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3.11. QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN

1.Roles of questionnaires: Primary purpose: facilitate the extraction of data from a respondent. Secondly: It serves as an ‘aide memoire’ to the interviewer.Thirdly: It provides consistency in the way the interview is conducted. Without a questionnaire: questions would be asked in a haphazard way at the discretion of the individual.

2.Types of questionnaires: Structured questionnairesconsist of closed or prompted questions (with predefined answers) that require the designer to anticipate all possible answers. Semi-structured questionnaires comprise a mixture of closed and open questions used in B2B market research where there is a need to accommodate a large range of different responses from companies.Unstructured questionnaires are made up of free-ranging questions that allow respondents to express themselves in their own way. There is enough flexibility to go down separate lines of questioning.

3.Types of questions: Open questions gather free responses that are usually collected exactly as they are spoken by respondents. Since respondents have the freedom to express answers in any way they like this type of questioning is highly appropriate for exploratory research. Closed question. These take the form of single or multi-response questions. Single response questions can have only one possible answer. Multiple response questions allow respondents to offer more than one answer. Can be about awareness and use such as which brands are known and which brands are used. A # of brands may well be mentioned.

-Behavioural questions: Behavioural questions are designed to find out what people (or companies) do. Extremely important in market research because they are a strong indicator of attitudes. Answers to behavioural questions more robust and believable than answers to attitudinal questions. Determine people’s actions. -Attitudinal questions: People hold opinions or beliefs on everything from politics to social precepts to the products they buy the companies that make or supply them. These attitudes are not necessarily right but this is hardly relevant since it is perceptions that matter. People’s attitudes affect their behaviour.

+Numerical rating scales (indicate attitude with number) +verbal rating ( likert scales, lily to do something) +semantic differentiation scales (A variation on the verbal/semantic scale is to ask respondents which words best describe a company or a product. The adjectives can be both positive and negative.) +Ranking questions (order of importance of factors).

-Classification questions: to build profiles +Socio-economic grade (A: Higher managerial, administrative or professional.B: Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional.C1: Supervisory, clerical, junior administrative or professional.C2: Skilled manual workers.D: Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers.E: State pensioners, widows, casual and lowest grade workers.) +Industrial verticals (business types) +Level of employment of the respondent ( working full time (over 30 hours a week);working part time (8–30 hours a week);housewife (full time at home);student (full time)) +Number of employees +Location

3.Conjoint analysis: is concerned with understanding how people make choices between products or services and is used to identify what combinations of features people like and are prepared to pay for. Need to break the products and services down into their features and benefits which we call attributes that can be offered at different levels high quality/low quality and then show to respondents and we ask them which they would choose.Reliable results: in a conjoint survey it is advisable to carry out at least 100 interviews.Specific software: calculates a utility value for each level of attribute by comparing the choices and therefore the trade-offs that respondents make in their answers.

4.SIMALTO: The classic trade-off is between price and quality.In practice when considering most purchases we make trade-offs between different features and service levels even emotional factors such as brands. The trade-off grids are easier to administer than conjoint as they do not require a respondent to look at 30 different screens each with four or five choices on them. Respondents are given lots of different attributes with different levels of performance. They are asked to say which they prefer and to trade them off one against the other so simulating what they would do in a buying situation.