Marketing Research Module 3 Scaling

Ch apter E ight

Measurement and Scaling: Fundamentals and Comparative Scaling

© 2007 Prentice Hall

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Cha pter Ou tl ine 1) Overview 2) Measurement and Scaling 3) Primary Scales of Measurement i.

Nominal Scale

ii.

Ordinal Scale

iii. Interval Scale iv. Ratio Scale 4) A Comparison of Scaling Techniques © 2007 Prentice Hall

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Cha pter Ou tl ine 5) Comparative Scaling Techniques i.

Paired Comparison

ii.

Rank Order Scaling

iii. Constant Sum Scaling iv. Q-Sort and Other Procedures 6) Verbal Protocols 7) International Marketing Research 4)

Ethics in Marketing Research

5)

Summary

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Mea su remen t a nd Sc al ing Mea su reme nt means assigning numbers or other symbols to characteristics of objects according to certain pre-specified rules. 

One-to-one correspondence between the numbers and the characteristics being measured.

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The rules for assigning numbers should be standardized and applied uniformly.

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Rules must not change over objects or time.

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Mea sur emen t a nd S ca ling Sc ali ng in vo lve s cr eat ing a co nt inuum upon wh ich mea su red object s are lo cated . Consider an attitude scale from 1 to 100. Each respondent is assigned a number from 1 to 100, with 1 = Extremely Unfavorable, and 100 = Extremely Favorable. Measurement is the actual assignment of a number from 1 to 100 to each respondent. Scaling is the process of placing the respondents on a continuum with respect to their attitude toward department stores. © 2007 Prentice Hall

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Pr imary Sc ales of Mea sur emen t Fig. 8.1

Sc ale Nomi nal

Ordi nal

In ter val

Numbers Assigned to Runners

Fi nish 7

8

3

Fi nish

Rank Order of Winners

Performance Rating on a

Third pl ace

Secon d pla ce

Fir st pl ace

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9.1

9.6

15.2

14.1

13.4

0 to 10 Scale

Rat io © 2007 Prentice Hall

Time to Finish, in

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Prim ary S ca les of Meas ur em ent No mi nal Sc ale 

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The numbers serve only as labels or tags for identifying and classifying objects. When used for identification, there is a strict one-to-one correspondence between the numbers and the objects. The numbers do not reflect the amount of the characteristic possessed by the objects. The only permissible operation on the numbers in a nominal scale is counting. Only a limited number of statistics, all of which are based on frequency counts, are permissible, e.g., percentages, and mode.

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Ill ustra tio n o f Pri mar y Scales of Measur ement Table 8.2

Nominal Scale

Interval Scale

Ordinal Scale Preference

No. Store

Rankings

1-7

3 months

1. Parisian 2. Macy’s 3. Kmart 4. Kohl’s 5. J.C. Penney 6. Neiman Marcus 7. Marshalls 8. Saks Fifth Avenue 9. Sears 10.Wal-Mart

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Preference Ratings

7 2 8 3 1 5 9 6 4 10

79 25 82 30 10 53 95 61 45 115

5 7 4 6 7 5 4 5 6 2

Ratio Scale $ spent last

11-17

15 17 14 16 17 15 14 15 16 12

0 200 0 100 250 35 0 100 0 10 8-8

Pr imary Sc ales of Mea sur emen t Ordi nal Sc ale 

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A ranking scale in which numbers are assigned to objects to indicate the relative extent to which the objects possess some characteristic. Can determine whether an object has more or less of a characteristic than some other object, but not how much more or less. Any series of numbers can be assigned that preserves the ordered relationships between the objects. In addition to the counting operation allowable for nominal scale data, ordinal scales permit the use of statistics based on centiles, e.g., percentile, quartile, median.

© 2007 Prentice Hall

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Pr imary Sc al es of Measur emen t Inte rva l S ca le 

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Numerically equal distances on the scale represent equal values in the characteristic being measured. It permits comparison of the differences between objects. The location of the zero point is not fixed. Both the zero point and the units of measurement are arbitrary. Any positive linear transformation of the form y = a + bx will preserve the properties of the scale.

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It is not meaningful to take ratios of scale values.

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Statistical techniques that may be used include all of those that can be applied to nominal and ordinal data, and in addition the arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and other statistics commonly used in marketing research.

© 2007 Prentice Hall

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Pr imary Sc ales of Mea sur emen t Ratio S ca le 

Possesses all the properties of the nominal, ordinal, and interval scales.

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It has an absolute zero point.

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It is meaningful to compute ratios of scale values.

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Only proportionate transformations of the form y = bx, where b is a positive constant, are allowed.

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All statistical techniques can be applied to ratio data.

© 2007 Prentice Hall

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Pr imary Sc al es of Measur emen t Table 8.1 Scale Nominal

Ordinal

Interval Ratio

© 2007 Prentice Hall

Basic Characteristics Numbers identify & classify objects

Common Examples Social Security nos., numbering of football players Nos. indicate the Quality rankings, relative positions rankings of teams of objects but not in a tournament the magnitude of differences between them Differences Temperature between objects (Fahrenheit) Zero point is fixed, Length, weight ratios of scale values can be compared

Marketing Permissible Statistics Examples Descriptive Inferential Brand nos., store Percentages, Chi-square, types mode binomial test Preference Percentile, rankings, market median position, social class

Rank-order correlation, Friedman ANOVA

Attitudes, opinions, index Age, sales, income, costs

Productmoment Coefficient of variation

Range, mean, standard Geometric mean, harmonic mean

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A C lassi fication o f S caling Tec hni que s Figure 8.2 Scaling Techniques

Noncomparative Scales

Comparative Scales

Paired Comparison

Rank Order

Constant Q-Sort and Sum Other Procedures

Likert © 2007 Prentice Hall

Continuous Itemized Rating Scales Rating Scales

Semantic Differential

Stapel 8-13

A Com pa ri son of S ca ling Te ch ni qu es 

Co mpa ra tiv e scal es involve the direct comparison of stimulus objects. Comparative scale data must be interpreted in relative terms and have only ordinal or rank order properties.



In noncompa rat iv e sca le s, each object is scaled independently of the others in the stimulus set. The resulting data are generally assumed to be interval or ratio scaled.

© 2007 Prentice Hall

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Re lative Adv anta ges of Co mpara tive Sca les 

Small differences between stimulus objects can be detected.

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Same known reference points for all respondents.

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Easily understood and can be applied.

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Involve fewer theoretical assumptions.

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Tend to reduce halo or carryover effects from one judgment to another.

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Rel ati ve Di sadva nta ges of Co mpar ative S ca les 

Ordinal nature of the data

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Inability to generalize beyond the stimulus objects scaled.

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Co mpa rat ive Sca ling Te ch ni qu es Pa ire d Co mp ariso n S ca ling 

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A respondent is presented with two objects and asked to select one according to some criterion. The data obtained are ordinal in nature. Paired comparison scaling is the most widely-used comparative scaling technique. With n brands, [n(n - 1) /2] paired comparisons are required. Under the assumption of transitivity, it is possible to convert paired comparison data to a rank order.

© 2007 Prentice Hall

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Fig. 8.3

Usi ng Pai red C ompar is ons

In st ructions: We are going to present you with ten pairs of shampoo brands. For each pair, please indicate which one of the two brands of shampoo you would prefer for personal use.  

Reco rding Fo rm:

Jhirmack

Jhirmack

Finesse 0

a

Vidal Head & Sassoon Shoulders 0 1

Finesse

1

0

Vidal Sassoon

1

1

Head & Shoulders

0

0

0

Pert

1

1

0

1 1 1

Pert  0  0  1  0    1 

Number of Times 3 2 0 4 b Preferred a A 1 in a particular box means that the brand in that column was preferred over the brand in the corresponding row. A 0 means that the row brand was preferred over the column brand. b The number of times a brand was preferred is obtained by summing the 1s in each column. © 2007 Prentice Hall

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Pa ire d Co mp ariso n S el ling The most common method of taste testing is paired comparison. The consumer is asked to sample two different products and select the one with the most appealing taste. The test is done in private and a minimum of 1,000 responses is considered an adequate sample. A blind taste test for a soft drink, where imagery, selfperception and brand reputation are very important factors in the consumer’s purchasing decision, may not be a good indicator of performance in the marketplace. The introduction of New Coke illustrates this point. New Coke was heavily favored in blind paired comparison taste tests, but its introduction was less than successful, because image plays a major role in the purchase of Coke.

A paired comparison taste test © 2007 Prentice Hall

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Co mpar ative S ca ling Tec hn iqu es Ran k O rde r S ca ling 

Respondents are presented with several objects simultaneously and asked to order or rank them according to some criterion.

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It is possible that the respondent may dislike the brand ranked 1 in an absolute sense.

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Furthermore, rank order scaling also results in ordinal data.

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Only (n - 1) scaling decisions need be made in rank order scaling.

© 2007 Prentice Hall

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Pre fere nc e fo r To ot hpa st e B ra nds Usi ng Rank Orde r S caling Fig. 8.4

In stru ctions: Rank the various brands of toothpaste in order of preference. Begin by picking out the one brand that you like most and assign it a number 1. Then find the second most preferred brand and assign it a number 2. Continue this procedure until you have ranked all the brands of toothpaste in order of preference. The least preferred brand should be assigned a rank of 10. No two brands should receive the same rank number. The criterion of preference is entirely up to you. There is no right or wrong answer. Just try to be consistent. © 2007 Prentice Hall

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Pre fer en ce fo r To ot hpa st e B ra nds Usi ng Rank Orde r S caling Fig. 8.4 cont.

Fo rm Brand

Rank Ord er

1.

Crest

____ _____

2.

Col gat e

____ _____

3.

Ai m

____ _____

4. 6. 5. 7.

Gl Ulteem ra Bri te Sensod Cl ose Upyne

____ _____ _____ ____ ____ _____ _____ ____

8.

Pep so den t

_____ ____

9.

Pl us W hi te

_____ ____

10. St ri pe © 2007 Prentice Hall

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Co mpa rative S ca ling Te chn iqu es Co nsta nt Su m Sc al ing 

Respondents allocate a constant sum of units, such as 100 points to attributes of a product to reflect their importance.

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If an attribute is unimportant, the respondent assigns it zero points.

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If an attribute is twice as important as some other attribute, it receives twice as many points.

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The sum of all the points is 100. Hence, the name of the scale.

© 2007 Prentice Hall

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Impo rta nc e of Bat hing Soa p Attr ibut es Usi ng a Constant Sum Sc ale Fig. 8.5

In st ructions On the next slide, there are eight attributes of bathing soaps. Please allocate 100 points among the attributes so that your allocation reflects the relative importance you attach to each attribute. The more points an attribute receives, the more important the attribute is. If an attribute is not at all important, assign it zero points. If an attribute is twice as important as some other attribute, it should receive twice as many points. © 2007 Prentice Hall

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Import ance of B athi ng Soa p Attri but es Using a Co nstan t Sum Sc ale Fig. 8.5 cont.

Form

Average Responses of Three Segments

Attribute

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Segment I 8Segment II 2Segment III 4 2 4 17 Mildness 3 9 7 Lather 53 17 9 Shrinkage 9 0 19 Price 7 5 9 Fragrance 5 3 20 Packaging 13 60 15 Moisturizing 100 100 100 Sum Cleaning Power

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