Marketing Research

1. Marketing Research Aaker, Kumar, Day, and Leone Tenth Edition Instructor’s Presentation Slides

2. Chapter Twelve Designing the Questionnaire

3. Designing the Questionnaire Questionnaire building is an art! A questionnaire is always custom-built!

4. 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

5. The Process of Questionnaire Design (Contd.) SEQUENCING AND LAYOUT DECISIONS Lay out the questions in a meaningful sequence Group all the questions in each subtopic to build 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

6. Designing the Questionnaire

7. 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

8. 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? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. Open Response Questions (Contd.)

10. Open Ended Questions (Contd.)

11. Closed Response Questions Two Basic Formats for Closed Ended or Structured Questions:

12. Closed Response Questions (Contd.)

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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

16. Using Both Open-Response & 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

17. Question Wording

18. 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?

19. 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!

20. 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) • Pancakes • Frosted Flakes • Other (what)?

21. Asking Sensitive Questions (Cont.) • The everybody approach “As you know, many people have been eating FrostedFlakes for breakfast. Do you eat Frosted Flakes?” • The “other people” approach “Do you know of any adult who eats Frosted Flakes?” “How about yourself?”

22. 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 Look into respondent’s eyes and ask in simple clear-cut language “Do you eat Frosted Flakes for breakfast?”

23. Asking Sensitive Questions (Contd.) • 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. Organization of a Typical Questionnaire

28. Order Bias: Does The Question Create The Answer?

29. Pretest Design Pretesting Specific Questions For: 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

30. 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.