Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme CONSUMER SURVEY RESEARCH

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Survey Research A method of collecting primary data by communicating with a representative sample of people

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Survey Research Design The way the environment is controlled or organized Environmental variables to control When the survey is given How the survey is given ▫ The sample size ▫ Number of groups The more environmental control, the more accurate the results will be

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme What questions do you have? Selecting a survey research design should be based on the survey question(s) you are trying to answer

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Based on simple idea: “… the best way to find out what consumers think is to ask them.” (Zikmund)

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Properly conducted Surveys can be: Quick Inexpensive Efficient Accurate Flexible

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Problems with Surveys come from: Nonresponse error Response bias Administrative error

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme NonResponse Error The difference between a survey that includes only respondents and a perfect survey that also includes nonrespondents

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Response Bias Where respondents answer survey questions with a bias that misrepresents truth

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Administrative Error - data processing error - sample selection error - interviewer error - interviewer cheating

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Asking Consumers Questions

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Major Decisions What to ask How questions are phrased Sequence of questions Layout Pretesting

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme What Questions? … will be determined by Type of Marketing Decision Problem definition Primary research objectives

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Two Main Types of Question: 1.Closed 2.Open

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Closed-ended questions can be: Dichotomous Multiple Likert scale Semantic differential Rank order Numeric

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Dichotomous Description: Question offering two choices Example: Did you watch television at all yesterday? Yes / No

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Multiple Description: Question offering three or more choices Example: Which of these shops do you prefer? Next / River Island / Gap Top Shop/ Top Man

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree Likert scale Description: Statement with which respondent shows the amount of agreement / disagreement Example: Assessment by course-work is easier than assessment by examination

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Semantic differential Description : Scale is inscribed between two bipolar words and respondent selects the point that most represents the direction and intensity of his / her feelings Example: The course I am taking is Interesting :_____:_____:_____:_____:_____: Boring Useful :_____:_____:_____:_____:_____: Useless Easy :_____:_____:_____:_____:_____: Difficult

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Rank order Description: Respondent is asked to rate or rank each option that applies. This allows the researcher to obtain information on relative preferences, importance etc. Example: Please indicate, in rank order, your preferred chocolate bar, putting 1 next to your favourite through to 5 for your least favourite. Snickers Bar Dove bar Wispa Mars Bar Creme Egg

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Numeric Description: Respondent specifies a particular value (can include decimal places) Example: How far (to the nearest kilometre) did you travel today to reach this College? ________km

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Advantages of Closed-Ended Questions Quick to answer Easy to code No difference between articulate and inarticulate respondents Disadvantages of Closed-Ended Questions Can draw misleading conclusions because of limited range of options Researcher / interviewer cannot deal with qualifications to responses e.g. "Yes, but….." or "It depends" where only Yes/No are given as options

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Open-ended questions Unstructured Word Association Sentence completion Story completion

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Unstructured Description: Question that respondents can answer in an unlimited number of ways? Example: Why did you enrol for this course at HAUT? ………………………………………………………… …………………… ………………………………….. …………………………………………………………

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Lecture Interesting Computer Exciting Exam Challenge Tutorial Rewarding Word Association Description: Words are presented one at a time and respondents give the first word that comes to mind Example: What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the following ?

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Sentence completion Description: Incomplete sentences are presented, one at a time, and respondents are asked to complete the sentence Example: My worst shopping experience while visiting ZhengZhou happened when……………….

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Story completion Description: An incomplete story is presented and respondents asked to complete it Example: I sat down at the kitchen table, picked up a spoon, then looked at the Chicken and Mushroom flavour Instant Noodles in front of me……. NOW COMPLETE THE STORY

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Advantages of Open-Ended Questions Greater freedom of expression No bias due to limited response ranges Respondent can qualify their answers Disadvantages of Open-Ended Questions Time consuming to code Researcher / interviewer may misinterpret and therefore misclassify) a response

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Questionnaire Layout Always Introduce questionnaire Move from general to specific Use “filter” questions

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Checklist for Questionnaires 1. Have you avoided all leading questions? 2. Is the question as specific as possible?. 3. Are the questions going to be understood by all respondents? 4. Is each question applicable to all respondents? 5. Are any of your questions double - barreled?.

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme SAMPLING

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Examine a Part of the Whole In most surveys access to the entire population is near impossible, The results from a survey with a carefully selected sample will reflect extremely closely those that would have been obtained had the population provided the data.

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Bias The one thing above all to avoid. There is usually no way to fix a biased sample and no way to salvage useful information from it. The best way to avoid bias is to select individuals for the sample at random. The value of deliberately introducing randomness is one of the great insights of Statistics

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme There are essentiality two types of sampling: probability non-probability sampling.

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Probability Sampling Methods Probability or random sampling gives all members of the population a known chance of being selected for inclusion in the sample and this does not depend upon previous events in the selection process. The selection of individuals does not affect the chance of anyone else in the population being selected. Many statistical techniques assume that a sample was selected on a random basis

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Randomise Randomisation can protect you against factors that you know are in the data. It can also help protect against factors you are not even aware of. Randomising protects us from the influences of all the features of our population, even ones that we may not have thought about. Randomising makes sure that on the average the sample looks like the rest of the population

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Randomize Individuals are randomly selected. No one group should be over-represented. Sampling randomly gets rid of bias. Random samples rely on the absolute objectivity of random numbers. There are tables and books of random digits available for random sampling. Statistical software can generate random digits (e.g., Excel)

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Four basic types of random sampling techniques: Simple Random Sampling Systematic Sampling Stratified Sampling Cluster or Multi-stage Sampling

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Simple Random Sampling This is the ideal choice as it is a ‘perfect’ random method. Using this method, individuals are randomly selected from a list of the population and every single individual has an equal chance of selection.

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Simple Random Samples To select a sample at random, we first need to define where the sample will come from. The sampling frame is a list of individuals from which the sample is drawn. E.g., To select a random sample of students from a college, we might obtain a list of all registered full-time students. When defining sampling frame, must deal with details defining the population; are part-time students included? How about current study-abroad students? Once we have our sampling frame, the easiest way to choose an SRS is with random numbers.

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Non-probability Sampling Methods Non-probability sampling procedures are much less desirable, as they will almost certainly contain sampling biases. Unfortunately, in some circumstances such methods are unavoidable. In Consumer Research the most frequently-adopted form of non-probability sampling is known as quota sampling.

Consumer Behaviour Bangor Transfer Abroad Programme Quota Sampling Similar to cluster sampling in that it requires the definition of key subgroups. Main difference lies in the fact that quotas (i.e. the amount of people to be surveyed) within subgroups are set beforehand (e.g. 25% yr olds, 30% yr olds, 20% yr olds, and 25% 56+ yr olds) Usually proportions are set to match known population distributions. Interviewers then select respondents according to these criteria rather than at random. The subjective nature of this selection means that only about a proportion of the population has a chance of being selected in a typical quota sampling strategy.