Questionnaires & quantative: interviews, surveys & tests (MR, unit 8)

(N.B. Interviews can be qualitative and/or quantitative)

5 main styles:

1. Street surveys
2. Shop surveys
3. Hall tests - prebooked location, entice with giveaways, possibility for more complex displays (c. 10mins)
4. Placement tests - test product in home over period, results in diary, costly and time consuming but realistic (recruit through omnibus surveys or street interviews)
   
5. Home interviews / business surveys - can pre-arrange, often reluctant to respond

POSTAL SURVEYS: any survey given without personal contact (25% of market research questionnaires)
Enumerators deliver postal questionnaires, collects and helps with any difficult questions. Better response rates.

TELEPHONE SURVEYS

• Advantages: rapid response, standard sampling frame (tel directory), wide geographic area, easier to ask sensitive questions
• Disadvantages: biased sample (10% no phone, many ex-directory), high refusal rate, difficult to build rapport, must be short, not possible to show materials

WEB SURVEYS (increasingly common)
- Design issues critical (include factors like processing speed, intuitive navigation)
- Can be generated dynamically in response to answers, skipping irrelevant sections automatically
- Web users may not be typical of target market?
- Difficult to establish sample frame

LABORATORY TESTS - measure responses to adverts, product descriptions, packaging. Controlled environment but difficult to isolate impact of factors.

FIELD TESTS - test in realistic surroundings over time. Expensive to produce in small quantities, risky as competitors may find.

• Home - and report by questionnaire
• Store - test packaging or POS material, results measured through sales figures
• Test marketing - try in ltd area of market to predict sales vol, profit, market share. Expensive but vital.

CONTINUOUS RESEARCH - take regular measurements to monitor changes in market (often syndicated as very expensive)
Omnibus surveys: master questionnaire run by market research org, space sold to orgs
Market Tracking Surveys: data on particular market using regular different samples, product usage data sometimes combined with media exposure data

IN-STORE TESTING - quick, inexpensive and good promotion