6. If the pretest results in extensive design and question alterations, a second pretest is in order
IX. Step Nine: Prepare Final Questionnaire Copy
A. Final Preparations
1. Precise instructions for typing, spacing, numbering and pre-coding must be set up
2. Mail survey–compliance and subsequent response rates may be affected positively by a
professional-looking questionnaire
X. Step Ten: Implement Survey
A. Instructions
1. Supervisor’s Instructions–inform them of the nature of the study, start and completion dates,
2. Interviewer’s Instructions–cover many of the same points as supervisor’s instructions but
are geared to the actual interview.
See Exhibit 12.10 Sample Page of Supervisor’s Instructions for a Diet Soft Drink Taste Test
(p 363)
B. Field Management Companies
1. Advantages
2. Disadvantages
4. IMPACT OF THE INTERNET ON QUESTIONNAIRE DEVELOPMENT
I. Internet’s Effect on Questionnaire Development
A. Internet’s Effect
1. Marketing research companies can create a questionnaire and send as email attachment for
comments and approval
3. Use an Internet company like Perseus to create a survey on the Internet
McDaniel & Gates – Marketing Research, 9th Edition Instructor’s Manual
4. Software provides all the tools needed to design, distribute, and analyze surveys
See From the Front Line: Practices That Simplify and Speed Up Design of a
Good Questionnaire (p 365)
5. SOFTWARE FOR QUESTIONNAIRE DEVELOPMENT
I. Software for Questionnaire Development
A. Capabilities of SSIWeb
2. Randomization of pages, questions and response options
4. Constructed (dynamic) lists
6. Powerful skip logic
8. Foreign language character support
10. Power users may insert HTML, JavaScript, or Perl
12. Similar look across different browsers, including Mac and legacy browsers
Instructor’s Manual
14. Link to/from other online interviewing systems and Web sites
16. Exports to common formats (including Excel, SPSS), with labels
See Exhibit 12.11 Types of Questions That Can Be Used with SSI Web (p 367)
See Global Research: Survey Contamination from National Differences in Response Styles
(p 369)
According to Hans Baumgartner, marketing professor at Pennsylvania State University, and Jan-
Benedict E. M. Steenkamp, professor of international marketing research at Tilburg University in
the Netherlands, people in different countries have characteristic and different styles of
1. How would you screen potential respondents who exhibit the disagreement tendency or
habitual negativity?
2. Come up with a series of survey questions that compensate for response bias where the
respondent is clearly indecisive or evasive.
6. COSTS, PROFITABILITY, AND QUESTIONNAIRES
I. Impact on Costs and Profitability
A. Core Determinants of Project’s Cost
1. To avoid overbidding–managers must better understand questionnaire costs
2) redundant or difficult to understand questions
4) changing the subject during an interview
See Exhibit 12.12 Difficulties of Finding a Qualified Respondent in a Central-Location
Telephone Interview (p 370)
See Exhibit 12.11 Actual Respondent Termination Patterns for Interviews in Three
Different Product Categories (p 371)
2. Once managers understand the actual costs of data collection, they should be in a better
position to bid on jobs
7. SUMMARY
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND CRITICAL THINKING
1. Explain the role of the questionnaire in the research process.
The questionnaire is the tool used to create the product (respondent information.) It is a set of
2. How do respondents influence the design of a questionnaire? Give some examples, (e.g.,
questionnaires designed for engineers, baseball players, Army generals, and migrant farm
workers).
The questionnaire must be fitted to the respondent. It must be in a language the respondent can
understand and with which he or she can identify. For example, a questionnaire designed for an
engineer must be written with care to avoid misusing technical terms, while not being too
simplistic. Baseball players could be spoken to in terms of sports, while a general would have to
3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of open-ended questions and closed-ended
questions.
Open-ended Question: Advantages
1. They enable respondents to give their general reactions.
3. The data provided can serve as a means of interpreting closed-ended questions.
4. They may suggest additional alternatives not listed in a closed-ended question.
Open-ended Questions: Disadvantages
1. The time and money consuming process of data collection, editing and coding.
3. May be biased toward the articulate interviewee
5. The questions are inappropriate on some self-administered questionnaires
Closed-ended Questions: Advantages
2. Highly efficient tool to capture large amounts of data.
Closed-ended questions: Disadvantages
2. The researcher must spend time generating the list of possible responses.
4. Assume that you are developing a questionnaire about a new sandwich for McDonald’s.
Use this situation to outline the procedure for designing a questionnaire.
Step One: Determine Survey Objectives, Resources and Constraints. The objective for this
questionnaire is to determine the level of satisfaction with the McDonald’s new Ronald Wrangler
Barbecue sandwich.
McDaniel & Gates – Marketing Research, 9th Edition Instructor’s Manual
Instructor’s Manual
Step Two: Determine Data Collection Method. This data will be collected through a telephone
survey in the cities where the sandwich has been test marketed.
Step Three: Determine the Question Response Format. This questionnaire will use a
Step Four: Decide Question Wording. Questions will be worded in a fashion similar to:
How satisfied were you with the sauce on the Ronald Wrangler Barbecue sandwich?
Step Five: Establish Questionnaire Flow and Layout – Place the screening question first, the
closed ended questions next, the open-ended question, then the demographic questions.
Step Six: Evaluate the Questionnaire – Make sure the questionnaire meets the objectives in step
one.
Step Seven: Obtain Approval of All Relevant Parties – Allow McDonald’s managers to review
the instrument.
Step Eight: Pretest and Revise – Pretest and revise the questionnaire
Step Nine: Prepare Final Questionnaire Copy – Send the questionnaire to the printers for final
printing.
5. Give examples of poor questionnaire wording and explain what is wrong with each
question.
“Have you recently tried and enjoyed the new Burger King Big King sandwich?” Double
questions and is leading (biased).
6. Once a questionnaire has been developed, what other factors need to be considered
before putting the questionnaire into the hands of interviewers?
Has it been approved by all relevant parties? Has it been pretested and revised? Have appropriate
7. Why is pre-testing a questionnaire important? Are there some situations in which pre-
testing is not necessary?
Pretesting helps the researcher to determine if the questionnaire is adequate, appropriate, useful,
and valid. No survey should be undertaken without pretesting the questionnaire. About the only
8. Design three open-ended and three closed-ended questions to measure consumers’
attitudes toward BMW automobiles.
Open-ended:
How comfortable is the driver’s seat in the BMW?
What is your opinion of the body style of the two-door coupe?
What did you think of the sound system in the BMW?
Closed-ended:
What exterior color do you like most of those offered by BMW?
Forest Green White Navy Burgundy Taupe
How would you judge the quality of the ride in the BMW?
9. What’s wrong with the following questions?
a. How do you like the flavor of this high-quality Maxwell House coffee? bias – leading question
b. What do you think of the taste and texture of this Sara Lee coffee cake? double questions
10. What do you see as the major advantages of using a field management company? What
about the drawbacks?
11. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Web-based questionnaires.
One of the primary advantages of Internet questionnaires is that there are specialist firms willing
to do most of the work. They can handle survey design, respondent invitation, data collection,
12. Divide the class into groups of four or five. Next, match the groups evenly into supplier
and client teams. The instructor will then pair a client team with a supplier team. Each
client team should pick some aspect of the university such as student housing, student
transportation, sports, sororities, fraternities, food on campus, and some other aspect of
student life. Next the client team should create four management objectives for their topic
and construct a questionnaire to meet the management objectives. In addition, the
questionnaire should include the following demographics: age, gender, major, and others
determined by your instructor. Once the client team approves the questionnaire, both the
Instructor’s Manual
client and supplier members should complete 10 interviews each. The results should then
be presented to the class. Note: this data can be formatted into SPSS for more detailed
analysis later in the text.
Student responses to this exercise will vary.
WORKING THE NET
1. Visit www.vovici.comand take a series of free online surveys and evaluate the programs,
questions, approach, assumptions, and results. Note: Vovici was formerly known as
Perseus.
2. Log on to www.surveymonkey.comand www.inquisite.comand consider how suitable, or
not, their online polling software would be for conducting market research for new
customers for iPhone.
Responses will vary
3. See what it’s like to be at the receiving end of an online survey; take one or two surveys
at www.greenfield.comand click on “Take a Survey.”
Responses will vary
REAL-LIFE RESEARCH
Case 12.1 – Understanding Buyer Behavior
Key Points:
Questions
1. Critique each question and explain how it could be improved.
Q1: Aside from moving it to the end, you should note that some people are sensitive to being
Q2. Assumes that there is a husband/wife in the picture. Make it a two-part question. Do you
have a domestic partner/husband/wife? How old are they?
Q3. Again, Assumes that people are married. Make multiple-choice item. How long have you
Q4. Double barreled question. Ask for the respondent’s highest level of education, then ask for
Q5. By “partner” are we assuming domestic partner? If so, than this question needs some
Q6. Is fine. However, it is asked too soon in the survey unless it is being used as a screening
question.
Q7. The SKIP instructions are confusing and should come before the actual question. Also, there
is no need for “and/or”, it should be “or”. The questions regarding income are very sensitive and
come far too soon in this survey. They should be asked later (before the demographic questions.
Q10. Poorly worded. Assumes respondent is the wife? Her children, his children, their children,
Q11. Again SKIP information is worded improperly and is confusing; it should precede this
question and be reworded (e.g., If you answered NO to Q10, SKIP to Q14). Should the
respondent be putting more than one answer here if they have more than one child? Do a matrix,
with child’s sex, child’s age, and if they go to school, where? This would allow combining of
Q11-13.
Q12 -13. Why is this information important for purposes of the study? If it is important, than all
Q14. Social desirability bias. Many people would not want to admit that the other person in their
household holds the dominant position. Decision-making is usually situational; one takes the
Q15. What are we trying to learn with this item? There may be more than one adult that lives
Q16. Question 16 is too vague and ambiguous. Shop for what? Groceries, gasoline, clothing?
What is the objective of the research? Ask for responses that are specific to the research
question. It should be directed toward a type of shopping. For example, “where do you primarily
shop for clothes?” Where do you primarily shop for groceries? Etc.
Q17. Vague. Where is there? What are we shopping for? Are we shopping or making
convenience purchases? What is the basis for comparison?
Q18. What are we talking about? Specify the class of goods being considered. There are
Q19. Which store? There may be several stores, with several possible answers. See Q 18.
Q20. Which store? What friends?
Q21-22. The last 2 questions are also ambiguous. About what? The store that you have in mind,
but haven’t told us about? Or what do you like best about your life? What do you like best about
the town you live in? What do you really want to know from this question? Make the question
2. Suggest some questions that could be used to understand shopping behavior, for both
goods and services, in a Midwestern city?
3. How should the revised questionnaire be reordered?
General criticism: Starting with demographic questions such as age, marital status, and
education is incorrect; they should be placed at the end of the questionnaire. Some researchers
Case 12.2 Enticing Americans to Buy New Products Key Points
1. In conjunction with the Better Homes and Gardens Best New Product Awards, Toronto based
BrandSpark International surveyed more than 50,000 U.S. consumers on topics such as
2. The BrandSpark American Shopper Study included questions about individual product appeal,
intent to repurchase, consumer confidence level, and expected future spending habits, among
Questions
1. What types of survey research could have been used to gather this data? Which one
would you have recommended? Why?
2. Carefully ready through the case and then list the various types of questions that may
have been used to gather the data.
Responses will vary.
3. Create a questionnaire that could provide the information discussed in the case.
Responses will vary.