1. Surveys

2. What is a Survey?

3. Why Survey? Get lots of structured information from lots of people.
Simplify and standardize data collection.
Use statistics to make predictions.
Find out about things that can not be observed. Such as Thoughts, Emotions, Opinions, Intentions, Attitudes

4. why people do or do not do something.
The Need to Know Why
why people do or do not do something.
Likes, dislikes, attitudes, behaviors, influences
The Need to Know How
the process consumers go through before taking some action.
Decision making process
The Need to Know Who
Information on age, income, occupation, marital status, stage in the family life cycle, education, and other lifestyle factors is necessary to the identification and definition of market segments.

5. Survey Methods Personal Interview Telephone-Interview
Door-to-Door (in-home), Mall-Intercept, Purchase-Intercept, Executive (office)
Telephone-Interview
People Computer assisted (CATI)
Self-Administered
Mail Survey
Fax
One-time vs. Panels
Computer
Direct Computer Interviewing
Interactive voice response technology-Automated Telephone
Surveys
Internet

6. A Classification of Survey Methods
TELEPHONE
FACE TO FACE
MAIL
COMPUTER
SURVEY METHODS
TRADITIONAL TELEPHONE
CATI
POSTAL SURVEY
POSTAL PANEL
FAX
INTERNET
IN HOME
MALL INTERCEPT
CAPI
DIRECT COMPUTER INTERVIEW

7. Personal Interviews PIT: for low involvement products (supermarket)
Omnibus: same people, different surveys, one time
Panel: same people, same one survey, over time
Omnibus panel: same people, several different surveys, over time

8. Personal Interviews Advantages Can arouse and keep interest
Can build rapport and enlist cooperation
Ask complex questions
Immediate feedback
Can use visual and other aids
Clarify misunderstandings
High degree of flexibility
Probe for more complete answers
Do not need an explicit or current list of households or individuals

9. Personal Interviews Disadvantages: Bias of Interviewer Response Bias
Embarrassing/personal questions
Time Requirements
Cost Per Completed Interview Is High.
High refusal rate
A trained staff of interviewers that is geographically near the sample is needed.
The total data collection period is likely to be longer than for most procedures.
High selection error – non-representative sample

10. Telephone Interviewing
What are the Important Aspects of Telephone Interviewing?
Selecting telephone numbers
Pre specified list
A directory
Random dialing procedure
Random digit dialing
Systematic random digit dialing (SRDD)
The introduction
When to call
Call reports

12. Telephone Interviewing
Advantages:
Central location, under supervision, at own hours
More interviews can be conducted in a given time
Travelling time is saved
More hours of the day are productive
Repeated call backs at lower cost
Lower administrative costs/ Lower cost per completed interview
Less sample bias
Better access to certain populations
Shorter data collection periods.

13. Telephone Interviewing
Limitations and Disadvantages:
Inability to employ visual aids or complex tasks
Can't be longer than 5-10 min. or they get boring
Amount of data that can be collected is relatively less
A capable interviewer essential
Sample bias -- Not all people have phones, or are not listed
Nonresponse associated with RDD sampling is higher than with interviews
Possibly less appropriate for personal or sensitive questions if no prior contact
National Do Not Call List DNCL ( )

14. Increasing Phone Survey Response
Call at a convenient time (Weekdays 7-9 PM, Sunday afternoon)
Have a nice Pleasant introduction
Emphasize you are not selling anything.
State how long it will take.
Keep the survey short

15. Self-Administered Types of Survey Research
Direct Mail Survey
Questionnaire is distributed to and returned from respondents via the postal service.
Respondent Reads Survey Questions and Records Answers Without Assistance
Mail Panel Survey
Selected group of individuals that have made an advance agreement to participate in a series of direct mail surveys.
Drop Off Survey
Questionnaires are left with respondent to be completed at a later time and returned to the researcher.

16. Mail Surveys
Requires a broad identification of the individuals to be sampled before data collection begins
Ad Hoc Mail Surveys (cold):
Questionnaires for a particular project sent to selected names and addresses with no prior contact by the researcher.
Mail Panels (warm):
Pre-contacted and screened participants who are periodically sent questionnaires.
A mail panel is a type of longitudinal study. A longitudinal study in one in which the same respondents are re-sampled over time.

17. Mail Surveys Some Decisions That Need to Be Taken
Type of Return Envelope
Postage
Method of Addressing
Cover Letter
The Questionnaire Length, Layout, Color, Format Etc
Method of Notification
Incentive to Be Given

18. Mail Surveys Advantages Relatively low cost
Reliable answers as no inhibiting intermediary
Survey answered at respondents discretion
Can be accomplished with minimal staff and facilities.
Provides access to widely dispersed samples.
Respondents have time to give thoughtful answers, look up records, or consult others.

19. Mail Surveys Disadvantages
No control over whom the respondent consults before answering the questions
The identity of the respondent is inadequately controlled
The speed of the response can't be monitored
No control on the order in which the questions are exposed or answered
Open questions usually are not useful.
Good reading and writing skills are needed by respondents.
The interviewer is not present to exercise quality control with respect to answering all questions, meeting questions objectives, or the quality of answers provided.
High non-response rate

20. Mail Surveys Disadvantages (Contd.):
The respondent may not clearly understand the question and no opportunity to clarify
No long questionnaires
Need for good up-to date mailing list
Response rate is generally poor
Number of problems such as obsolescence, omissions, duplications, etc
Ineffective as a way of enlisting cooperation.

21. Factors Affecting the Response Rate
Perceived amount of work required, and the length of the questionnaire
Intrinsic interest in the topic
Characteristics of the sample
Credibility of the sponsoring organization
Level of induced motivation

22. Tactics Employed to Increase Mail Survey Response Rate
Advance postcard or telephone call alerting respondent of survey.
Follow-up postcard or phone call.
Monetary incentives (how much?).
Premiums (pencil, pen, keychain, coupons, etc.).
Postage stamps rather than metered envelopes.
Self-addressed, stamped return envelope.
Personalized address and well-written cover letter.
• Personally signed cover letter.

23. Tactics Employed to Increase Mail Survey Response Rate
• Entry into drawing for prize.
• Emotional appeals.
• Affiliation with institutions or reputed organizations.
• Multiple mailings of the questionnaire.
• Bids for sympathy.
• Offer to share information from the survey.
Promise of contributions to favorite charity.

24. Drop-off questionnaires
The interviewer can explain the study, answer questions, and designate a respondent.
Response rates tend to be like those of personal interview studies.
There is more opportunity to give thoughtful answers and consult records.
Costs about as much as personal interviews.
A field staff is required.

25. Fax Surveys Advantages Relatively low cost
Can be accomplished with minimal staff and facilities
Provides access to widely dispersed samples.
Respondents have time to give thoughtful answers.
Local faxes are free.
Administrative costs are fixed.
It is fast.
List management is easy.
Can send and receive by computer.

26. Fax Surveys Disadvantages
Higher fixed costs for computer/fax equipment, multiple phone lines.
Cost varies by time on line, time of day, distance, and telephone carrier.
Generally limited to organizational populations.
Loss of anonymity.

27. Internet Surveys Internet Samples Unrestricted Screened Recruited
To realize the importance of the marketing research interviewer.
Internet Samples
Unrestricted
Open to any Internet user.
Screened
adjust for unrepresentitiveness of the self-selected respondents by imposing quotas based on some desired sample characteristics
Recruited
to target populations in surveys that require more control of the sample
Greenfield

28. Internet Surveys Advantages:
The advantages of interviewer administration (In contrast to mail surveys).
smaller staff needed,
High-speed,
Instantaneous data access – real time reporting
Cost efficient
Automatic data entry
Multimedia stimuli
Easy to update
Ability to reach a lot of people, and often those hard to reach

29. Internet Surveys Advantages: Potential for longitudinal studies
Surveys can be unobtrusively included with a general site
pre-screening of respondents possible
tracking
Easy to personalize
No geographic boundaries
supervision and quality control potentially better.
better response rate from a list sample than from mail
use a branching or skip pattern

30. Internet Surveys Disadvantages:
Internet users are not representative of the population as a whole (strong sample bias)
Strong selection bias for respondents who are not pre-screened
security/privacy issues
unrestricted: anyone can complete the questionnaire
fully self-selecting

31. Free Trial Survey Software
Free Online Surveys
eSurveypro
Question Pro
Keysurvey
Checkbox survey

32. E-mail Questionnaires
The questionnaire is prepared like a simple message, and is sent to a list of known addresses. The respondent fills in the answers, and s the form plus replies back to the research organization

33. Increasing Response: Internet/E-mail Survey
Almost all the actions listed for mail survey should hold for /Internet survey with some modifications.
The questionnaire should be fairly short.
No need for advance notification
Have short, pleasant introduction
Monetary incentives not given. But sharing information would be nice.
Reminder would be useful.

34. Administrative Criteria:
Criteria for Determining Choice Of Particular Survey Methods
Sample Criteria: Ability to reach and get responses from the desired sample (sample control)
right type of people
“adequate” sample size.
Information Criteria: Ability to get the desired information from respondents.
Need to Expose Respondents to Various Stimuli or Perform Certain Specialized Tasks e.g. Taste tests, product concept and prototype tests, etc.
Length of Questionnaire
Degree of Structure of the Questionnaire
Control social desirability
Administrative Criteria:
time for data collection and analysis
Interviewer control
Error control
Budget
The question for you as a researcher is which method should I use? Book gives advantges/disdvnatges and some compilation (p. 241). I take a more decision-otiented perspective. Set criteria, fin out which one is important for may project, fin out which survey method does the best job.
Criteria divided into
Sample..AS IS

35. Factors Determining the Choice of Survey Method.
Personal:
Mail:
Phone:
/Internet:.
Use for long, complex questionnaires where respondent is important and budgets are high.
Use when you have a mailing list, somewhat long / complex questionnaire, and budgets are low.
Use to reach a large number of people quickly and you have a short questionnaire that can be easily understood.
Use when target audience is educated, topic interesting, short questionnaire, have list, representativeness not a major issue

36. Comparative Evaluation
Personal Phone Mail Internet
Sample control    
Use of physical stimuli    
Diversity of questions    
Length    
Perceived anonymity    
Potential for interviewer bias    
Field force control    
Speed    
Cost    
Door-to door Mall Phone Mail
Diversity of questions + + ± -
Use of physical stimuli
Sample control ±
Field force control
Quantity of data per interview + ± - ±
Perceived anonymity - - ± +
Potential for interviewer bias
Speed ±
Cost ±
+ = well suited
- = not well suited
± = middle of the road
Which survey method to use?
Beach vacations (Incidence rate 45%) telephone, mail, personal
Collecting Art (Incidence rate 1.5%) mail
Long-distance service satisfaction (Incidence rate ~100 %) telephone

37. Advantages & Disadvantages of Survey Methods
Personal
Mail/Self Report
Telephone
Internet
Speed of data collection
Moderate to fast
No control over return of questionnaire
Very fast
Fastest
Geographic flexibility
Limited to moderate
High
Good
Best
Respondent cooperation
Excellent except in shopping malls
Moderate –poorly designed questionnaires have poor response rates
Versatility of questioning
Very versatile
Highly standardized format
Moderate

38. Advantages & Disadvantages of Survey Methods
Personal
Mail/Self Report
Telephone
Internet
Questionnaire length
Long
Varies depending on incentive
Moderate/ Short
Moderate
Respondent misunderstanding
Lowest
Highest
Interviewer influence
High
None
Supervision of interviewers
Not applicable
Anonymity of respondent
Low in face-to-face situations
Low

39. Advantages & Disadvantages of Survey Methods
Personal
Mail/Self Report
Telephone
Internet
Ease of callback or follow-up
Difficult
Easy, but takes time
Easy
Cost
Highest
Low
Low to moderate
Lowest
Special features
Visual materials may be shown or demonstrated; extended probing possible
Respondents may answer questions at own convenience; has time to reflect on answers
Field and supervision of data collection are simplified; quite adaptable to computer technology
Data collection automatic
Skip patterns automatic
Note: These reflect typical situations. For example, an elaborate mail survey may be
far more expensive than a short interview, but this is generally not the case.

40. Potential Problems with Surveys How accurate are the results?
Did you ask the right questions in the right way?
Did you ask the right people?
Did they tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Will they?
Can they? Do they have the knowledge, opinions, attitudes, or facts required. Do they understand the questions?
Structure causes a loss of data richness.
Have the Respondents/Interviewers understood and correctly recorded the responses
Lack of control causes time and response problems.

41. Overview of the Types of Errors in Survey Research Methods
Survey research errors can be classified as either:
Random Sampling Error
statistically measured difference between the actual sampled results and the estimated true population results.
error because of chance variation
Reduce by increasing sample size
Range can be estimated with a certain level of confidence
Nonsampling Error (Systematic Error)
results from mistakes or problems in the research design or its execution
Causes data to be misleading or incomplete in some systematic way from true population parameter
If you are aware of the problem you may be able to deal with it.

42. Systematic Sample Design Error
Frame Error: The list from which you draw your sample is not what you think it is—some on it don’t belong and/or some who belong are not on it – sample is not representative of population (e.g. telephone directory)
Population Specification Error: incorrect definition of the universe or population from which the sample is to be selected. You left people out of the study.
Selection Error: You include or exclude people in the sample so that it is not random. Use of incomplete or improper sampling procedures or when appropriate selection procedures are not properly followed (e.g. non-probability samples such as intercept surveys)

43. Systematic Measurement Error
Difference between the information sought and that obtained
Surrogate Information Error
Acquisition of the wrong data because wrong question was asked. – failure to define problem, e.g. New Coke
Interviewer Error
interviewer may, consciously or unconsciously, influence respondents to give untrue or inaccurate answers. – training problem
Instrument Bias
misunderstood or leading questions – questionnaire design
Processing Error
sloppy data input
Non-response Bias
differences between the “did” vs. “did not” answer question
Response Bias
a failure to tell the truth, consciously or unconsciously

44. Your company has just launched a new brand of pancake syrup
Your company has just launched a new brand of pancake syrup. In order to improve sales the marketing department would like to know why consumers buy the brands and sizes they do. How would you go about collecting this information?

45. Calgary Transit would like to conduct a ridership survey
Calgary Transit would like to conduct a ridership survey. Funds are limited but they need a relatively large sample. How would you suggest they gather the information?

46. Your company makes the new flip and fold device
Your company makes the new flip and fold device. You want to find out what consumers think about it and how much they are willing to pay. What sort of survey technique do you use and why. Who do you target in your survey

47. OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH
Watching what people do
The information must be observable
Helpful if the behavior is repetitive and of short duration
Approaches to observational research
Natural Versus Contrived Situations
Open Versus Disguised Observation
Structured Versus Unstructured
Human Versus Machine Observers

48. What does gathering data through Observation entail
What are the advantages of observational data collection as opposed to surveys?
What are the relative disadvantages of observational data collection as opposed to surveys?

49. Main Observational Research Methods
Direct Observation
Shopper Patterns and Behavior
Contrived Observation
Mystery Shopper
Content Analysis
Analyzing written material into meaningful units, using carefully applied rules
Physical Trace Measures
“Garbology”
Ethnographic Research
The researcher becomes Immersed in or part of the group
Behavior (Emotion) Recording Devices

50. Toothpaste manufactures have found consistently that if they ask for detailed information on the frequency with which people brush their teeth, and then make minimal assumptions as to the quantity of toothpaste used on each occasion, as well as spillage and failure to squeeze the tube empty, the result is a serious overstatement of toothpaste consumption.
How would you explain this phenomenon?
Would it be possible to design a study to overcome these problems and obtain more accurate estimates of consumption?

51. Advantages: Disadvantages: We see what people actually do
May avoid interviewer bias
Disadvantages:
No information on motives attitudes or intentions
Time-consuming and expensive

52. Machine observation Traffic Counters Time and flow in retail stores
Behavior Measurement
People Reader: reading habits
Physiological Measurement
EEG: electroencephalogram
GSR: galvanic skin response
Pupilometer: pupil dilation
Scanner Based
Store scanners read the UPC codes on products and produce instantaneous information on sales