Course: MARKETING RESEARCH

5.1. Definitions and objectives

5.2. Type of questions
5.3. Order of questions
5.4. Question wording
5.5. Coding
5.6. Pretesting
Objective:

Describe the process of designing a questionnaire, the steps involved, and guidelines that
must be followed at each step.

RECOMMENDED READING:
Malhotra, N. K. (2006). Marketing research. An applied orientation. Prentice Hall.
New Jersey. Chapter 13.

1
 MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS

6 steps Problem definition

Approach to the problem

Research design and formulation

Fieldwork

Data preparation & analysis

Results presentation
 DEFINITION AND OBJECTIVES
Questionnaire definition (schedule, interview form, measuring instrument)

Formalized set of questions for obtaining information from respondents

It is typically only one element of a data-collection package, which might include:
•  Instructions for selecting, approaching and questionning respondents
•  Some reward, gift or payment to respondents
•  Letter of presentation
•  Return envelopes (in mail surveys)

Objectives of a questionnaire

Any questionnaire has three specific objectives:

1.  It must translate the information needed (RQ) into a set of specific questions for respondents
2.  It must uplift, motivate, and encourage the respondent to become involved in the interview
3.  It should minimize response error that arises when respondents give inaccurate answers or
their answers are misrecorded
 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN PROCESS
Specify the information needed

10 steps
Specify the type of survey method

Determine the content of individual questions

Overcoming inability & unwillingness to answer

Decide on the question structure

Determine the question wording

Arrange the questions in proper order

Identify the form and layout

Reproduce the questionnaire

Pretesting
1) SPECIFY THE INFORMATION NEEDED
•  First step in questionnaire design and in the research design process
•  Helpful to review components of the problem and approach (RQ, hypotheses)
•  Important to have a clear idea of the target population

2) TYPE OF INTERVIEWING METHOD

The type of interviewing method influences quetionnaire design:

•  In personal interviews, respondents see the questionnaire, thus lengthy, complex

and varied questions can be asked.
•  In telephone interviews, respondents interact with the interviewer but do not see the
questionnaire; questions must be short and simple..
•  Mail questionnaires are self-adiministered, questions must be simple and detailed
instructions must be provided.
•  In CAPI and CATI complex skip patterns can be easily accommodated.
•  Internet questionnaires share many of the characteristics of CAPI
•  Email questionnaires have to be simpler
•  Questionnaires designed for personal and telephone interviews should be written in a
conversational style
3) INDIVIDUAL QUESTION CONTENT

What to include in individual questions

In general,
•  Every question in a questionnaire should contribute to the information needed
•  If there is no satisfactory use for the data resulting from a question, it should be eliminated
But,
•  In certain situations, it is useful to ask some neutral questions at the beginning of the
questionnaire to stablish rapport or to disguise the purpose of the project
•  At times, some questions may be duplicated to asses reliability or validity

Once we know that a question is necessary, we must make sure that it is sufficient to get
the desired information
Let´s consider some questions
4) OVERCOMING INABILITY TO ANSWER
Researchers should not assume that respondents can provide accurate or reasonable answers
to all questions.
Certain factors limit the respondent´s ability to provide the desired information: the respondents
may not be informed, may not remember or may be unable to articulate certain types of
responses.
•  If respondents are not informed to ask about some topics, filter questions should be asked before or
“don´t know” option should be provided
•  Sometimes respondents do not remember depending on the question form:
4) OVERCOMING UNWILLINGNESS TO ANSWER

The first tool to atract the respondent’s attention is the questionnaire introduction:

•  It should be conformed by
1.  A presentation of who the researcher is
2.  A mention of the company or institution the researcher belongs to
3.  The purpose of the survey
4.  How the data will be treated
5.  How long it will take
6.  If there will be an incentive
7.  A call to action
4) OVERCOMING UNWILLINGNESS TO ANSWER

Even if respondents are able to answer a particular question, they may be unwilling to do so
because of different reasons: too much effort required or inappropriate context

•  If respondents are unwilling to devote a lot of effort to provide information, the researcher should minimize
that effort

•  Some questions may be appropriate in certain contexts but not in others. For example: questions about
personal hygiene habits may be appropriate when asked in a survey sponsored by a Medical Association,
but not in one sponsored by a fast-food restaurant.
5) CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE
A question may be unstructured or structured

•  Unstructured questions (free-response or free-answer questions) are open-ended questions that

respondents answer in their own words. In general, open-ended questions are useful in exploratory
research and as oppening questions but not in a survey.

•  Structured questions specify the set of response alternatives and the response format. A structured
question may be multiple choice, dichotomous, or a scale
•  Multiple-choice questions, the researcher provides a choice of answers and respondents are
asked to select one or more of the alternatives given
•  Dichotomous questions, have only two response alternatives: yes or no, agree or disagree or so
on. Sometimes the two alternatives are suplemented by a neutral alternative, such as “no opinion”,
“don´t know”, “both” or “none”

Metric-scaled questions, will be discussed in topic 6

 6) CHOOSING QUESTION WORDING

•  Question wording is the translation of the desired question content into words that respondents can
clearly and easily understand.
•  It is perhaps the most difficult task in developing a questionnaire. To avoid this problem, there are
some guidelines.

•  Define the issue: a question should clearly define the issue being addressed
•  Use ordinary words: they should match the vocabulary level of respondents
 6) CHOOSING QUESTION WORDING

•  Question wording is the translation of the desired question content into words that respondents can
clearly and easily understand.
•  It is perhaps the most difficult task in developing a questionnaire. To avoid this problem, there are
some guidelines.

•  Define the issue: a question should clearly define the issue being addressed
•  Use ordinary words: they should match the vocabulary level of respondents
•  Avoid ambiguous words: they should have a single meaning known to the respondent.
i.e. Avoid "a lot, a few, few, often" in possible answers and use numerical references.
•  Avoid leading questions, those that clues the respondent to answer in a certain way
Do you like to eat palm oil when figures show that it is harmful for health and for the environment?
•  Avoid implicit alternatives, those not explicitly expressed
Do you like to watch football matches on the TV? Or you rather go to the stadium?
•  Avoid implicit assumptions, the answer must not be dependent on implicit assumptions about what
will happen
Would you be in favour of a balanced national budget? If you had to pay more taxes?
•  Avoid generalizations and estimates, questions should be specific, not general
•  Use positive and negative statements, for questions measuring attitudes and lifestyles (topic 6)
7) DETERMINIG THE ORDER OF QUESTIONS
!  Openning questions: to gain the confidence and cooperation of respondents; they should
be interesting, simple and nonthreatening. i.e: opinion questions can be good because
people like to express their own opinions (when no controversial)

!  Type of information: may be classified as

!  Basic information, relates directly to the research problem
!  Classification information, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics
!  Identification information, includes name, address and telephone

!  Difficult questions (sensitive, embarrassing, complex or boring) should be place late in

the sequence
7) DETERMINIG THE ORDER OF QUESTIONS
!  Openning questions: to gain the confidence and cooperation of respondents; they should
be interesting, simple and nonthreatening. i.e: opinion questions can be good because
people like to express their own opinions (when no controversial)

!  Type of information: may be classified as

!  Basic information, relates directly to the research problem
!  Classification information, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics
!  Identification information, includes name, address and telephone

!  Difficult questions (sensitive, embarrassing, complex or boring) should be place late in

the sequence

!  General questions should precede specific questions (the funnel approach) to prevent
specific questions from biasing general ones.
What considerations are important to you in selecting a bank?
In selecting a bank, how important is convenience of location?
7) DETERMINIG THE ORDER OF QUESTIONS
!  Openning questions: to gain the confidence and cooperation of respondents; they should
be interesting, simple and nonthreatening. i.e: opinion questions can be good because
people like to express their own opinions (when no controversial)

!  Type of information: may be classified as

!  Basic information, relates directly to the research problem
!  Classification information, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics
!  Identification information, includes name, address and telephone

!  Difficult questions (sensitive, embarrassing, complex or boring) should be place late in

the sequence

!  General questions should precede specific questions (the funnel approach) to prevent
specific questions from biasing general ones.
Q1: What considerations are important to you in selecting a bank?
Q2: In selecting a bank, how important is convenience of location?

!  Questions should be asked in a logical order, those questions that deal with a particular
topic should be asked before beginning a new topic
Q1: Have you ever purchased in the Internet?
Skip patterns
Q2: Which is the payment method do you usually chose when buying in the Internet?
8) FORM AND LAYOUT (& CODING)

The format, spacing and positioning of questions can have a significant effect on the results (particularly
in self-administrated questionnaires)
It is a good practice to divide the questionnaire into several parts.
The questions in each part should be numbered which makes the coding of responses easier.

The questionnaires should be preferably be precoded; in precoding, the codes to enter in the computer
are printed on the questionnaire. When CATI and CAPI are used the precoding is built into the
software.

9) REPRODUCTION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE

How the questionnaire is reproduced for administration can influence the results.
i.e.: If it is reproduced on poor-quality paper, the respondents could think the project is unimportant.

10) PRETESTING
Refers to the testing of the questionnaire on a small sample of respondents to identify and eliminate
potential problems.
As a general rule, a questionnaire should not be used in the filed survey without adequate pretesting.
 ACTIVITY 1

Analysis of a questionnaire
 ELECTRONIC INTERVIEWING: INTERNET

Purpose?
Question structure?
Any remarkable element?
Question structure?
Question structure?
Any remarkable element?
Question structure?
Any remarkable element?
Question structure?
Any missing element?
Any unecessary element?
Question structure?
Any missing point?
Purpose?
 ACTIVITY 2

Finding mistakes in a questionnaire

This is an extract from a real survey, please list some mistakes (or improvements) in the questionnaire
This is an extract from a real survey, please list some mistakes (or improvements) in the questionnaire

Useless guide
Two answers in one question

To difficult

Only one

Time frame

Wrong order