Marketing Research

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Marketing Research

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

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Chapter Eleven

• Attitude Measurement

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Attitude Measurement

• Majority of questions in marketing research are
  designed to measure attitudes
• Attitudes include
• Information possessed
• Feelings of like and/or dislike
• Intentions to behave
• Management wants to understand and influence
  behavior

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Reasons for Measuring Attitudes

• Attitudes lead to behavior
• More feasible to ask questions on attitudes than
  to observe and interpret behavior
• Large 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

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Components of Attitude

• Cognitive or Knowledge Component
• Represents a persons information about an object
• Awareness of existence on 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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Components of Attitude (Cont.)

• Affective or Liking Component
• Summarizes a persons overall feelings toward an
  object, situation, or person
• On a scale of like-dislike or favorable-unfavorabl
  e
• When there are several alternatives, liking is
  expressed in terms of preference
• Measured by asking which alternative is most
  preferred or first choice, which is the
  second choice, and so on

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Components of Attitude (Cont.)

• 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
• Advantage
• Incorporates information about a respondents
  ability or willingness to pay for the object, or
  other taken action

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Measurement and Scaling

• Measurement
• Standardized process of assigning numbers or
  other symbols to certain characteristics of
  objects of interests 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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Measurement and Scaling (Contd.)

• Scaling
• Process of creating a continuum on which objects
  are located according to the amount of the
  measured characteristic that the object possesses

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Measurement Scales

• 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

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Measurement Scales (Contd.)

• Ordinal Scale
• Rank objects or arrange them in order by some
  common variable
• Does each object have more or less of a variable
  than some other object?
• Does not provide information on how much
  difference between objects
• Arithmetic operations are limited to statistics
  such as median or mode

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Measurement Scales (Contd.)

• Interval Scale
• Numbers are assigned to objects that represent
  categories, rank orders, as well as how much the
  object is preferred on the attribute being
  measured
• Differences can be compared
• Entire range of statistical operations can be
  employed

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Measurement Scales (Contd.)

• Ratio Scale
• Type of interval scale with meaningful zero point
  
• Possible to say how many times greater or smaller
  one object is than another
• Magnitude scaling of attitudes has been
  calibrated through numeric estimation

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Attitude Rating Scales

• Present a respondent with a continuum of numbered
  categories that represent the range of possible
  attitude adjustments
• Single item or multiple item scales

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Classification of Attitude Scales
Attitude Scales
Multi-Item Scales
Single-Item Scales
Continuous Scales
Itemized Category Scales
Comparative Scales
Associative Scales
Semantic Differential Scale
Paired Comparison Scales
Q-sort Scales
Stapel Scales
Thurstone Scales
Likert Scales
Pictorial Scales
Constant Sum Scales
Rank Order Scales
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Single Item Scales

• Only have one item to measure a construct
• Itemized-category scale most widely used by
  marketing researchers
• Other single item scales
• Comparative
• Rank-order
• Q-sort
• Pictorial
• Constant sum

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Single Item Scales (Contd.)

• Itemized-category Scales
• Scales in which the respondent selects from a
  limited number of categories
• Comparative Scale
• A judgment comparing one object, concept, or
  person against one another

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Single Item Scales (Contd.)

• Rank-order Scales
• Scale in which the respondent compares one item
  with another or a group of items against each
  other and ranks them
• Q-sort Scaling
• Respondents sort comparative characteristics into
  normally distributed groups
• Ten or more groups increases accuracy of results

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Single Item Scales (Contd.)

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

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Single Item Scales (Contd.)

• Paired-Comparison Scales
• The brands to be rated are presented two at a
  time, so each brand in the category was compared
  once to every other brand
• Brands are rated on a given 10 pts. that are then
  divided between the two brands
• Advantages
• Performs well on the criteria
• Limitations
• Cumbersome to administer
• Frame of reference is always the other brand
  being tested these brands may change over time

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Designing Single Item Scales

• Number of Scale Categories
• Types of Poles Used in the Scale
• Strength of the Anchors
• Labeling of the Categories
• Balance of a Scale

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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

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Multiple-item Scales (Contd.)

• Likert Scale
• Requires respondent to indicate degree of
  agreement or disagreement with a variety of
  statements related to the attitude object
• Summated Scale
• Scores on individual items are summed to give
  total score for respondents
• Likert Scale Is Uni-dimensional

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Multiple-item Scales (Contd.)

• Thurstone Scales
• Also known as the method of equal-appearing
  intervals 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 of 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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Multiple-item Scales (Contd.)

• Thurstone Scales (Cont.)
• 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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Multiple-item Scales (Contd.)

• 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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Characteristics of Semantic Differential

• Scales in Semantic Marketing Applications
• Pairs of objects or phrases must be meaningful in
  market being studied and often correspond to
  product/service attributes
• Avoid "halo" effect by placing negative pole on
  either side
• 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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Characteristics of Semantic Differential (Contd.)

• Profile Analysis
• Application of semantic differential scale
• Plot mean ratings of 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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Multiple-item Scales (Contd.)

• 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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Multiple-item Scales (Contd.)

• 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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Multiple-item Scales (Contd.)

• 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
• Values can be interpreted as interval or ratio
  scaled data
• It is 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
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Include some items that will help in the
validation of the scale
Administer the items to an initial sample
Evaluate and refine the items
Finally, optimize the scale length
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Choosing An Attitudinal Scale

• Problems in choosing
• There are many different techniques, each with
  its own 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 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

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Accuracy of Attitude Measurements (Cont.)

• Concurrent validity
• Two variables are measured at the same time
• Predictive validity
• The attitude measure can predict some future
  event
• 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

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Accuracy of Attitude Measurements (Cont.)

• 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

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Accuracy of Attitude Measurements (Contd.)

• 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 in a country
• Semantic differential scale is closest to pan
  cultural scale
• Adapting response formats, particularly their
  calibration, for specific countries and cultures