Marketing Research

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Marketing Research

• Aaker, Kumar, Day
• Ninth Edition
• Instructors Presentation Slides

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Chapter Eleven
Attitude Measurement
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Attitude Measurement

• Used to understand and influence behavior since
• Concept exists that attitudes lead to behavior
• More feasible to ask questions on attitudes
  than to observe and
• interpret behavior
• Capacity for diagnosis and explanation
• Learn which features of a new product concept
  are acceptable or
• unacceptable
• Measure the perceived strengths and weaknesses
  of competitive
• alternatives

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What Are Attitudes?

• Mental states used by individuals to structure
  the way they perceive their environment and guide
  the way they respond to it
• Components of attitude
• Cognitive or Knowledge component
• Affective or Liking component
• Intention or Action component

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Cognitive or Knowledge Component

• Represents
• A persons information about an object
• Awareness of existence of the object
• Beliefs about the characteristics or attributes
  of the object
• Judgments about the relative importance of each
  of the attributes

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Affective or Liking Component

• Summarizes a persons overall feelings toward an
  object, situation, or person on a scale of
  like-dislike or favorable-unfavorable
• When there are several alternatives, liking is
  expressed in terms of preference for one
  alternative
• Preference measured by asking which alternative
  is most preferred or first choice, which is
  the second choice, and so on

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Intention or Action Component

• Refers to a persons expectations of future
  behavior toward an object
• Intentions are usually limited to a distinct time
  period that depends on buying habits and planning
  horizons
• Incorporates information about a respondents
  ability or willingness to pay for the object, or
  otherwise take action

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Concept of Measurement

• Standardized process of assigning numbers or
  other symbols to certain characteristics of
  objects of interest, according to pre-specified
  rules
• Characteristics for Standardization
• One-to-one correspondence between the symbol and
  the characteristic in the object that is being
  measured
• Rules for assignment should be invariant over
  time and the objects being measured

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Scaling

• Process of creating a continuum on which objects
  are located according to the amount of the
  measured characteristic possessed
• Type of scales
• Nominal
• Ordinal
• Interval
• Ratio

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Nominal Scale

• Objects are assigned to mutually exclusive,
  labeled categories
• No necessary relationships among categories
• No ordering or spacing are implied
• Only possible arithmetic operation is a count of
  each category

Are you 1) Caucasian 2) African-American 3)
Hispanic 4) Asian 5) Other
Are you a resident of Connecticut? Yes No
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Ordinal or Rank Scale

• Ranks objects or arranges them in order by some
  common variable
• Does not provide information on how much
  difference there is between objects
• Arithmetic operations are limited to statistics
  such as median or mode

Rank your preferences for the following
attributes in making a car purchase
decision Price ----------- Safety ----------- Des
ign ----------- Fuel economy ------------
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Interval Scale

• Numbers used to rank objects also represent equal
  increments of the attribute being measured
• Differences can be compared
• Entire range of statistical operations can be
  employed for analysis

On a scale of 1 to 7, how would you rate the
performance of natural gas as home heating fuel
in terms of reliability of supply? (1 being least
reliable and 7 being most reliable) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Ratio Scale

• Type of interval scale with meaningful zero point
  
• Possible to say how many times greater or smaller
  one object is than another
• Only scale that permits comparisons of absolute
  magnitude

How old are you? _________
What is your zip code?______
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Types of Scales and Their Properties
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Attitude Rating Scales

• Present a respondent with a continuum of numbered
  categories that represent the range of possible
  attitude adjustments
• Classified as
• Single item scales
• Multiple item scales

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Classification of Attitude Scales
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Single Item Scales

• Only have one item to measure a construct
• Types of Single item scales
• Itemized-category scale
• Comparative
• Rank-order
• Q-sort
• Pictorial
• Constant sum

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Itemized-category Scales

• Respondent selects from a limited number of
  categories

________ Very Satisfied _________
Quite Satisfied _________ Somewhat
Satisfied _________ Not at all
Satisfied
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Comparative Scale

• A judgment comparing one object, concept, or
  person against one another

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Rank-order Scales

• Respondent compares one item with another or a
  group of items against each other and ranks them

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Q-sort Scaling

• Respondents sort comparative characteristics into
  normally distributed groups
• Ten or more groups increases accuracy of results

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Pictorial Scales

• Various categories of the scale are depicted
  pictorially
• Thermometer Scale
• Funny faces scale
• Format must be comprehensible to respond and
  allow accurate response

Like very much
100 75 50 25 0
Dislike very much
1 2 3 4 5
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Types of Single Item Scales (Contd.)

• Paired-Comparison Scales
• The brands to be rated are presented two at a
  time, so each brand in the category is compared
  once to every other brand
• Brands are rated on a given number of points that
  are then divided between the two brands on the
  basis of respondents preferences
• Frame of reference is always the other brand
  being tested these brands may change over time

• Compare
• A and B
• A and C
• A and D
• B and C
• B and D
• C and D

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Constant-sum Scale

• Respondents allocate a fixed number of rating
  points among serial objects to reflect relative
  preference

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Designing Single Item Scales

• Decisions regarding form and structure
• Number of scale categories
• Types of poles used in the scale
• Strength of the anchors
• Labeling of the categories
• Balance of the scale

Balanced Very good ______ Good ______ Fair ______
Poor ______ Very Poor ______
Unbalanced Excellent ______ Very Good
______ Good ______ Fair ______ Poor ______
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Multiple-item Scales

• Developed to measure a sample of beliefs toward
  the attitude objects and combine the set of
  answers into an average score
• Types of multiple-item scales
• Likert scale
• Thurstone scales
• Semantic-Differential Scales

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Likert Scale

• Requires respondent to indicate degree of
  agreement or disagreement with a variety of
  statements related to the attitude object
• Also called Summated Scale since scores on
  individual items are summed to give total score
  for respondents
• Usually consists of item part and evaluative part
• Likert scale Is uni-dimensional

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Likert Scale Example
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Thurstone Scales

• Also known as the method of equal-appearing
  intervals since objective is to obtain a
  unidimensional scale with interval properties
• Step 1 Generate a large number of statements or
  adjectives reflecting all degrees of
  favorableness toward the attitude objects
• Step 2 A group of judges is given this set of
  items and asked to classify them according to
  their degree of favorableness or unfavorableness

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Thurstone Scales (contd.)

• Advantages
• Easy to administer
• Requires minimum instructions
• Limitations
• Time consuming
• Expensive to construct
• Not as much diagnostic value as a Likert scale
• Values depend on the attitudes of the original
  judges

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Semantic-Differential Scale

• Respondents rate each attribute object on a
  number of five or seven-point rating scales
  bounded by polar adjectives or phrases
• With bipolar scale, the midpoint is a neutral
  point

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Semantic-Differential Scale (contd.)

• Pairs of objects or phrases selected must be
  meaningful in market being studied and correspond
  to product/service attributes
• Rotate negative pole on either side to avoid
  "halo" effect
• Category increments are treated as interval
  scales so group mean values can be computed for
  each object on each scale
• May also be analyzed as a summated rating scale

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Profile Analysis

• Application of semantic differential scale
• Plot mean ratings for each object on each scale
  for visual comparison
• Overall comparison of brands hard to grasp with
  many brands and attributes
• Not all attributes are independent

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Stapel Scales

• Uses one pole rather than two opposite poles
• Respondents select a numerical response category
• High positive score reflects good fit between
  adjective and object
• Easy to administer and construct
• No need to assure bipolarity

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Associative Scaling

• Most effective for markets where respondent is
  knowledgeable only about a small subset of a
  large number of choices
• Appropriate to choice situations that involve a
  sequential decision process
• Best suited to market tracking where the emphasis
  is on understanding shifts in relative
  competitive positions

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Continuous Rating Scales

• Respondents rate objects by placing a mark at
  appropriate position on a line running from one
  extreme of the criterion variable to the other
• Also called graphical rating scales
• Easy to construct
• Scoring is cumbersome and unreliable

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General Guidelines For Developing A
Multiple-Item Scale
Determine clearly what you are going to measure
Generate as many items as possible
Ask experts in the field to evaluate the initial
pool of items
Determine the type of attitudinal scale to be used
Include some items that will help in the
validation of the scale
Administer the items to an initial sample
Evaluate and refine the items
Optimize the scale length
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Choosing An Attitudinal Scale

• Problems in choosing a scale
• Different techniques with different strengths and
  weaknesses
• Virtually any technique can be adapted to the
  measurement of any one of the attitude components
• Researchers choice shaped by
• The specific information required
• Adabtability of the scale to the data collection
  method and budget constraints
• Compatibility of the scale with the structure of
  the respondents attitude

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Accuracy of Attitude Measurements

• Validity An attitude measure has validity if it
  measures what it is supposed to measure
• Face or consensus Validity
• The extent to which the content of a measurement
  scale appears to tap all relevant facets of the
  construct
• Criterion Validity
• Based on empirical evidence that the attitude
  measure correlates with other criterion
  variables
• Concurrent validity
• Two variables are measured at the same time
• Predictive validity
• The attitude measure can predict some future event

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Accuracy of Attitude Measurements (Cont.)

• Convergent validity
• A form of construct validity that represents the
  association between the measured construct and
  measures of other constructs with which the
  construct is related on theoretical grounds
• Discriminant validity
• A form of construct validity that represents the
  extent to which the measured construct is not
  associated with which the construct is related on
  theoretical grounds
• Construct Validity
• A scale evaluation criterion that relates to the
  underlying question "what is the nature of the
  underlying variable or construct measured by the
  scale?"

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Accuracy of Attitude Measurements (Contd.)

• Reliability
• The consistency with which the measure produces
  the same results with the same or comparable
  population
• Sensitivity
• Extent to which ratings provided by a scale are
  able to discriminate between the respondents who
  differ with respect to the construct being
  measured
• Generalizability
• Refers to the ease of scale administration and
  interpretation in different research settings and
  situations
• Relevancy
• Relevance reliability validity

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Scales in Cross-national Research

• Responses Can Be Affected by
• Low literacy and educational levels
• Culture semantic differential scale is closest
  to pan-cultural scale
• Adapting response formats, particularly their
  calibration, for specific countries and cultures