Welcome to Powerpoint slides

for

Chapter 6

Field Procedures

Marketing Research
Text and Cases
by
Rajendra Nargundkar

Slide 1

Design of Field Work

In India usually, field work is done physically by

interviewing people at homes, offices or on the streets.
The sampling method determines which of these places will
yield a sample with the required characteristics.
The sampling method also dictates if a random sample has to
be chosen, and by what method.
Cities / Centres
In actual practice, a sample of cities is usually chosen, or the
clients instructions are followed (assuming a marketing
research agency is doing the research on behalf of a corporate
client).

For example, a client may want the four metros of Mumbai,

Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai to be covered, for strategic
reasons.
If the client has not specified any cities, a national sample of
cities may be chosen randomly or based on the research
agencys experience of what would be the most
representative cities for the target population.
For example, if a cosmopolitan, multi-linguistic, welleducated population is required, the bigger cities may be
chosen. If smaller, class A or class B towns are to be
targeted, based on their population levels, a sample may be
chosen from a listing of such towns according to census data
or other sources.

Slide 2

Organising Field Work

Once the centres for field work are finalised, it has to be

organised in each of these places.
The research agency may or may not have its own offices in
each of the centres. If it has an office, a field supervisor from
the office is sent a written "brief" and a copy of the
questionnaire, and asked to recruit a field force and conduct a
briefing for them.
The written brief explains the necessary details like the
client, the purpose of the study, and most importantly, the
target population and how the sample is to be selected.
Quotas

Most large consumer marketing research studies have quotas

for demographics like age, income, sex of the respondent.
This is because the output has to be analysed by these
characteristics.
It is the job of the field supervisor to see that these quotas are
achieved. In practice, these quotas are achieved by selecting
residential areas whose resident profile is known, particularly
the income profile. Most of the time, some extra interviews
(than the sample size planned) are conducted to achieve the
required quotas in terms of age, income, etc.
This is because a few questionnaires may get rejected at a
later stage, during tabulation or data entry, due to
inconsistencies or incompleteness of answers.

Slide 3
Selection of Respondents
The field supervisor actually leads the team of field
workers on the field, and instructs them on how to
select a household. For example, they may be told to
select every third apartment in a block of 10
apartments.
If the respondent found in a home is not of the required
characteristics, or is not available, an alternative is
given to the field worker. He may be permitted to try
the neighbours door, for example, in such a case.
The field worker has a tendency, usually, to overdo
things by selecting too many similar respondents from
the same block, street or area. The field supervisor has
to control this tendency, because this may lead to an
over-representation of one type of respondent, and
under-representation of other types.

Slide 4
Control Procedures on the Field
To ensure that a field worker is doing his job, the field
supervisor can randomly go back to a few addresses
and talk to the respondents to ensure that they were
interviewed accurately. This is known as a call-back,
and is one of the most commonly used control
procedures on the field.
The call-back serves the dual purpose of minimising
cheating and also verifying the accuracy of the filled-in
questions by re-asking some of the important
questions. Field control procedures reduce nonsampling errors.
Of course, there is a chance that the respondent may
get irritated by having to answer the questions again.
But an experienced field supervisor would handle the
situation properly, by first explaining why he is calling
back.

Slide 5
Briefing
Before the field workers are sent on the field to do
interviews, they are given a thorough briefing by the
field supervisor.
At this time, they generally go through a couple of
mock interviews to ensure they understand the
questions, the answer categories and the sequence.
The field workers can also clarify any doubts they
may have regarding the sample selection process, and
the quotas for income, age or any other variables.
What to do in case of contingencies is also discussed.
A target for the day in terms of filled-in questionnaires
is also set, for each field worker.

It is after the briefing session and mock interviews that

the field force starts work on data collection.

Slide 6
Debriefing
After returning from field work on Day One of the study
in a given centre, there is usually a debriefing session
where any problems in the field are discussed, and
solutions found by the supervisor.
It is also desirable to have a debriefing session at the
end of the survey (last day) in a city, to summarise the
main findings, and discuss any special comments or
answers given by respondents in a city.
These can be noted down and sent along with the filledin questionnaires to the research executive in-charge of
the study, who may be at the organisations office in the
city where the study originated.
As mentioned earlier, field work is the backbone of
primary data collection. It has to be carefully planned
and supervised to ensure that errors are minimised, and
accuracy levels maintained.