Marketing Research is Simple…
Asking the “Right” Questions
In my previous blog, I reviewed the three steps necessary to conduct “good” Marketing Research:
-
-
- Ask the “Right” Questions,
- Ask the “Right” People,
- Ask at the “Right” Time
-
However, simple these steps may seem, getting all the steps “Right” is a challenge. In this blog, I’m going to probe more deeply into the topic of asking the “Right” questions.
Over the course of my career, I’ve seen numerous badly worded questions and poorly constructed questionnaires (yes, I’ve written many myself). There are three basic ways to fail in asking the “Right” questions:
-
- Asking the “Wrong” questions
- Failing to ask all the “Right” questions
- Asking the “Right” questions in the “Wrong” way
First, to avoid asking the “Wrong” questions, it is important to keep a laser focus on the objectives of the research. Losing sight of your objectives can cause you to stray off into topics and issues that are not relevant. This is especially true when there are many levels of people providing input to the questionnaire design. One solution is to design a mock report or outline before you start writing the questionnaire. Knowing the key components of the report will define the information that you need to include in the questionnaire.
A more insidious problem is when you “think” that you are asking the “Right” questions, but you wind up leaving some key questions out. A classic example is the case of New Coke. Coca-Cola introduced a new formulation of its flagship brand in 1985. Extensive marketing research had shown decisively in blind taste tests that the taste of the new formulation was preferred over the current Coke formulation and over Pepsi. The Coke marketing team thought they had a winner, and the new formulation was launched with heavy advertising and public relations. But, soon after the launch, the company began receiving letters and telephone calls from people all over the country expressing anger and disappointment about the “new” Coke. What happened? One issue was that in the marketing research, consumers were asked blindly whether they liked the taste of the new formulation relative to Coke and Pepsi. They were not asked, either directly or indirectly, whether they would be in favor of replacing the Coke brand with a new formulation. Loyal Coke drinkers couldn’t accept that their beloved Coke brand had been changed. Aside from taste, there were strong emotional connections that people had with the brand that were not fully considered in the research. They neglected to ask all the “Right” questions, such as “how would you feel if this new formulation replaced the current Coke formulation?”. Perhaps the negative consumer reaction may have been predicted or mitigated if they had these insights developed from the research.
Finally, to avoid asking questions in the “Wrong” way, there are 6 errors to avoid:
-
- Leading or Loaded questions:
Perhaps the most common way to bias a question is to lead the respondent toward an answer that you’d like them to make. For example, if you wish to get positive answers to a satisfaction question, you could ask “How excellent is the customer service you receive?”. An unbiased alternative is “Please rate your level of satisfaction with the customer service you receive.”.
-
- Loaded questions:
Loaded questions are similar to leading questions in that they subtly (or not so subtly) push the user toward a particular response. Here you are making an assumption about the respondent that is included implicitly in the question. An example is, “What do you love about shopping online?” This presumes that a person loves shopping online and will bias their response.
-
- Unbalanced scales:
One way to lead questions is by using an answer scale that is unbalanced. Asking, “please rate your satisfaction with the service on your last transaction” is unbiased. But, you can bias the answers with an unbalanced scale, that provides more positive than negative choices, such as:
| Extremely Satisfied | Very Satisfied | Somewhat Satisfied | Satisfied | Dissatisfied |
-
- Double-barreled questions:
Double-barreled questions attempt to ask about two constructs in the same question. “Please rate your satisfaction with the courtesy and competence of your customer service rep”. The customer service rep may be perceived as very courteous, but not very competent. Or vice versa. Therefore, the answer to a double-barreled question is not clear. To solve the issue, you need to break the two constructs into separate questions.
-
- Unclear questions:
Questions that are too long, grammatically incorrect, using acronyms or jargon, or written above the heads of the target respondent will either be skipped or answered invalidly. Keeping the reading level slightly below what you think is the average reading level of your target respondent.
-
- Unanswerable questions:
You can get skewed results to survey questions when you are asking something that the respondent can’t easily answer. Perhaps it is information that is obscure, that they would have to look up, that happened too long ago, or that is just unknowable. An example is, “Please tell me how much you paid for Title Insurance when you purchased your first home?” Unless a respondent closed on their first home very recently or has easy access to their records, you are probably going to get inaccurate answers to this question.
In summary, to assure that you are asking the “Right” questions:
-
- Keep focused on the objectives of the research. If a question doesn’t contribute to answering the key questions in the objectives, eliminate it.
- Are there questions that you are missing? Look at your report outline. Do you have all the key information covered?
- Be aware of and avoid the common question bias pitfalls.
- Have a colleague read the questionnaire over and make sure they understand it and it is free of spelling and grammatical errors.
The time you spend upfront to get the questions “Right” will save you the embarrassment of having to explain why you don’t have the insights that were expected.
Look for my next article next week that will probe more deeply into how to “Ask” questions of the “Right” people.
Carl Fusco is a Marketing Research and Consulting Executive skilled at directing the application of research techniques and insights to solve problems and support data-based business decisions. Over his 35-year career, Carl has built a reputation for quality, integrity, and creativity by establishing trust, credibility, and acceptance with clients and associates. He has built a proven track record of success in organizational management and leadership, research design and implementation, and analytic rigor and impact.
Contact Carl at:
carl_fusco@yahoo.com
770-364-7160
Thank you for visiting our Blog!
Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.