this type of question expands or
  contracts depending on the space or time
  available for it
• Respondents may not use the same frame of
  reference, when the options are not available

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Closed-response Questions

• There Are Two Basic Formats for Closed Ended or
  Structured Questions
• Choice from a list of responses
• Appropriate single-choice rating on a scale

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Closed-response Questions

• What type of fast-food restaurant do you visit
  most often?
• ?Burger ?Mexican
• ?Chicken ?Pizza
• ?Seafood ?Chinese
• ?Dont know ?Other (please specify)

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Closed-response Questions (Contd.)

• 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 of Closed Response Questions
• Disagreement among researchers on the type of
  responses that should 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

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Closed-response Questions (Contd.)

• Limitations of Closed Response Questions
  (Contd.)
• Good questions are hard to develop
• Provides fewer opportunities of self expression
• The list of alternative responses provides
  answers that might have not been considered by
  the respondent who are reluctant to admit
  ignorance, and thereby selecting a "reasonable"
  response

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Issues in Questionnaire Design

• Ideally, the multiple choices should be mutually
  exclusive.
• How many long-distance calls do make in a week?
• ? less than 5
• ? 5-10
• ? More than 10.

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Number of Response Categories

• Generally five to seven categories
• Ideally the multiple choices should be mutually
  exclusive

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Order of Response Categories

• Responses are likely to be affected by the order
  in which they are presented.
• What factor influences your fast-food restaurant
  choice most ?
• ? Convenient location
• ? Quality of food
• ? Menu selection
• ? Fast service
• ? Reasonable prices
• ? Brand name
• ? Cleanliness

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Order of Response Categories

• 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 make in a week?
• ? less than 5 ? less than 10
• ? 5-10 or ? 10-20
• ? More than 10. ? More than 20.

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Handling uncertainty

• Should respondents be provided with aDont know
  or No opinion option?
• Sometimes this is an easy way out
• Sometimes it is the true fact
• Error is introduced either way!

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Question Wording

• Care Has to Be Taken That
• 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

• Avoid ambiguous words
• How many times per month do you visit a fast-food
  restaurant?
• ? Never
• ? Occasionally
• ? Sometimes
• ? Often

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Question Wording

• Are any questions loaded?
• 1) Dont you think, because its 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

• Are any questions "double-barreled?
• Are you satisfied with the price and the service
  of Taco Bell?

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Question Wording

• Is the question applicable to all respondents?
• Why do you like fast-food?
• Assumes that respondent likes fast-food.

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Sequence And Layout Decisions

• Open with an easy and non threatening question
• The questionnaire should flow smoothly and
  logically from one topic to the next
• Proceed from broad general questions to the more
  specific

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Sequence And Layout Decisions (Contd.)

• Sensitive questions should not be placed in the
  beginning of the questionnaire
• Use good quality of paper
• Physical layout should be appealing and
  interesting
• Order bias

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Randomized Response Technique

• PYes PYesS.Q PS.Q PYesI.Q
  PI.Q
• where
• S.Q Sensitive Question
• I.Q Innocent Question

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Pretesting and Correcting Problems

• Pretest Design
• Pretesting Specific Questions For
• Variation
• Meaning
• Task difficulty
• Respondent interest and attention
• Pretesting the Questionnaire
• Flow of the questionnaire
• Skip patterns
• Length
• Respondent Interest and Attention

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Exercises

• Why did you purchase a Sony brand Walkman?
• ? Price was lower than other alternatives
• ? Feel it represents the highest quality
• ? Availability of local service
• ? Sound is better
• ? Warranty is better
• ? Looks good

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Exercises

• Have you ever listened to a Long John Silvers
  radio commercial?
• Which of the following restaurants do you visit
  frequently?
• ? Burger King
• ? Pizza Hut
• ? James Coney Island

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Exercises

• Do you agree that, since fast-food restaurants
  produce a disproportionate amount of waste, they
  should be subject to an additional environmental
  tax?
• ? Yes
• ? No

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Exercises

• How often do you eat fast food?
• ? Daily
• ? Every second day
• ? Once a week
• ? Every two weeks