1. The owner of a hardware store in Eureka, California, is interested in determining the demographic characteristics of people who shop at his store versus those of people who shop at competing stores. He also wants to know what his image is relative to the competition. He would like to have the information within three weeks and is working on a limited budget. Which survey method would you recommend? Why?

Keeping all the factors and limitations in mind that the owner of hardware store has, a self-administered questionnaire survey research method would be best for him. As he has a number of limitation i.e. short time frame, limited budget and looking at competing stores. Here he can carry out a self-administered questionnaire survey research where the customers of his store and other stores can be given with some questionnaires containing relevant items where they can record their responses.

The data collected through this method can later be used to find the appropriate results and to use them for betterment of quality of services or whatever needed.

2. Discuss this statement: “A mall-intercept interview is representative only of people who shop in that particular mall. Therefore, only surveys that relate to shopping patterns of consumers within that mall should be conducted in a mall-intercept interview.”

As the mall intercept interviews are a popular survey method, this statement does not actually summarize the importance of this type of interviews (McDaniel & Gates, 2013). Though it is right that these kind of interviews are representative only of people who shop in that particular mall but it cannot be said that these surveys related to shopping patterns of consumers within that mall. Instead, these interviews can also be used to find out that how much satisfied customers are, with the quality of services in that particular mall.

3. A colleague is arguing that the best way to conduct a study of attitudes toward city government in your community is through a mail survey because it is the cheapest method. How would you respond to your colleague? If time were not a critical factor in your decision, would your response change? Why?

A mall survey can only be used to find out the attitudes towards the city government in a particular community only. While in this case, there are some other ways which can give much results as compared to the mall survey. Here, the self-administered questionnaire or interview method can give the best results for studying the attitudes.

If time was not a critical factor in this decision, then a detailed survey research would be the best approach for studying the attitudes because then it can be used to conduct research at larger level and on a bigger scale.

4. Discuss the various types of sample design errors and give examples of each.

Various types of sample design errors include the frame error, population specific error and selection error etc. For example, in the frame error, a researcher who uses the random sampling strategy and it results in framing issues. In the population specification error, a researcher who fails to define the population of interest properly and thus this issues rises. In the selection error, the issue includes the results from using incomplete or improper sampling procedures and thus raises some sampling problems (Qualtrics, 2010).

5. Why is it important to consider measurement error in survey research? Why is this typically not discussed in professional marketing research reports?

It is important to consider measurement error in every research because different types of measurement errors such as interview error, surrogate information error, processing error and response bias etc. can create a number of issues in the research data and hence manipulating the actual findings and results (5 Common Errors in the Research Process , 2010).

In professional marketing research reports, usually the data is collected using quantitative approach or such survey types which don’t address the measurement error and hence it does not impact the results to a significant level.

6. What types of error might be associated with the following situations?
7. Conducting a survey about attitudes toward city government, using the telephone directory as a sample frame.

In this scenario, the sample design error can arise where any of the selection error, frame error or not defining the population can result in manipulating the actual data.

1. Interviewing respondents only between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on features they would like to see in a new condominium development.

This can raise the interview error where the timeframe can affect the responses given.

1. Asking people if they have visited the public library in the past two months.

This can raise either the interview error or the processing error because the responses might not be recorded properly and if they are, they might not be processed appropriately.

1. Asking people how many tubes of toothpaste they used in the past year.

The surrogate information error can arise in this format of research because of the seeking and basic decision on the wrong information based on poor design.

1. Telling interviewers, they can probe using any particular example they wish to make up.

This thing can result in response bias error where telling them that they can add an example would lead them to answer in a particular way.

 

Bibliography

5 Common Errors in the Research Process . (2010). Retrieved from Qualtrics: https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/5-common-errors-in-the-research-process/

McDaniel, C., & Gates, R. (2013). Traditional Survey Research. In Marketing Research Essentials (pp. 106-127). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Qualtrics, R. (2010). 5 Common Sampling Errors . Retrieved from Qualtrics: https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/frequent-sampling-errors/