Deck 10: Measurement in Marketing Research

Question 1

Which of the following refers to the relative sizes of the descriptors?

A) description
B) order
C) distance
D) origin
E) relativity

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following formats has only two response options?

A) the twins format
B) the dual-choice categorical format
C) the dual format
D) the bi-response format
E) the bi-format

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Your textbook suggested several considerations in deciding on the proper response format for a study. Which one of the following was discussed by your authors?

A) what will be the most cost-effective format
B) the ability of the researcher
C) keeping data analysis requirements limited to descriptive statistics
D) keeping the length of the questionnaire to one page or less
E) what response format was used in a previous study, with which we wish to compare results

Answer 3

E

Question 4

If a researcher wanted the respondent to answer an open-ended question with no additional information, he/she would likely use a(n):

A) open-ended, unprobed format
B) open-ended, probed format
C) closed-ended, probed format
D) continuous response format
E) general format

Question 5

For subjective properties such as "liking for chocolate," which response format would be best?

A) closed-ended
B) dual-response
C) scaled-response
D) the "liking index" response format
E) objective response

Question 6

If the distance between 2 - 3 and 6 - 7 on a scale are equal, the scale would likely be at least:

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio
E) equality

Question 7

Which of the following formats provides response options to questions on the questionnaire?

A) response options format
B) categorical format
C) open-ended format
D) probed format
E) optional format

Question 8

A scale where positions 1 through 5 are identified with a descriptor is called:

A) a descriptor scale format
B) a synthetic scaled-response format
C) a numerical/descriptor format
D) a numeric identifier
E) no such scale exists

Question 9

The question, "What was your reaction to the Sony Blu-Ray disc player advertisement you saw on television?" is an example of which response format?

A) unprobed, open-ended
B) unprobed, closed-ended
C) scaled-response
D) ad reaction measurement
E) probed response

Question 10

If we were measuring age, income, height, number of bottles purchased, and so on, we would be measuring:

A) objective properties
B) subjective properties
C) objective objects
D) subjective objects
E) objective subjects

Question 11

Which of the following refers to a scale having a true zero beginning point?

A) description
B) order
C) distance
D) origin
E) start point

Question 12

Researchers measure ________ of ________.

A) properties/objects
B) numbers/customers
C) objects/measurements
D) objects/properties
E) types/products

Question 13

Which of the following was NOT mentioned in the textbook as a consideration in choosing a question-response format?

A) nature of the property being measured
B) previous research studies
C) ability of the researcher
D) ability of the respondent
E) scale level desired

Question 14

Which single characteristic is unique to nominal level of measurement?

A) description
B) order
C) distance
D) origin
E) numbers

Question 15

Which of the following is defined as determining if and how much of a property is possessed by an object?

A) scale level
B) attributes of properties
C) subjective and objective properties
D) measurement
E) intensity determination

Question 16

When we have less-than, greater-than, and/or equal to, we have:

A) description
B) order
C) distance
D) origin
E) timelines

Question 17

Which of the following encourages the respondent to provide information beyond the initial and possibly superficial first comments?

A) open-ended, unprobed format
B) closed-ended, exploratory format
C) deductive probed
D) optional format
E) open-ended, probed format

Question 18

Which of the following refers to a unique descriptor, or label, to stand for each designation on the scale?

A) order
B) distance
C) origin
D) description
E) label designation

Question 19

Age, income, gender, and interest in buying product X would all be considered ________ of the consumer, or object.

A) description
B) properties
C) subjective descriptors
D) objectives descriptors
E) commonalities

Question 20

What are the basic question-response formats?

A) unprobed, probed, and neutral
B) open-ended, closed-ended, and skip patterned
C) open-ended, closed-ended, and scaled-response
D) closed-ended, continuous, open-ended
E) open-ended, probed, general

Question 21

A question that asks how much you would be willing to pay in annual premium for a $100,000 life insurance policy would be scaled as:

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio
E) an origin

Question 22

If a question is designed to measure a construct, for example, "intentions to buy a new product," and the question appears to ask this in a straightforward manner, the measurement would be said to have:

A) reliability
B) validity
C) face validity
D) appearance value
E) internal reliability

Question 23

Which type of scaled-response format contains bipolar words such as "hot-cold," "wet-dry," "convenient-inconvenient," and so on?

A) constant sum scale
B) life-style inventory
C) semantic differential scale
D) graphic intensity
E) percentage scale

Question 24

Reader's Digest conducts an annual survey across 18 different European countries and asks respondents to rate brands across 30 product categories. The questions ask the consumers to rate the brands from 1 to 5 on each of the following: quality, value, strong image, and understanding consumer needs. This is an example of:

A) an anchored scale
B) an unanchored scale
C) a summated scale
D) a staple scale
E) a graphic intensity scale

Question 25

A question that asks the age of a respondent in years would be scaled as:

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio
E) age-related

Question 26

Using a line or pictures to indicate the intensity of response would be used in which type of scaled-response question formats?

A) graphic rating scale
B) line/pictorial scale
C) staple scale
D) itemized rating scale
E) intensity scale

Question 27

Which type of validity is concerned with the degree to which a measurement "looks like" its measuring that which it is intended?

A) face validity
B) predictive validity
C) convergent validity
D) discriminant validity
E) relative validity

Question 28

A question on a survey asks, "How many of the following kitchen appliances are in your kitchen?" Respondents are given a list of appliances and asked to check all those that apply. The researcher who counts the number of checks and adds them up to measure the construct "kitchen appliance ownership" would be using a(n):

A) demographic scale
B) anchored scale
C) Likert scale
D) summated scale
E) graphic intensity scale

Question 29

Which of the following scaled-response formats is good for measuring store, company, or brand images because profiles may be generated to easily depict the image?

A) constant sum scale
B) lifestyle inventory
C) semantic differential scale
D) image analysis scales
E) image analysis

Question 30

Which of the following best illustrates the concept of reliability of measurement?

A) the tendency to respond in the same manner to different questions
B) the ability of the measurement to elicit an identical or very similar response from the same person with successive administrations
C) the ability to repeat the same response time and again to different questions
D) a measure that is truthful
E) a measurement that is relative to what actually is

Question 31

The "halo effect" is best avoided by:

A) doing a couple of things wrong during the entire research project
B) flipping favorable and unfavorable endpoints on different scale items
C) flipping "bad" scales to the back of the survey to encourage a good response before the respondents get to the bad questions
D) using only percentage scales
E) using only closed-ended questions

Question 32

Understanding the measurement level of a scale is important because it:

A) is said to be important by statisticians
B) tells us what we can/cannot say about the object's properties being measured
C) tells us what we can/cannot say about the object's properties being measured, as well as dictating the type of statistical analysis that may be performed
D) dictates the type of statistical analysis that may be performed, as well as being important in terms of communicating the results to the client in a manner that facilitates a clear presentation
E) lets us know how expensive a project will be

Question 33

Which characteristic is associated only with ratio scales?

A) description
B) order
C) distance
D) origin
E) ratiocination

Question 34

Because they measure psychological constructs of consumers, such as attitudes, opinions, and so on, and because these constructs exist on a continuum, scaled-response question formats are most useful for measuring:

A) physical constructs
B) brand name awareness
C) sales
D) unobservable constructs
E) psychological aspects

Question 35

Validity is best illustrated by which of the following statements?

A) accuracy or truthfulness of the measurement
B) the extent to which the reliability coefficient approaches
C) the ability to repeat measurements
D) tendency to respond in the same manner to different questions
E) tendency to respond in the same manner to the same questions

Question 36

A scale consists of 5 points and there are labels only on each end of the 5-point continuum. This is an example of a(n):

A) minimal labeled 5-point scale
B) 5-point unanchored scale
C) summated scale
D) graphic rating scale
E) anchored scale

Question 37

Which type of scaled-response format measures activities, interests, and opinions?

A) constant sum scale
B) lifestyle inventory
C) semantic differential scale
D) percentage scale
E) graphic intensity scale

Question 38

Some researchers believe that a mid-point, or neutral position, should NOT be included in a scale question because:

A) it violates the statistical assumption of symmetry
B) it creates an odd number
C) it allows respondents to dodge or hide their feelings
D) it creates a problem in trying to code the scale items
E) it creates a problem in terms of how you value the mid-point in the calculation of statistics

Question 39

Which of the following is a synthetic scaled-response form in which respondents are asked to indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement on a symmetric agree--disagree scale for each of a series of statements?

A) semantic differential scale
B) extremism scale
C) Likert scale
D) bipolar scale
E) lifestyle inventory

Question 40

A 5-point scale that is "anchored" means that each scale point is given a verbal description.

Question 41

The terms greater than or less than refer to the scale characteristic known as order.

Question 42

Sometimes the nature of the property being measured determines the question response format, that is, gender is either male or female; a dual-choice categorical response format is appropriate.

Question 43

When the distances between scale descriptors are absolute and known, the scale is said to possess the characteristic of description.

Question 44

Because scales are so specific to a study, once a scale has been used, it should not be used for another study.

Question 45

When a scale has a "true zero," it is a nominal scale.

Question 46

An open-ended question presents no response options to the respondent.

Question 47

A multiple category, closed-ended question has more than two response options.

Question 48

Metric scales represent scales that are either nominal or ordinal.

Question 49

Scaled-response questions are best suited for unobservable constructs.

Question 50

Because every research project is different, it is wise to develop a new and novel scale format to suit the particular needs of the existing situation.

Question 51

Categorical scales represent scales that are either nominal or ordinal.

Question 52

The lifestyle inventory is a special application of the modified Likert scale. It measures activities, interests, and opinions using the Likert question form.

Question 53

We attempt to measure the properties sometimes called attributes or qualities of objects.

Question 54

Because the highest level ratio scale possesses all of the scale characteristics, we should use ratio scales for only research purposes.

Question 55

All scaled-response questions must be labeled.

Question 56

Subjective properties are observable and tangible.

Question 57

A scale that is simply "yes" or "no" is said to have origin.

Question 58

All response formats are easy and straightforward. All consumers should be able to answer any of them, therefore, the ability of the respondent is not really a consideration in determining the response format.

Question 59

A scale that asks consumers the extent to which they agree or disagree with the statement that Levi's 501 are good looking is a modified Likert scale.

Question 60

A consumer likes the restaurant Red Lobster and answers "Very Satisfied" to a survey about many dimensions of the restaurant, without really paying attention to each specific dimension, such as price, product quality, atmosphere, and so on. This is an example of what is known as the "halo effect."

Question 61

The text discussed a study that was done on cultural differences in scale responses. It found that the majority of countries in the study fell into a range of response moderation rather than response extremism.

Question 62

Agnes Montgomery is the director of marketing for Ideal Plastics, Inc. Ideal has distributors all over the world. Last year, Agnes developed a system for measuring the distributors' satisfaction levels with Ideal on 20 different dimensions. Each dimension of company service, such as "Return Policy" and "Ease of Placing an Order," was evaluated by the distributors on a semantic differential scale ranging from "Very Satisfied" to "Very Dissatisfied." Now, several months after implementing the system, Agnes has data to analyze. She noticed that the Asian countries seemed to have different means from the countries in the UK, United States, and western Europe. Agnes looked carefully at the actual scores and saw that Asian distributors seemed to have much stronger feelings, either positively or negatively. Agnes should:

A) immediately conduct some exploratory research within the Asian division to determine why the mean scores are so different
B) take aggressive action in the Asian division by changing the companies procedures on all the service dimensions having lower means than the other divisions
C) view the results between countries with major cultural differences cautiously because different cultural influences affect how individuals respond to scales
D) view the results among countries with similar cultures cautiously because differences in means on service dimensions are likely due to reference group influences instead of real differences in company performance
E) all of the above

Question 63

Sandra Catrioni is a research analyst at Spellman Research Associates. She has just completed a study of customers for Brennan's, a department store in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She asked the question, "How much do you believe you spend on an average trip to a department store?" She realizes that the level of the measurement scale of the answer is ratio. However, for her client's presentation, she wants to create categories of the answers and put them in a bar chart. The categories will be of unequal amounts. The first category will be "Less than $10" and the second category will be "$10 to $25," and so on. What effect will this have on the measurement level of the new variable she will create containing the categories?

A) Nothing; once a ratio scale, always a ratio scale.
B) The ratio scale will now become an ordinal scale.
C) The ratio scale will not become an interval scale.
D) The ratio scale will become a nominal scale.
E) The ratio scale will become a bar chart scale.

Question 64

In a survey for ACME Electric Co., Ralph Thomas asks the following questions: "What is your gender? Male-Female" and "How much do you estimate your monthly electric bill to be? $________." In the first question regarding gender, the answers are composed of a small number of distinct values or categories. In the second question, the answers are composed of numbers that have an "underlying measurement continuum." How would you classify these two questions in terms of the type of scale each represents?

A) closed ended, scaled response
B) closed ended, semantic dollar scale
C) categorical, meteorological
D) categorical, metric
E) closed ended, metric

Question 65

Erik Cartman just took a new position with Colorado Research, Inc. Erik's first customer, the president of a local bank, wanted a bank image study to be conducted measuring not only the client's banks' image, but that of his competitors as well. In designing the research project, Erik talked to several of his friends one night about how they viewed their banks. Erik charged the client for this and billed it as "Exploratory Research Focus Group." The next day Erik tried to remember most of what his friends had told him. Some of the issues were "closeness to home" of branch locations, "cool online banking," and "friendly tellers." Erik took these issues, made up some of his own and put them into a semantic differential scale format. After the research study, Erik wrote a report and referred to the semantic differential scale he devised as a "Standard Marketing Research Scale to Measure the Construct of Bank Image." What Erik did was:

A) correct; he used exploratory research to generate most of the items for his measurement of bank image
B) correct; although he used some of his own opinions, they were based upon experience and he did make use of a focus group
C) incorrect; the measurement of bank image was incorrect as bank image should be measured only by using Likert scales
D) incorrect; we do not know if the scale Mr. Cartman devised was valid or reliable, but he was unethical in presenting the measurement as "standard marketing research"
E) correct; Erik saved considerable time and money by creating his own measurement of the construct

Question 66

A respondent has an income of less than $10,000 but states he earns more than $100,000 during an interview. This is an example of low-reliability.

Question 67

A reliable measure is one that is truthful.

Question 68

A summated is one in which the number of checks will be counted for each respondent, and that number will stand as the metric measure of the construct.

Question 69

Different cultures tend to respond differently to scales, and a scale developed in Western culture may not be automatically transferred to other cultures.

Question 70

Rick Irizarry of Irizarry Insurance Company is conducting a survey of potential customers. Age is an important issue in determining life insurance premiums. Rick considers asking for age in the following way:
___ 16 to 19
___ 20 to 25
___ 26 to 35
___ 36 to 50
___ over 50
Rick should consider the level of the measurement scale to be:

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio
E) age-related

Question 71

Reliable and valid scales are useful in marketing research, but they do not represent any kind of ethical issue for marketing researchers.

Question 72

Face validity simply means that the measurement "looks like" it's measuring what it is intended to measure.

Question 73

All scaled-response formats must have a middle, neutral response option.

Question 74

A common response scale for the construct of awareness is a dual-choice categorical response.

Question 75

A valid measure is one in which a respondent answers in the same or in a very similar manner to
an identical or near-identical question.

Question 76

One of the appealing aspects of the semantic differential scale is that the researcher may compute averages and plot them on the scale. This creates a "profile" of the object being measured: store, brand, and so on.

Question 77

The standard procedure for marketing practitioners is to use measures that are well known through the company's experience, through the researcher's own experience, or available in the marketing research literature.

Question 78

A measure can be reliable but invalid.

Question 79

Rick Irizarry of Irizarry Insurance Company is conducting a survey of potential customers. One of his questions asks how much customers would be willing to pay in annual premium for a $100,000 life insurance policy. Check appropriate category:
___ $1 to $10 month
___ $11 to $20 month
___ $21 to $30 month
___ $31 to $40 month
___ $41 to $50 month
Rick should consider the level of the measurement scale to be:

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio
E) none of the above

Question 80

Rick Irizarry of Irizarry Insurance Company is conducting a survey of potential customers. Age is an important issue in determining life insurance premiums. Rick considers asking for age in the following way:
How old are you?
___ years?
Rick should consider the level of the measurement scale to be:

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio
E) categorical