| One aspect of market research is analyzing the | | | | that the bunching of responses among a few |
| results of questionnaires and other survey | | | | choices might create difficulties in ranking |
| "instruments." There are numerous analytical tests | | | | responses. This is especially true if those thousand |
| for this purpose and most are classified as | | | | are divided into several cohorts. |
| "nonparametric" tests. | | | | The latter point is why this writer usually |
| "Nonwhat!?" | | | | recommends three or five choices per question |
| Don't sweat it. This article focuses on more basic | | | | when the object is one of ratings or satisfaction. |
| analysis that can be quite useful and that most | | | | The choices should be balanced. That is, there |
| people can perform fairly easily, especially with | | | | should be the same number above a neutral or |
| computer spreadsheets. | | | | "average" response as there are below. Also the |
| Before performing any type of analysis, the data | | | | choices should be comparable in degrees from |
| must be tabulated. Tabulating means totaling | | | | that middle or neutral or average point. For |
| (adding) the number of responses to each choice | | | | example, choices might be "excellent," "good," |
| for each question. For instance, if there are 10 | | | | "fair," "poor," and "unacceptable." (A,B,C,D,E). Or |
| questions, each with five choices, there are 50 | | | | "good to very good," "fair or average," and "poor |
| different totals. Also, there are techniques for | | | | to unacceptable." |
| coding (giving a quantitative scale to) open-ended | | | | E and "unacceptable" are being used to avoid this |
| (qualitative) questions. | | | | being too much like a school report card. |
| Almost always the first step is to determine what | | | | NOTE: With average, use "average" not "just |
| percent each choice is for each question. Generally | | | | average." The "just" tends to denigrate the choice |
| this means, for example, calculating what percent | | | | of average. Kind of like hosts or hostesses at |
| of question 1's answers were choice A, what | | | | restaurants who say "just one" instead of "one." |
| percent were choice B, what percent were choice | | | | Remember, by definition in a bell curve (i.e.; |
| C, what percent were choice D, and what | | | | normally shaped statistical distribution) average is |
| percent were choice E. This is repeated for each | | | | the middle 68+ percent. So when some of these |
| question. Thus, if you sent out 10,000 surveys | | | | political and other polls' reports say positive is |
| and received 200 valid replies, that is a two | | | | "good or excellent" and negative is "just fair or |
| percent response rate, which for a general | | | | poor" that is really misleading. Fair is average. It is |
| audience survey is not too bad. It is possible not | | | | not positive or negative. That is why a balanced |
| every question will produce 200 responses. One | | | | scale with an odd number of choices is preferable |
| of the advantages in using percents rather than | | | | for an accurate reading. |
| absolute numbers is that most problems arising | | | | Depending on the objective(s) of the survey, |
| from some respondents not answering each | | | | normally one would rank all the A responses, B |
| question are negated. | | | | responses, C responses, D responses, and E |
| The survey should try to gather key cohort | | | | responses. It really doesn't matter what number |
| information. A cohort is a grouping, such as | | | | scale is used as long as the scale is symmetrical. |
| gender, age bracket, income bracket, etc. | | | | For example, |
| You can then look at what percent of each | | | | A=1 |
| cohort gave what answers. That helps develop a | | | | B=2 |
| profile. | | | | C=3 |
| NOTE: It is often easier to get answers and | | | | D=4 |
| certainly easier to tabulated responses if you use | | | | E=5 |
| if you "bracket" or "group" some answer ranges. | | | | Of course the scaling can just as easily go the |
| Grouping or bracketing also helps encourage | | | | other way. It's a matter of personal preference. |
| responses for sensitive information. These | | | | However, in that case it's worth noting that using |
| sensitive areas include age and income. What the | | | | zero instead of one for the lowest scoring choice |
| brackets should be depends on what you are | | | | could cause some difficulties with some |
| trying to determine. | | | | quantitative tests. |
| In designing surveys, it is helpful to keep this | | | | Regardless, the analysis will probably determine |
| tabulating and analyzing process in mind. Two | | | | the arithmetic mean, the median, and the mode |
| particular considerations are: | | | | for each question and for the survey overall. |
| A) Whether the responses are not "computer | | | | Then the same thing can be done by cohort and |
| graded," that is read and tabulated by a computer | | | | by multiple cohorts. For example, the tabulation |
| (or earlier machine.and | | | | and cross-tabulation can show the results for |
| B) The more choices there are per question, the | | | | women, for women in their 40s, for women in |
| less the typical number of each response per | | | | their 40s with a household income in the |
| question. This sometimes makes it difficult to | | | | $35K-$50K range. |
| determine differences in responses. For instance, | | | | Numerous comparisons are possible depending on |
| if you have 1,000 responses, which is normally | | | | just what you want and how much time or |
| plenty, divided among 10 choices, it's quite possible | | | | money you want to spend on this project. |