Chapter 8
Designing the Questionnaire
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the steps in questionnaire design
• Discuss the questionnaire development
process
• Summarize the characteristics of good
questionnaires
• Understand the role of cover letters
• Explain the importance of other documents
used with questionnaires
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Value of Questionnaires
in Marketing Research
• Descriptive research designs use
questionnaires to collect data that can be
turned into knowledge about a person, object,
or issue
• Predictive survey questionnaires require the
researcher to collect a wider range of data
that can be used in:
– Predicting changes in attitudes and behaviors as
well as in testing hypotheses
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Value of Questionnaires
in Marketing Research
• Questionnaire: A formal framework consisting
of a set of questions and scales designed to
generate primary raw data
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Exhibit 8.1 - Steps in Questionnaire
Design
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Step 1: Confirm Research Objectives
• Research objectives:
– To collect data on selected demographic
characteristics
– To collect data on selected lifestyle dimensions
– To identify preferred banking services, as well as
attitudes and feelings toward those services
– To identify demographic and lifestyle
characteristics of market segments
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Step 2: Select Appropriate Data
Collection Method
• The data requirements and flow for a bank
study are described below:
– Section I: Banking services
– Section II: Lifestyle dimensions
– Section III: Banking relationships
– Section IV: Demographic characteristics
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Step 3: Develop Questions and Scaling
• Question format
– Unstructured questions: Open-ended questions
formatted to allow respondents to reply in their
own words
– Structured questions: Closed-ended questions
that require the respondent to choose from a
predetermined set of responses or scale points
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Step 3: Develop Questions and Scaling
• Wording
– Sensitive questions: Include income, sexual
beliefs or behaviors, medical conditions, financial
difficulties, alcohol consumption, and so forth that
respondents are likely to respond to incorrectly
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Step 3: Develop Questions and Scaling
• Questions and scaling
– Bad questions: Any questions that prevent or
distort the fundamental communication between
the researcher and the respondents
• A question is bad when it is:
– Unanswerable
– Leading (loaded)
– Double-barreled
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Step 3: Develop Questions and Scaling
• Skip questions: Used if the next question (or
set of questions) should be responded to only
by respondents who meet a previous
condition
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Step 4: Determine Layout and Evaluate
Questionnaire
• Introductory section: Gives the respondent an
overview of the research
• Screening questions: Identify qualified
prospective respondents
– Prevent unqualified respondents from being
included in the study
• Research questions section: Second section of
the questionnaire that focuses on the
research questions
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Step 4: Determine Layout and Evaluate
Questionnaire
• Response order bias: Occurs when the order
of the questions, or of the closed-end
responses to a particular question, influences
the answer given
• Common methods variance (CMV): A biased
variance that results from the measurement
method used in a questionnaire
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Step 5: Obtain Initial Client Approval
• Copies of the questionnaire should be given to
all parties involved in the project
• Client’s opportunity to provide suggestions of
topics overlooked or to ask any questions
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Step 6: Pretest, Revise, and Finalize
the Questionnaire
• Final evaluation of the questionnaire is
obtained from a pretest
– Helps the researcher determine:
• How much time respondents will need to complete the
survey
• Whether to add or revise instructions
• What to say in the cover letter
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Step 7: Implement the Survey
• Focus is on the process followed to collect the
data using the agreed-upon questionnaire
• Process varies depending on whether the
survey is self-administered or interviewer-
completed
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The Role of a Cover Letter
• Cover letter: Separate written communication
to a prospective respondent
• Designed to enhance respondent willingness to
complete and return the survey in a timely
manner
– Primary role - Obtain the respondent’s
cooperation and willingness to participate in the
research project
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Exhibit 8.5 - Guidelines for Developing
Cover Letters
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Other Considerations in Collecting
Data
• Supervisor instructions
– Supervisor instruction form: Serves as a blueprint
for training people on how to execute the
interviewing process in a standardized fashion
• Outlines the process by which to conduct a study that
uses personal and telephone interviewers
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Other Considerations in Collecting
Data
• Interviewer instructions: Used to train
interviewers how to:
– Select prospective respondents
– Screen them for eligibility
– Conduct the actual interview
• Screening questions
• Quotas: A tracking system that collects data
from respondents and helps ensure that
subgroups are represented in the sample as
specified
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Other Considerations in Collecting
Data
• Call or contact records: A recording document
that gathers basic summary information about
an interviewer’s performance efficiency
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Marketing Research in Action:
Designing a Questionnaire to Survey Santa Fe Grill
Customers
• Based on the research objectives, does the self-
administered questionnaire, in its current form,
correctly illustrate sound questionnaire design
principles?
– Please explain why or why not.
• Overall, is the current survey design able to
capture the required data needed to address all
the stated research objectives?
– Why or why not?
– If changes are needed, how would you change the
survey’s design?
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Marketing Research in Action:
Designing a Questionnaire to Survey Santa Fe Grill
Customers
• Evaluate the “screener” used to qualify the
respondents.
– Are there any changes needed?
– Why or why not?
• Redesign questions #26–29 on the survey
using a rating scale that will enable you to
obtain the “degree of importance” a customer
might attach to each of the four listed
attributes in selecting a restaurant to dine at.
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