ADVERTISING AND MEDIA RESEARCH

TYBMM

MODULE: III: Preparing Questionnaire

SURVEY INSTRUMENTS:

The term "survey instrument" is used to refer to questionnaires that serve as the primary
source of information on a given respondent. The primary variables found within the main
data set are derived directly from one or more survey instruments. Good survey instrument
design is the most important step and ensures that you are able to get the insights and results
your research objectives.
One of the most important areas of research tools in the field of applied social science is the
‘survey research’. It is one of the most relevant techniques basically used for collecting data
and involves any measurement procedures that prominently include asking questions from
respondents or the subjects selected for the research study. The term “survey” can be defined
as a process which may involve an investigation/ examination or assessment in the form of a
short paper- and-pencil feedback form to an intensive one-on-one in-depth interview. With
the help of the questionnaire or other statistical tools, the method tries to gather data about
people, their thoughts a behaviours.

CONCEPT AND MEANING OF ‘SURVEY RESEARCH’

The method of survey research is a non-experimental (that is, it does not involve any
observation under controlled conditions), descriptive research method which is one of the
quantitative methods used for studying of large sample. In survey research, the researcher
collects data with the help of standardised questionnaires or interviews which is administered
on a sample of respondents from a population (population is sometimes referred to as the
universe of a study which can be defined as a collection of people or object which possesses
at least one common characteristic). The method of survey research is one of the techniques
of applied social research which can be helpful in collection of data both through direct (such
as a direct face to face interview) and indirect observation (such as opinions on library
services of an institute).
It has been argued that surveys should be designed in such a way that helps in making
accurate decisions. Predominantly there are three major ways which can be used as an
instrument in collecting data with the help of survey research. They are being explained
below:
1) Sampling: As discussed earlier, a sample is a representation of the population or universe
selected for the study. The technique of sampling can in itself act as an instrument in
collecting data in survey research. For example if the researcher wants to study the level of
job satisfaction amongst the employees of an organisation, then the researcher can select and
study the attitude of at least ten persons of each department of the organisation. In order to
avoid any bias, the sampling can be done with the help of randomisation (a method of
sampling which provides an equal chance for each subject to be involved in the study, which
can be done with the help of lottery or fish bowl technique) or stratification (a method of
sampling which categorizes the population in to various categories and subcategories and
then conducting the research).

2) Questionnaire: Questionnaires are basically a kind of paper pencil and multiple

choice test in which the individual needs to select the most suitable alternative. The
researcher may collect data with the help of a questionnaire from a large number of samples
at a single time. Questionnaires can be administered to the sample in three ways: (i) Mail
survey (ii) Group administered questionnaire and (iii) household drop off survey. These are
being discussed in detail below:

i) Mail survey: The researcher may forward a soft copy of the questionnaire to a large
number of respondents through mail and can get the data collected from them at a single
time. It is one of the relatively inexpensive, less time consuming and convenient method of
getting responses. Yet, the questions which require on the spot response or detailed answer is
difficult to be achieved through mail survey.

ii) Group administered questionnaire: It is one of the traditional methods of

administering questionnaire. The researcher calls for a large number of respondents to be
present at a stipulated time period as a group. Under such group settings, the respondents are
asked to respond to a structured sequence of questions written in paper or questionnaire. The
greatest advantage of this method is that the respondents can clarify their doubt regarding any
questioned that has been asked by the researcher instantly
 iii) Household drop-off survey: In this method, the researcher goes door to door to the
respondents and personally hands over as well as collects the questionnaire from them. It is a
kind of pick and drop facility which is provided by the researcher so that the researcher can
answer the questions according to their convenience.

INTERVIEW:
Interview is a kind of face-to-face interaction which helps in providing more honest answers
and responses from the sample, as the interviewer (the one who is interviewing i.e., the
researcher) works directly with the respondent or the interviewee (the one who is being
interviewed). Unlike questionnaires, the interviewer has an opportunity to ask follow-up
questions. They are the best suitable methods for those questions which require opinions or
impressions from the respondents. Interviews can be of different types as given below:
i) Structured interview: Structured interviews are those interviews in which the questions
that are to be asked from the respondents are prepared and preplanned in advance by the
researcher. The researcher imposes those prepared questions on the respondents serially and
notes down the answers given by them.

ii) Unstructured interview: Interviews are said to be unstructured when the researcher
conducts an interaction with the respondent in an informal atmosphere. Nothing is preplanned
in advance. The response of the sample gives a clue to the researcher to ask the next question.

iii) Telephonic interview: In order to save time and money, the researcher may call the
subjects or sample through telephone and ask them questions to collect data. This method
helps in saving time and energy but the sample gets limited to only that part of the population
who have the facility of telephones at their residences or offices.

TYPES OF SURVEY RESEARCH

Based on the selection of an instrument or method of data collection, the researcher can use
qualitative (e.g., ask open-ended questions) or quantitative (e.g. use forced- choice questions)
measures.
1. Online surveys
2. Paper surveys / mail
3. Telephonic surveys
4. One-to-one interviews
TYPES OF QUESTIONS IN A SURVEY RESEARCH
As discussed earlier, the researcher needs to be very careful while preparing or constructing
the questions of a survey research. Selection of the type of questions is a very crucial aspect,
as the whole research would depend upon such questions. Broadly survey questions can be
divided as structured and unstructured questions. Each one of them is explained below:

Structured Questions: Structured questions are those questions, the format of which is
preplanned and predefined in advance. These are close-ended in nature. Some of the types of
structured questions include (i) Dichotomous Questions. (ii) Level of measurement-based
questions (iii) Filter or Contingency Questions

i. Dichotomous questions: Belonging to the closed-ended family of questions,

dichotomous questions are ones that only offer two possible answers, which are
typically presented to survey takers in the following format – Yes or No, True or
False, Agree or Disagree and Fair or Unfair.
ii. Level of measurement-based questions: There are four levels of measurement –
nominal, ordinal, and interval/ratio – with nominal being the least precise and
informative and interval/ratio variable being most precise and informative.
iii. Filter questions or Contingency Questions: have closed-ended response options
that divide the sample into subgroups. They are also called screening questions.
For example, "Do you own or rent your home?" Contingency questions are
questions that are only to be answered by some subgroup(s) of respondents.

Unstructured Questions: Unstructured questions are usually used in interview, where either
the researcher does not prepare a list of questions and the series of questions might depend
upon the response of the subjects or they ask questions in an informal atmosphere. In order to
get adequate and required information, the researcher should take full care and should give a
silent probe, verbally encourage, ask for clarification and have full empathy with the
respondent. These are open-ended in nature.

QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN PROCESS

1) Position the essential information

2) Mention the type pf interviewing method
3) Choose the content of each question
4) Assure the respondents about data confidentiality thereby aim to defeat the
respondent’s incapability and reluctance to answer
5) Decide on the structure of the question: structured or unstructured
6) Decide on the question language: adequately worded, are the questions understood
7) Appropriately position the questions
8) Know the form and outline of the questionnaire
 9) Overall look of the questionnaire: it shouldn’t be shabby
10) Pretest the questionnaire
11) Confirm the questionnaire

Types of Questions

1. Contingency questions - A question that is answered only if the respondent gives a

particular response to a previous question. This avoids asking questions of people that do
not apply to them (for example, asking men if they have ever been pregnant).
2. Matrix questions - Identical response categories are assigned to multiple questions.
The questions are placed one under the other, forming a matrix with response categories
along the top and a list of questions down the side. This is an efficient use of page space
and respondents’ time.
3. Scaled questions - Responses are graded on a continuum (example : rate the
appearance of the product on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most preferred
appearance). Examples of types of scales include the Likert scale, semantic differential
scale, and rank-order scale
4. Closed ended questions - Respondents’ answers are limited to a fixed set of responses.
Most scales are closed ended. Other types of closed ended questions include: *
Dichotomous questions - The respondent answers with a “yes” or a “no”. * Multiple
choice - The respondent has several option from which to choose.
5. Open ended questions - No options or predefined categories are suggested. The
respondent supplies their own answer without being constrained by a fixed set of possible
responses. Examples of types of open ended questions include:
6. Completely unstructured - For example, “What is your opinion of questionnaires?”

DESIGNING THE QUESTIONNAIRE USING PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUE

 Qualitative market research is often aimed at increasing understanding of consumers’

thoughts and feelings toward brands, products, concepts, advertising, social issues and
other important topics. Projective techniques are indirect methods used in qualitative
research. These techniques allow researchers to tap into consumers’ deep motivations,
beliefs, attitudes and values. This is important because psychology has told us for a
long time that much of what drives behavior can be emotional and irrational in nature.
To some extent, these emotional drivers of behavior lie below conscious awareness.
  Consumers tend to be aware of their conscious motivations and decision-making
processes. Therefore, when a researcher directly asks a consumer why they like a
product, favor a brand, or prefer a competitor, responses tended to be rational and
purposeful. However, we know that our connections to brands and our preferences for
some products over others stem from motivations and values in which consumers are
not consciously aware.
 Projective techniques are useful because people tend to have limited understanding of
their own behavior; likewise, people often have difficulty articulating their
motivations and desires. While direct questioning works well most of the time,
sometimes market researchers want to investigate consumers’ deeper values and
beliefs. In such cases, projective techniques are typically used in conjunction with
direct questioning in qualitative research.
The following general categories of projective techniques are described: association,
completion, construction and expression.

1. Association Techniques
A form of projective technique where participants are presented with some stimulus material
and they are then asked to respond with the first thing that comes to their minds.
Types of Association techniques:
a. Word association: An individual is given a clue or hint and asked to respond to the
first thing that comes to mind. The association can take the shape of a picture or a word.
There can be many interpretations of the same thing. A list of words is given and you don’t
know in which word they are most interested. The interviewer records the responses which
reveal the inner feeling of the respondents. The frequency with which any word is given a
response and the amount of time that elapses before the response is given are important for
the researcher. For eg: Out of 50 respondents 20 people associate the word “ Fair” with
“Complexion”.
 b. Successive word association: In successive word association, the respondent is
asked to give a series of words or thoughts that occur after hearing a given word. The
respondent is generally read a number of relatively neutral terms to establish the technique.
Then the words of interest to the researcher are presented, each separated by several neutral
terms.

2. Completion Techniques
In this the respondents are asked to complete an incomplete sentence or story. The
completion will reflect their attitude and state of mind. Two types of completion are of
interest to marketing researchers- sentence completion and story completion.

a. Sentence completion, as the name implies, involves requiring the respondent to complete a
sentence. In most sentence completion tests the respondents are asked to complete the
sentence with a phrase. Generally, they are told to use the first thought that comes to their
mind or “anything that makes sense”. Because the individual is not required directly to
associate himself or herself with the answer conscious or subconscious defences are more
likely to be relaxed and allow a more revealing answer.

b. Story completion is an expanded version of sentence completion. As the name

suggests part of a story is told and the respondent is asked to complete it.
 Respondents are given a half-completed story. This is enough to draw their
attention to a particular issue, but the ending is left vague, so that responses can be
varied.
 This technique is very versatile and has numerous applications to marketing
problems.
 The findings about products/ services give companies inputs to determine
advertising and promotional themes and product characteristics.

3. Construction Techniques
This technique requires the respondent to produce or construct something generally a story,
dialogue, or description. They are similar to completion techniques except that less initial
structure is provided. This is more or less like completion test. They can give you a picture
 and you are asked to write a story about it. The initial structure is limited and not detailed like
the completion test. For eg: 2 cartoons are given and a dialogue is to written.

a. Picture response, another useful construction technique, involves using pictures to elicit
stories. These pictures are usually relatively vague, so that the respondent must use his or her
imagination to describe what is occurring.
These are similar to story completion method, except that here pictures are used as the
stimuli. The two main methods used here are
i. Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT)

ii. Cartoon method

i. TAT: A thematic apperception test (TAT), sometimes called the picture interpretation
technique, presents subjects with an ambiguous picture(s) and asks the subject to tell what is
happening in the picture(s) now and what might happen next. Hence, themes (thematic) are
elicited on the basis of the perceptual-interpretive (apperception) use of the pictures. The
researcher then analyzes the contents of the stories that the subjects relate. A TAT represents
a projective research technique. Frequently, the TAT consists of a series of pictures with
some continuity so that stories may be constructed in a variety of settings. Each subject in the
pictures is a medium through which the respondent projects his feelings, ideas, emotions and
attitudes. The respondent attributes these feelings to the characters because he sees in the
picture something related to himself. Responses differ widely and analysis depends upon the
ambiguity of the picture, the extent to which the respondent is able to guess the conclusions
and the vagueness of the support questions asked by the interviewer.

ii. Cartoon Tests: They are a version or modification of the TAT, but they are simpler to
administer and analyze. Cartoon Characters are shown in a specific situation pertinent to a
problem. One or more “balloons” indicating the conversation of the characters is left open.
The respondent has to then fill these balloons and then analyzed. Instead of having the bubble
show replies or comments, it can be drawn to indicate the unspoken thoughts of one or more
of the characters. This device allows the respondent to avoid any restraints that might be felt
against having even a carton character speak as opposed to think certain thoughts.
b. Fantasy scenario requires the respondent to make up a fantasy about the product or brand.

c. Personification asks the respondent to create a personally for the products or brands. With
the pictures and words technique, the subjects are given a number of words and pictures and
are asked to choose those they associate with a brand or product and to explain their choice.
This allows the researcher to discover the more emotional responses to brands and imagery.
The product or brand becomes a person (or vice versa)
• Helps bring brands to life

• Feeling, thought, character etc (like brand values)

• Or respondents can project themselves into the roles of user and non-users

• Making up eulogies or obituaries can help

4. Expressive Techniques
In this the people are asked to express the feeling or attitude of other people.
a. Role-playing is the only expressive technique utilized to any extent by marketing
researchers. In role playing the consumer is asked to assume the role or behavior of an
object or another person, such as a sales representative for a particular department
store. The role-playing customer can then be asked to try to sell a given product to a
number of different “consumers” who raise varying objections. The means by which
the role player attempts to overcome these objections can reveal a great deal about his
or her attitudes. Another version of the technique involves studying the role-player’s
attitudes on what type of people” should” shop at the store in question.

b. Third-person technique

The respondent is presented with a verbal or visual situation and the respondent is asked to
relate the beliefs and attitudes of a third person rather than directly expressing personal
beliefs and attitudes. This third person may be a friend, neighbor, colleague, or a “typical”
person
Advantages of Using Projective Techniques
1. Projective techniques should be used because the required information cannot be
accurately obtained by direct methods.
 2. Projective techniques should be used for exploratory research to gain initial insights and
understanding.

3. the respondents have less likelihood to fake replies

4. Mostly used in therapeutic settings.

Disadvantages of Using Projective Techniques

1. Given their complexity, projective techniques should not be used naively.
2. Requires highly skilled personnel
3. It is expensive technique
4. lacks validity and reliability.
5. the respondents can be influenced by the researcher’s attitudes.

ATTITUDE SCALING TECHNQUES FOR DATA GATHERING FROM

RESPONDENTS

Attitude scales are used to measure people's attitude towards a product in market. Products
are often measured using product rating in consumer research.

Four types of primary scales are generally used for Marketing Research.
1. Nominal Scale: A Nominal Scale is a measurement scale, in which numbers serve as
“tags” or “labels” only, to identify or classify an object. A nominal scale measurement
normally deals only with non-numeric (quantitative) variables or where numbers have
no value. Example numbers representing subjects in mark sheet. The nominal
scale simply categorizes variables according to qualitative labels (or names). These
labels and groupings don’t have any order or hierarchy to them, nor do they convey
any numerical value. For example, the variable “hair color” could be measured on a
nominal scale according to the following categories: blonde hair, brown hair, gray
hair, and so on.
2. Ordinal Scale: An ordinal scale is a scale (of measurement) that uses labels to classify cases
(measurements) into ordered classes. ... Some examples of variables that use ordinal scales
would be movie ratings, political affiliation, military rank, etc.
The ordinal scale also categorizes variables into labelled groups, and these categories have
an order or hierarchy to them. For example, you could measure the variable “income” on an
ordinal scale as follows: low income, medium income, high income. Another example could
be level of education, classified as follows: high school, master’s degree, doctorate. These are
still qualitative labels (as with the nominal scale), but you can see that they follow a
hierarchical order.
3. Interval Scale. An interval scale is one where there is order and the difference between
two values is meaningful. The interval scale is a numerical scale which labels and orders
variables, with a known, evenly spaced interval between each of the values. Examples of
interval variables include: temperature (Farenheit), temperature (Celcius), pH, SAT score
(200-800), credit score (300-850)
4. Ratio Scale: The ratio scale is exactly the same as the interval scale, with one key
difference: The ratio scale has what’s known as a “true zero.” A good example of ratio data is
weight in kilograms. If something weighs zero kilograms, it truly weighs nothing—compared
to temperature (interval data), where a value of zero degrees doesn’t mean there is “no
temperature,” it simply means it’s extremely cold! The most common examples of ratio
scales are weight, age, height, and money. In the case of marketing research, sales, market
share, price, and number of consumers are measured on a ratio scale. These are the most
informative scales as it tells about the order and the number of objects between the values of
the scale.

SELF RATING ATTITUDE SCALES

1. Graphic rating scale

2. Itemized rating scale
a. Likert scale
b. Semantic differential scale
c. Stapel’s scale
d. The constant sum scale
e. Thurston scale
f. Guttman scales/ scalogram analysis
g. The Q sort technique
 1. Graphic rating scale

The graphic Rating Scale is a performance appraisal method to evaluate employee

engagement, performance & productivity-related criteria. Respondents can choose a
particular option on a graphical reprentation a line or scale to show how they feel about
something. It is the simplest scale format. This type of evaluation lists the traits required for
the job and asks the source to rate the individual on each attribute such as dependability and
creativity. For example, the ratings can include a scale of 1–10; excellent, average, or poor;
or exceeds, meets, or does not meet expectations.

Depending on the question asked, two different possible numerical scales might be used.

A discreet scale will list specific responses, such as “unlikely,” “hard to say,” or “likely.”
The manager must select the response that most fits the employee.

A continuous scale will list two extreme values at either end of the scale and ask the
manager to rank the employee somewhere on that scale.

2. Itemized rating scale

The Itemized Rating Scale is an Ordinal Scale that has a brief description or numbers
associated with each category, ordered in terms of scale positions. With an itemised scale,
respondents are asked to select one of the limited number of categories, ordered in terms of
scale position, that best describes the product, brand, company or product. The commonly
used itemized rating scales are the Likert, semantic differential, and Stapel scales.

a. The likert scale

A Likert scale is a psychometric scale commonly involved in research that employs

questionnaires. It is the most widely used approach to scaling responses in survey research, A
Likert scale is an ordered scale from which respondents choose one option that best aligns
with their view. It is often used to measure respondents' attitudes by asking the extent to
which they agree or disagree with a particular question or statement. In its final form, the
Likert scale is a five (or seven) point scale that is used to allow an individual to express how
much they agree or disagree with a particular statement. the Likert scale was derived from the
Thurstone scale, due to the need to simplify the original Thurstone scale.
 The Likert scale (typically) provides five possible answers to a statement or question that
allows respondents to indicate their positive-to-negative strength of agreement or strength of
feeling regarding the question or statement.

A Likert scale assumes that the strength/intensity of an attitude is linear, i.e., on a continuum
from strongly agree to strongly disagree, and makes the assumption that attitudes can be
measured.
Example: Iphone is the most awesome smart phone available in the market. Responders
specify their level of agreement to above statement typically in five points: (1) Strongly
disagree; (2) Disagree; (3) Neither agree nor disagree; (4) Agree; (5) Strongly agree.

b. Semantic differentiation scale

A semantic differential scale is a survey or questionnaire rating scale that asks people to rate
a product, company, brand, or any 'entity' within the frames of a multi-point rating option.
The semantic differential technique involves presenting pairs of bipolar, or opposite,
adjectives at either end of a series of scales, such as the following:

Weak o o o o o o o Strong

Ugly o o o o o o o Beautiful

Cool o o o o o o o Warm

Amateur o o o o o o o Professional

Like the Likert scale, a 5-point or 7-point scale is commonly used. The difficult part about
the semantic differential technique is coming up with words that are truly opposites.
Sometimes a thesaurus can be helpful since it includes antonyms. However, you need to be
aware of the connotations of different pairings of words. For example, a pairing of
“Friendly/Unfriendly” may have a somewhat different connotation and yield different results
from “Friendly/Not Friendly” or “Friendly/Hostile.”
 A Likert scale will provide you with the participants' agreement or disagreement with the
asked statements. A Semantic Differential scale will provide you with information on where
your participants' view lies on a continuum between two contrasting adjectives.

c. Stapel Scale: In 1961, Crespi introduced the Stapel scale as an economical way of obtaining
data comparable to those obtained by the semantic differential technique It is a unipolar (one
adjective) rating scale designed to measure the respondent's attitude towards the object or
event. The scale is comprised of 10 categories ranging from –5 to +5 without any neutral
point (zero).
Example: The service at Big Bazar is
+5
+4
+3
+2
+1
High Quality
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5

d. The Constant Sum Scaling: It is a technique wherein the respondents are asked to allocate a
constant sum of units, such as points, currency, chips or chits among the stimulus objects
according to some specified criterion. For example, you may want to ask respondents to
allocate 100 points among four different package designs in a way that reflects their
likelihood to purchase. Thus, A constant sum question asks survey respondents to divide
numerical values across a set of variables, but it requires the values to add up to a pre-
specified total creating metric data. It generates ratio scale data.
Example:
Divide 100 points among the characteristics listed so that the division will reflect how
Important each characteristic is to your selection of a new automobile.

e. Thurstone Scale
 Thurstone scale was one of the first scales ever used to measure attitudes on different topics
and issues. This scale contains a set of statements about a certain topic along with a
numerical value depicting how favorable or unfavorable it is deemed to be.

In such surveys, the respondents only tick those statements they agree with. After that, the
researcher calculates the mean score that shows the respondent’s attitude on the issue in
question. It is quite complex as compared to the other scales and hence not widely used.

f. Guttman scale

The Guttman scale is also known as cumulative scaling or scalogram analysis. It measures
the strength of the respondents’ opinion. It’s not just used to obtain an attitude, it assesses
how positive or negative that attitude is considered to be.It is an ordinal scale with a number
of statements placed in a hierarchical order. The order is arranged so that if a respondent
agrees with a statement, they will also agree with all of the statements that fall below it in
extremity.

The Guttman scale focuses on the total score of a respondent to predict a perfect response for
the statements in the items. For example, on a 5 scale Guttman scale, if a respondent scores 3
– it indicates that he/she has agreed to the first 3 statements of the scale if a different
respondent scores 5 – it indicates that he/she has agreed to all the statements on this
cumulative scale.

g. The Q-Sort Scaling

It was the physicist and psychologist William Stephenson who developed Q-methodology
and it has undergone several adaptations and extensions since its original formulation in the
1930s. The name "Q" comes from the form of factor analysis that is used to analyze the data.
Q-Sort Scaling is a rank order scaling technique used in market research to measure
attitudes, opinions, and preferences.

It is based on the psychological principle of sorting objects into piles according to

some criteria. In Q-Sort Scaling, respondents are asked to sort a set of objects (usually
between 60-90) into piles based on their similarity or dissimilarity with each other.
The objects can be anything from words, phrases, pictures, products or services. The sorting
process is usually done by arranging the objects on a grid or matrix with the most similar
items placed together and the least similar items placed apart. The respondent then ranks the
items according to their similarity or dissimilarity with each other. This ranking indicates the
agreement or disagreement between the items being sorted.

Advantages :

Firstly, it allows for more detailed analysis than the Likert scale since it allows for more
than two categories of responses (i.e., agree/disagree). Secondly, it requires less time and
effort from respondents since they only need to sort the items rather than rate them
individually. Finally, Q-Sort Scaling can provide more accurate results since it considers
both similarities and differences between items being sorted.

Disadvantages:

it may not be appropriate to measure attitudes towards complex topics since respondents may
not have enough knowledge or experience to accurately sort the items into piles based on
their similarity or dissimilarity with each other.

Additionally, this technique may not be suitable for measuring changes over time since it
relies heavily on initial impressions, which may change over time due to external factors such
as new information or experiences not considered when sorting the items initially.

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