MARKETING RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTIONS

 INTRODUCTION

A carefully constructed questionnaire is essential to the success of any survey. Questions must be clear, easy to understand, and directed toward a specific objective; that is, they must be designed to elicit information that meets the study's data requirements. Researchers need to define the objective before trying to develop a questionnaire because the objective determines the substance of the questions and the amount of detail.

The questions are usually of three kinds: open-ended, dichotomous, and multi-choice.

 OBJECTIVES

Identify open ended question and observation methods.
Examine and view questionnaire sample.

 Open-Ended Question

What is your general opinion about board band Internet access?
Researchers must be very careful about questions that a respondent might consider too personal or that might require an admission of activities that other people are likely to condemn. Questions of this type should be worded to make them less offensive.

 Observation Methods

In using observation methods, researchers record individuals 'overt behavior, taking note of physical conditions and events. Direct contact with them is avoided; instead their actions are examined and noted systematically. For instance, researchers might use observation methods to answer the question, "How long does the average McDonald's restaurant customer have to wait in line before being served?" Observation may include the use of ethnographic techniques, such as watching customers interact with a product in a real-world environment.

Microsoft employed ethnographic techniques when it sent researchers into 50 consumers' homes to observe and videotape how the entire family used the firm's Vista operating system software, which had not yet been released to the public. Based on the company's observations and interactions with the households, Microsoft made a number of changes to improve the system, including correcting about 1,000 problems identified by the participant households.

Observation also may be combined with interviews. For example, during a personal interview, the condition of a respondent's home or other possessions may be observed and recorded The interviewer also can observe directly and confirm demographic information such as race, approximate age, and sex.
Data gathered through observation sometimes can be biased if the person is aware of the observation process. However, an observer can be placed in a natural market environment, such as a grocery store, without biasing or influ-encing shoppers' actions. If the presence of a human observer is likely to bias the outcome, of human sensory abilities are inadequate, mechanical means may be used to record behavior. Mechanical observation devices include cameras, recorders, counting machines, scanners, and equipment that records physiologic changes. The electronic scanners used in supermarkets are very useful in marketing research. They provide accurate data on sales and customers' purchase patterns, and marketing researchers may obtain such data from the supermarkets.


Observation is straightforward and avoids a central problem of survey methods: motivating respondents to state their true feelings or opinions. However, observation tends to be descriptive. When it is the only method of data collection, it may not provide insights into causal relationships. Another drawback is that analyses based on observation are subject to the biases of the observer or the limitations of the mechanical device