Student Name ___________________________
Fall 2006
BA341
Marketing Research
Second Hour Exam
Dr. Geoffrey P. Lantos
Part 1 20 points ______
Part 2 26 points ______
Part 3 61 points ______
Total Points Deducted ______
Total Points Earned 107 points ______
Your Grade ______
PART I: CONCEPTS (20 points -
4 points each)
Please briefly define in your own words, and in one or two sentences, five of the following seven concepts as each relates to marketing research. You may use examples to help clarify your answers where examples are not specifically asked for.
1. Cross-sectional study -
2. Determinant choice question –
3. Index measure (Define and cite an example) -
4. Construct validity –
5. Disproportionate stratified sampling –
6. Combination map -
7. Consumer panel –
PART II:
DESCRIPTIVE SHORT ANSWER (26 points)
Please briefly answer the required number of questions for both Sections, as they relate to marketing research, in either a short paragraph or else in outline form—complete sentences need not be used. You may use graphs, figures, charts, equations, etc., where appropriate. Be sure you answer all parts of all questions that you choose to answer.
Section A (8 points): Answer two of the following three
4-point questions
1. (4 points) According to Fortini-Campbell, what is the value to marketers to “learn how to read yourself”?
2. (4 points) According to Fortini-Campbell, how can ethnography be used to gain consumer insight?
3. (4 points) Cite three advantages of choosing to use a probability sample over a nonprobability sample.
Section B (18 points): Answer three of the following four 6-point questions
4. (6 points) Cite three general, often-used solutions
to the potential problem in survey research of asking for potentially embarrassing or sensitive
information
5. (6 points) Cite two general, often-used solutions to each of the following potential problems in survey research:
a. Respondents who might be uninformed
b. Questions that might require respondents to do a lot of work to get an answer
6. (6 points) Why is a conceptual definition a necessary prerequisite for an operational definition?
7. (6 points)
a. Other than reasons of accuracy, cite three reasons why a sample is usually preferred to a census.
b. A sample is often preferred to a census because it is felt to be more accurate. How can this be so?
.
PART III: APPLIED
SHORT ANSWERS (61 points)
Please read the following scenarios and then briefly answer the required number of questions for each Section in this Part in either a short paragraph or else in outline form—complete sentences need not be used. Be sure to answer all parts of all questions.
Section A (6 points): Answer one
of the following two six-point questions
1. (6 points) Responses were given by all 100 eligible respondents out of 300 contacted in a recent phone survey, where the other 200 were not succesfully contacted. The researcher wanted a sample size of 150
a. (3 points) Calculate the response rate.
b. (3 points) If To achieve a sample size of 150, would it be acceptable to keep calling additional people (in addition to the original 300) until another 50 agree to answer the questions? Or, could this cause some type of survey error? Explain.
2. (6 points) Which type of sample design/sample selection error is illustrated in each of the
following scenarios? Be as specific as possible
a. Only five percent of all households postal mailed a questionnaire bothered to respond to a questionnaire on their views of candidate Ester Bonny, who is running in an election for mayor of Doodyville,. Those responding either love her or hate her.
b. Jenn O. Syde wanted to sample from the universe of
Section B (16 points): Answer two of the following three
8-point questions
3. (8 points) Classify each of the following questions below according to each of the two response formats that follow. (You may circle the correct answer, e.g., open-ended/closed ended). Briefly explain your reasoning for your classification in each case.
a. "Which one of the following best describes your appearance in the morning?
a. ugly
b. hideous
c. grotesque
d. sleepy"
(1) open ended/closed ended
(2) determinant choice/frequency determination
b. "Please check which of the following actions you think should be taken against people who litter (check as many as apply):
o put them in solitary confinement
o hang them at dawn
o tar and feather them
o draw and quarter them
o put them in the stockade
o tickle them with a feather until they cry"
(1) dichotomous/multichotomous
(2) determinant choice/checklist
4. (8 points) Which of the four scales of measurement (ordinal, etc.) is each of the following reports or questions based on? Explain your reasoning for each in no more than one sentence.
a. A study that shows that men prefer blondes to brunettes by a margin of two to one (i.e., twice as many men prefer blonds as favor brunettes).
b. A report that 30% of the public approves of the job the President is doing, 60% disapprove, and 10% don't have an opinion.
c. A statement that the radio station WUPS has a coverage radius of 60 miles in all directions from its transmitter.
d. The weatherman, Uncle Weatherbee, reports that the temperature has plummeted by fifteen degrees Fahrenheit in the past two hours.
5. (8 points) A researcher wishes to measure attitudes toward the Video iPod on the following two attributes: picture quality and sound quality. Design the following attitude scales to accomplish this task:
a. Stapel scale
b. Likert scale
Section C (27 points): Answer three of the following four 9-point questions
6. (9 points) What type of survey error seems to be occurring in each of the following situations? Use the correct terminology and briefly explain the nature of each type of error. (Note: Be more specific than “respondent error” or “systematic error.”)
a. Overall, Paige Turner really loves Lunchblow luncheon meats, although she thinks they are a bit high-priced and salty. Nonetheless, she rates them extremely favorably on every attribute on a questionnaire.
b. Chris P. Bacon tells an interviewer that he carefully saves a certain portion of his paycheck each week. However, in fact, he blows a good portion of it on expensive wine and women, and owes the enforcer a good chunk of change.
c. Gene Pool is designing a sampling plan for Fudgie Wudgie candy. Not knowing that the heavy users of Fudgie Wudgie are little old ladies, he plans on surveying mostly children, teens, and young adults.
7. (9 points) What is the name of each questioning technique (not all of which are necessarily legitimate) thath is being used in each of the following situations? Briefly explain why it is used (reasons can be either legitimate or not legitimate).
a. Respondents are instructed to skip from question number seven to question number nine if they don't work outside the home at least thirty-five hours a week.
b. An interviewer asks, "Don't you think that conservative talk show hosts are inciting hate when they talk with their listeners?"
c. An interviewer first tells respondents that most consumers don't bother to read ingredient labels, comparison shop, or consult consumer buying guides when buying durable goods. She then asks respondents which of these activities they do, if at all, and how often.
8. (9 points) Last month the Valid & Reliable Marketing Research Corp. conducted a survey for the Howitzer Toy Co. to get youngsters' (ages 3 to 6) reactions to several new toys their R&D people had developed. The children were permitted to play with three different toys, and each child was given ten minutes to play with two different versions (e.g., different colors, different features, etc.) of each toy (6 toys in all). After playing with each pair of versions of a given toy, the children were asked questions such as which of the two versions of the toy they liked better and why, whether they would like to take either version of the toy home, whether they think their parents would buy each toy, and whether they think their friends would like each toy.
The research was conducted on a Thursday and Friday. On Thursday there was a major snowstorm. Fortunately, most of the invited parents and their children made it in to the research agency, but many of the parents were grumpy from fighting the storm, and, because their parents were upset, so too were many of the children. Further, most of children would have preferred to be outdoors playing in the snow. This, coupled with the fact that quite a number of the kids had bad colds, meant that many of them were disinterested in the toys and just had an overall bad "attitude." On Friday, things went much better: Parents and children were in a good mood and eager to participate in the research, and the children were all in good health.
Identify a major potential or actual threat to/problem with each of the following dimensions of this research. Explain your reasoning in each case.
a. Validity
b. Reliability
c. Sensitivity
9. (9 points) Which method of sampling is being used in each of the following situations? Explain each in a sentence or two. (Be more specific than "probability" or "nonprobability" sample.)
a. The customer service department in a consumer electronics manufacturer wants to make sure that their instructional manuals are easy to read and understand. They decide to test them out on a sample of fifth graders, figuring if the youngsters can read and understand the booklets, so can most adults.
b. A left-handed pathological nose picker is observed, pulled aside, and asked some pertinent questions. Then, he is asked if he knows another left-handed pathological nose picker, who is located, interviewed, asked if she knows another left-handed pathological nose picker, etc.
c. Everyone in a classroom of college students is assigned a number between one and twenty. The numbers one to twenty are then put into the professor's hat, and each student draws a number to determine the order in which they will take their oral examination from the professor.
Section D (12 points): Answer the following 12-point
question
10. (12 points) Find two faults with each of the following survey questions (assume there.are no sampling problems). For each problem suggest how you would change the question (content, wording, response format, nature of the question, etc.) to solve those faults (respondent group for each question is indicated in parentheses):
a. (Primary household grocery shopper) "Where do you buy your groceries?"
b. (Adults exiting a church service) "Please rank the following brands of beer in order of your preference, from 1 to 10.
Budweiser Genuine Draft _____
Heinekin Coor's _____
Miller Light Coor's Light _____
Old
Pabst Stroh's” _____
c. (College students) "What kind of car do you presently own?"