Marketing Research

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Marketing Research

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

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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?-----------------------------
---------------------------------------------
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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 ? Quality of food
• ? Menu selection ? Fast service
• ? Reasonable prices ? Brand name
• Cleanliness
• 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 ? less than 10 ? 5-10
or ? 10-20 ? More than 10. ? More than 20.
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Handling Uncertainty and Ignorance

• Concerns the handling of dont 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 Closed-Response
Questions

• Probe
• Using an open-response question to follow up a
  closed-response 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) 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 (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 Kelloggs 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)
• Pancakes
• Frosted Flakes
• 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 peoples 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 respondents 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

• PYes PYesS.Q PS.Q PYesI.Q
  PI.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?

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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.