Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation

Seventh Edition, Global Edition

Chapter 10
Survey & Questionnaire
Design

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Chapter Objectives
• 1. Survey Methods
• 2. Advantages of Survey Methods
• 3. Disadvantages of Survey Methods
• 4. A classification of Survey Methods
• 5. Questionnaire Design Process

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1)Survey Methods
Survey method
A structured questionnaire given to a sample of a population
and designed to elicit specific information from respondents.
Structured data collection (the degree of standardization)
Use of a formal questionnaire that presents questions in a
prearranged order.

The classification of research as direct or indirect is based

on whether the true purpose is known to the respondents.
A direct approach is nondisguised in that the purpose of the
project is disclosed to the respondents or is otherwise
obvious to them from the questions asked.
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Survey Methods
In a typical questionnaire, most questions are fixed-
alternative questions.
Fixed-alternative questions: Questions that require
respondents to choose from a set of predetermined answers.

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2)Advantages of Survey Methods
• First, the questionnaire is simple to administer.
• Second, the data obtained are reliable because the
responses are limited to the alternatives stated.
• The use of fixed-response questions reduces the variability
in the results that may be caused by differences in
interviewers.
• Finally, coding, analysis, and interpretation of data are
relatively simple.

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Disadvantages of Survey Methods
• Respondents may be unable or unwilling to provide the
desired information.
• Respondents may be unwilling to respond if the
information requested is sensitive or personal.
• Wording questions properly is not easy.

Copyright © 2020 by Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

A Classification of Survey Methods
Figure 6.1 A Classification of Survey Methods

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Questionnaire Design Process
Step 1: Specify the information needed
• The research project progresses, the information
needed can become more clearly defined.
• It is helpful to review the components of the problem
and the research questions, and hypotheses.
• It is also vital to have a clear idea of the target
participants. The characteristics of the participant group
have a great influence on questionnaire design (The
wording and style of questions may be appropriate for
specific people but may not be appropriate for others).
The more diversified the participant group, the more
difficult it is to design a single questionnaire appropriate
for the entire group.
 Step 2: Specify the type of interviewing
method
• An appreciation of how the type of interviewing method
influences questionnaire design.
• Online and postal surveys are self-administered, so the questions
must be simple, and detailed instructions must be provided. In
online surveys and computer-assisted interviewing, skip patterns
and randomization of questions to eliminate order bias can be
easily accommodated.
• In face-to-face interviews, participants see the questionnaire and
interact with the interviewer. Thus, lengthy, complex and varied
questions can be asked.
• In telephone interviews the participants interact with the
interviewer, but they do not see the questionnaire. This limits the
type of questions that can be asked to be very short and simple
ones.
 Example
Online & postal Questionnaire design
• Please rank order the following department stores in
order of your preference to shop at these stores. Begin
by picking out the one store that you like most and
assign it a number 1. Then find the second most
preferred department store and assign it a number 2.
Continue this procedure until you have ranked all the
stores in order of preference. The least preferred store
should be assigned a rank of 10. No two stores should
receive the same rank number.
Store Rank Order
1. Carefoure ____________
2. Hyper
3. Seoudi ____________

10. Spinneys ____________

Telephone Questionnaire
I will read to you the names of some department stores.
Please rate them in terms of your preference to shop at these
stores. Use a ten-point scale, where 1 denotes not so
preferred and 10 denotes greatly preferred. Numbers
between 1 and 10 reflect intermediate degrees of preference.
Again, please remember that the higher the number, the
greater the degree of preference. Now, please tell me your
preference to shop at .......(READ ONE STORE AT A TIME)
Store Not So Preferred Greatly Preferred
1. Carrefour 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2. Hyper 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
3. Seoudi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
.
.
10. Spinneys 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Face to face Questionnaire
• (HAND DEPARTMENT STORE CARDS TO THE RESPONDENT.)
Here is a set of department store names, each written on a
separate card. Please examine these cards carefully. (GIVE
RESPONDENT TIME.) Now, please examine these cards
again and pull out that card which has the name of the
store you like the most, i.e., your most preferred store for
shopping. (RECORD THE STORE NAME AND KEEP THIS
CARD WITH YOU.) Now, please examine the remaining nine
cards. Of these remaining nine stores, what is your most
preferred store for shopping? (REPEAT THIS PROCEDURE
SEQUENTIALLY UNTIL THE RESPONDENT HAS ONLY ONE
CARD LEFT.)
Store Rank Name of the Store
1 __________________
2 __________________
10 __________________
Step3: Determine the content of individual
questions
Is the question necessary?
• Every question in a questionnaire should
contribute to the information needed or serve
some specific purpose. If no, that question
should be eliminated.
• However, it’s useful to ask some neutral
questions at the beginning to establish
involvement.
• At times, certain questions may be duplicated
for the purpose of assessing reliability or
validity.
• Do you think Pepsi is a tasty and refreshing
soft drink?” (Incorrect)
OR
Do you think Pepsi is a tasty soft drink?” and
“Do you think Pepsi is a refreshing soft drink?”
(correct)
Are several questions needed instead of one?
• Once we have determined that a question is necessary, we
must make sure that it is sufficient to get the desired
information.
• Sometimes several questions are needed to obtain the
required information in an unambiguous manner. Consider
the question
“Do you think Pepsi is a tasty and refreshing soft drink?”
A yes answer will presumably be clear, but what if the
answer is no?
• It’s called double barreled question; because two or more
questions are combined into one.
• To obtain the required information, two distinct questions
should be asked:
“Do you think Pepsi is a tasty soft drink?” and
“Do you think Pepsi is a refreshing soft drink?”.
Step4: Overcoming the participant’s inability
and unwillingness to answer
• Researchers should not assume that participants
can provide accurate answers to all questions
posed to them (assuming that they are willing
to!).
• The researcher should attempt to overcome the
participants’ inability to answer.
• Certain factors limit the participants’ ability to
provide the desired information; The participants
may not be informed, may not remember, or
may be unable to articulate certain types of
responses.
WHY UNABLE
Is the participant informed?
• Participants are often asked about topics on which
they are not informed.
• In situations where not all participants are likely to be
informed about the topic of interest, filter questions
that measure familiarity, product use and past
experience should be asked before questions about the
topics themselves.
• The use of online, CATI and CAPI surveys allows
extensive filtering.
• A “don't know” option appears to reduce uninformed
responses without reducing the response rate.
Can the participant remember?
• Many things that we might expect everyone to
know are remembered by only a few.
• Test this on yourself. Can you remember the
brand name of the socks you are wearing
(assuming you are wearing socks), what you
had for lunch a week ago?.......
E.g. Solution: short time frame
How many liters of soft drinks did you consume
during the last four weeks?
(Incorrect )
How often do you consume soft drinks in a typical
week?
( Correct )
1. ___ Less than once a week
2. ___ 1 to 3 times per week
3. ___ 4 to 6 times per week
4. ___ 7 or more times per week
Is the participant able to articulate?
• Participants may be unable to articulate certain
types of responses. For example, if asked to
describe the ‘atmosphere’ of a cinema, most
participants may be unable to phrase their
answers. On the other hand, if the participants
are provided with alternative descriptions of
cinema atmosphere, they will be able to indicate
the one they like the best.
• If the participants are unable to articulate their
responses to a question, they are likely to ignore
that question and refuse to respond to the rest
of the questionnaire. Thus, participants should
be given aids such as pictures, maps,
descriptions to help them articulate their
responses.
WHY UNWILLING?
Effort required of the participants
• Most participants are unwilling to devote a lot
of effort to providing information. Hence, the
researcher should minimize the effort required
of the participants…..solution is to (list vs.
provide a list)
E.g.
Please list all the departments from which you
purchased merchandise on your most recent
shopping trip to a department store.
( Incorrect )
In the list that follows, please check all the
departments from which you purchased
merchandise on your most recent shopping trip to a
department store.
1. Women's dresses ____
2. Men's apparel ____
3. Children's apparel ____
4. Cosmetics ____
.
.
.
16. Jewelry ____
17. Other (please specify) ____ ( Correct )
Sensitive information
• Participants may be unwilling to disclose, at
least accurately, sensitive information because
this may cause embarrassment or threaten the
participants’ prestige or self-image, or be seen
as too personal.
Solution to sensitive information---Legitimate
purpose
• Participants are also unwilling to reveal
information that they do not see as serving a
legitimate purpose.
• Explaining why the data are needed can make
the request for the information seem legitimate
and may increase the participants’ willingness
to answer (e.g. part of research project/ new
flavors/ improve current procedures).
Increasing the Willingness of Respondents
• Place sensitive topics at the end of the
questionnaire.
• Ask the question using the third-person
technique; phrase the question as if it referred to
other people.
• Hide the question in a group of other questions
which respondents are willing to answer.
• Provide response categories rather than asking
for specific figures.
(e.g. Don’t ask “What’s your annual income?”,
instead ask the respondents to indicate an
appropriate income category)
 Step5: Choosing Question Structure
• A question may be unstructured or structured.
A. Unstructured questions “They are open-ended questions
that participants answer in their own words.” They are also
referred to as free-response or free-answer questions.
some examples:
• What is your occupation?
• What is your favorite brand?
• Open-ended questions can be good first questions on a
topic. They enable the participants to express general
attitudes and opinions that can help the researcher
interpret the responses to structured questions.
• They can also be useful as a final question in a
questionnaire. So that they can have a chance to express
what they feel to be important.
B. Structured questions
• They specify the set of response alternatives and the
response format. A structured question may be multiple
choice, dichotomous or a scale.
1. multiple-choice questions, the researcher provides a
choice of answers and respondents are asked to select one or
more of the alternatives given.
E.g. Do you intend to buy a new car within the next six
months?
____ Definitely will not buy
____ Probably will not buy
____ Undecided
____ Probably will buy
____ Definitely will buy
____ Other (please specify)
• The concern in designing multiple-choice
questions is the number of alternatives that should
be included and the order of potential responses,
Researcher should avoid position bias.
• The response alternatives should include the set of
all possible choices. The general guideline is to
list all alternatives that may be of importance and
to include an alternative labelled ‘other (please
specify)’.
• Participants should also be able to identify one,
and only one alternative, unless the researcher
specifically allows two or more choices
2. A dichotomous question has only two response
alternatives: yes or no, agree or disagree, and so
on.
• Often, the two alternatives of interest are
supplemented by a neutral alternative, such as
“no opinion,” “don't know,” “both,” or “none.”
• E.g. Do you intend to buy a new car within the
next six months?
_____ Yes
_____ No
_____ Don't know
3. Scales.
• To illustrate the difference between scales and
other kinds of structural questions, Ex: I prefer
written examination compared with continual
assessment
 Step 6: Choose question wording
• Question wording is the translation of the desired
question content into words that participants can
clearly and easily understand.
• Deciding on question wording is perhaps the
most critical and difficult task in developing a
questionnaire.
• If a question is worded poorly, participants may
refuse to answer it, or answer it incorrectly. The
first condition, known as item non-response, can
increase the complexity of data analysis. The
second condition leads to response error.
 To avoid these problems, we offer the following
guidelines:
6/a) Define the issue
• A question should clearly define the issue being
addressed, in terms of who, what, when, where,
why and way (the six Ws).

• Which brand of shampoo do you use?

OR
Which brand or brands of shampoo have you
personally used at home during the last month?
In case of more than one brand, please list all the
brands that apply.
 Step 6: Choose question wording
6/a) Define the issue
The W's Defining the Question
Who The Respondent
It is not clear whether this question relates to the individual
respondent or the respondent's total household.
What The Brand of Shampoo
It is unclear how the respondent is to answer this question if
more than one brand is used.
When Unclear
The time frame is not specified in this question. The respondent
could interpret it as meaning the shampoo used this morning,
this week, or over the past year.
Where Unclear
At home, at the gym, at club?
6/b)- Use ordinary words
• Ordinary words should be used in a
questionnaire. They should match the
vocabulary level of the target participants
and/or be supplemented with graphic/visual
support to convey issues simply.
• Most participants do not understand technical
marketing words.
• For example;
‘Do you think the distribution of soft drinks is
adequate?’
‘Do you think soft drinks are easily available
when you want to buy them?’.
6/c)- Use unambiguous words
• The words used in a questionnaire should have a
single meaning that is known to the participants.
• A number of words that may appear to be
unambiguous have different meanings for
different people.
• These include ‘usually’, ‘normally’, ‘frequently’,
‘often’, ‘regularly’, ‘occasionally’ and
‘sometimes’.
• Other examples of such words are ‘all’, ‘always’,
‘any’, ‘anybody’, ‘ever’ and ‘every’. Such words
should be avoided
• Example;
In a typical month, how often do you shop in
department stores?
_____ Never
_____ Occasionally
_____ Sometimes
_____ Often
_____ Regularly
(---)
In a typical month, how often do you shop in
department stores?
_____ Less than once
_____ 1 or 2 times
_____ 3 or 4 times
_____ More than 4 times (----)
6/d) Avoid leading or biasing questions
• A leading question is one that clues the participant to what answer
is desired or leads the participant to answer in a certain way.
• Some participants have a tendency to agree with whatever way the
question is leading them to answer.
• Example;
• Do you think that Americans should buy imported automobiles
when that would put American labor out of work?
_____ Yes
_____ No
_____ Don't know
(-------)
• Do you think that Americans should buy imported automobiles?
_____ Yes
_____ No
_____ Don't know (---)
6/E)- Avoid generalizations and estimates
• Questions should be specific, not general.
• Questions should be worded so that the participant does not
have to make generalizations or compute estimates.
• Suppose that we were interested in households’ annual per
capita expenditure on groceries.
• Example:
• “What is the annual per capita expenditure on groceries in
your household? (------)
• “What is the monthly (or weekly) expenditure on groceries
in your household?”
And
“How many members are there in your household?”
(----)
 6/F) - Choosing Question Wording Dual
Statements: Positive and Negative
• Questions that are in the form of statements
should be worded both positively and
negatively.
 Step7: Arrange the questions in proper
order
• The following issues help determine the order
of questions
Opening Questions
• The opening questions should be interesting,
simple, and non-threatening.
• It’s very crucial in gaining the confidence and
cooperation of participants.
• Don’t start with age gender or income because
they are very sensitive issues
Type of Information
• As a general guideline, basic information
should be obtained first, followed by
classification, and, finally, identification
information.
• Basic information is directly related to
research problem
• Classification information consists of
demographic characteristics
• Identification information consists of email
address, telephone number.
Difficult Questions
• Difficult questions or questions which are
sensitive, embarrassing, complex, or dull,
should be placed late in the sequence.
Effect on Subsequent Questions
• General questions should precede the specific
questions (funnel approach).
Q1: “What considerations are important to
you in selecting a department store?”
Q2: “In selecting a department store, how
important is convenience of location
Logical Order
• All questions that deal with a particular topic
should be asked before beginning a new topic.
When switching topics, brief transitional
topics should be used to help participants
switch their train of though.
• Branching questions should be designed
carefully. Branching questions direct
respondents to different places in the
questionnaire based on how they respond to
the question at hand.
 Step 8: Identify Form and Layout
• Divide a questionnaire into several parts.

• The questions in each part should be numbered,

particularly when branching questions are used.

• The questionnaires should preferably be

precoded.

• The questionnaires themselves should be

numbered serially
 Example of a Precoded Questionnaire
The American Lawyer
A Confidential Survey of Our Subscribers
(Please ignore the numbers alongside the answers. They are only to
help us in data processing.)
1. Considering all the times you pick it up, about how much time, in
total, do you spend reading or looking through a typical issue of THE
AMERICAN LAWYER?

Less than 30 minutes...................-1 11/2 hours to 1 hour 59 minutes..... ..-4

30 to 59 minutes........................ ..-2 2 hours to 2 hours 59 minutes...... ..-5
1 hour to 1 hour 29 minutes.........-3 3 hours or more............................ ..-6
 Step 9: Reproduction of the
Questionnaire
• The questionnaire should be reproduced on good-
quality paper and have a professional appearance.
• Questionnaires should take the form of a booklet
rather than a number of sheets of paper clipped or
stapled together.
• The tendency to crowd questions together to make the
questionnaire look shorter should be avoided.
• Directions or instructions for individual questions
should be placed as close to the questions as possible.
 Step 10: Eliminate problems by pilot-testing
(pre-testing)
• Pilot-testing refers to testing the questionnaire on a
small sample of participants to identify and eliminate
potential problems.
• Even the best questionnaire can be improved by
pilot-testing.
• As a general rule, a questionnaire should not be used
in the field survey without adequate pilot-testing.
• A pilot-test should be extensive. All aspects of the
questionnaire should be tested, including question
content, wording, sequence, form and layout,
question difficulty, instructions, and time length.
• The participants for the pilot-test and for the actual
survey should be drawn from the same population.
• Pilot-tests are best done by face-to-face
interviews, even if the actual survey is to be
conducted by online, postal or telephone
methods, because interviewers can observe
participants’ reactions and attitudes.
• The sample size is typically small, varying from
15 to 30 participants.
End of Chapter