© K. V. Fernandez Week 5 Tutorial MKTG 201: First Semester 2010 With answers and explanations

© K. V. Fernandez What’s happening this week? Market Research Surveys: –Common types of questions –Important rules for questions Video

Preparing Survey Questions 5 Popular Types of Survey Questions 1. Open-ended questions: do not suggest possible responses Is fair trade something that is important to you when you buy coffee? 2. Closed-ended questions: suggest possible responses Dichotomous (two possible responses are provided)\ I would pay 10% more for Fair Trade Coffee compared to ordinary coffee ______ Yes _______ No

Preparing Survey Questions 3. Multiple-choice (three+ possible responses are provided) Does Starbucks practice Fair Trade when purchasing coffee beans? a.Never b.Sometimes c.Always d.Not Sure

Preparing Survey Questions Scales: provide a scale to allow for a range of responses 4. Semantic differential (two opposite words anchor a scale) Fair Trade is a concept that is Unimportant Important 5. Likert scale (present a statement and ask if they agree with it) Fair Trade is a concept that is very important when choosing coffee Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree

Let’s review what we learnt! Pair up with someone sitting near you and work through the handout. FOR EACH QUESTION, PLEASE ANSWER: WHAT TYPE OF QUESTION IS THIS? A. Open-ended B. Dichotomous C. Multiple-choice D. Semantic differential E. Likert scale

Let’s check we got it right! WHAT TYPE OF QUESTION IS THIS? A. Open-ended B. Dichotomous C. Multiple-choice D. Semantic differential E. Likert scale 1.Please circle the number that best reflects your opinion of the judges on American Idol rude polite There are a range of numbers to choose from, so this is a scale. It is a semantic differential scale, because rude is a word (semantics) that is the opposite of polite (differential)

Let’s check! WHAT TYPE OF QUESTION IS THIS? A. Open-ended B. Dichotomous C. Multiple-choice D. Semantic differential E. Likert scale 2.Please indicate your age category as of today _______ less than 20 _______ 20 to 39 _______ 39 and above There are three choices given so this is a multiple choice question.

Let’s check! WHAT TYPE OF QUESTION IS THIS? A. Open-ended B. Dichotomous C. Multiple-choice D. Semantic differential E. Likert scale 3.Please indicate the number of beers you drank last week _______ 0-1 ________ 2-3 There are exactly two choices given so this is a dichotomous question. Dichotomous means the answers can be divided into two categories.

Time to think! WHAT TYPE OF QUESTION IS THIS? A. Open-ended B. Dichotomous C. Multiple-choice D. Semantic differential E. Likert scale 4.Please circle the number that best reflects how well you agree with the following statement: "Marijuana should be legalised since it helps terminally ill people feel better" Strongly disagree Agree There are a range of numbers to choose from, so this is a scale. It is a Likert scale because you are being asked how much you agree or disagree with a statement. Likert scales are named after their inventor, psychologist Rensin Likert, and are the most common type of survey question.

Time to think! WHAT TYPE OF QUESTION IS THIS? A. Open-ended B. Dichotomous C. Multiple-choice D. Semantic differential E. Likert scale 5.Should convicted murderers be allowed to marry and make money from tell-all books? There is not type of response suggested so this is an open- ended question. It is the easiest type of question to ask, but the most difficult to analyse.

Let’s take a video break! BURKE INC. I’ve posted a summary of the Burke video as a separate document called Burke summary (see Week 5 other tab). This video was interesting but is not required for Test 2 or the exam.

Preparing the Right Questions 5 Important Rules for Constructing Questions 1. Unbiased questions (non-leading or neutral questions) You wouldn’t drink non-Fair Trade Coffee, would you? (biased, because it is hinting that drinking non-Fair trade coffee is not desirable) 2. Specific questions (not ambiguous) Would you pay more for coffee? (ambiguous because it does not specify pay more than WHAT amount) 3. Ask only one question at a time If you learnt that a coffee brand did not practice Fair Trade, would you boycott it and tell your friends to do the same? (There are 2 questions- one about boycotting and one about telling your friends )

Preparing the Right Questions 4. Exhaustive categories (categories should cover all possibilities) 5. Mutually exclusive categories (categories should not overlap – an answer should not fall into more than one category) How much did you spend on coffee last week? ___Less than $5.00___$5.01 to $9.99 ___$10.00 to $29.99___$30 or more These categories are mutually exclusive and exhaustive since any answer would fall in one and only one category.

Time to think! Pair up with your partner again, and for each question, decide: WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS QUESTION? F. Biased G. Ambiguous (not specific enough) H. Asking two questions at once I. Not exhaustive J. Not mutually exclusive

Let’s check! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS QUESTION? F. Biased G. Ambiguous (not specific enough) H. Asking two questions at once I. Not exhaustive J. Not mutually exclusive 1.Please circle the number that best reflects your opinion of the judges on American Idol rude polite There are not one, but THREE judges on American Idol. So this question is ambiguous- you could think two judges are polite and one is rude. If there was only one judge, this question would have not problems.

Time to think! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS QUESTION? F. Biased G. Ambiguous (not specific enough) H. Asking two questions at once I. Not exhaustive J. Not mutually exclusive 2.Please indicate your age category as of today _______ less than 20 _______ 20 to 39 _______ 39 and above If a respondent was 39, they’d have two choices to pick from. This is a common mistake, even in professionally- designed surveys.

Time to think! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS QUESTION? F. Biased G. Ambiguous (not specific enough) H. Asking two questions at once I. Not exhaustive J. Not mutually exclusive 3.Please indicate the number of beers you drank last week _______ 0-1 ________ 2-3 This is not exhaustive because it does not have a category for someone who drank more than 3 beers last week. If you added a 4+ category, then this question would have no problems.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS QUESTION? F. Biased G. Ambiguous (not specific enough) H. Asking two questions at once I. Not exhaustive J. Not mutually exclusive 4.Please circle the number that best reflects how well you agree with the following statement: "Marijuana should be legalised since it helps terminally ill people feel better" Strongly disagree Agree This question is biased because it is suggesting a benefit of marijuana, thus hinting that you should answer that marijuana should be legalised. Time to think!

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS QUESTION? F. Biased G. Ambiguous (not specific enough) H. Asking two questions at once I. Not exhaustive J. Not mutually exclusive 5.Should convicted murderers be allowed to marry and make money from tell-all books? This is asking question 1) if they should be allowed to marry and question 2) if they should be allowed to make money be writing about their crimes. Let’s check!

Have a good mid-semester break!