Market Research in Practice by Paul N Hague

Author:Paul N Hague
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kogan Page

All too often there is not time to carry out a proper pilot, but at the very least, the questionnaire should be tried on someone in the office, preferably someone not involved in the survey. Someone who was not involved in the design of the questionnaire should play the role of interviewer while the questionnaire designer looks on.

The person who is in charge of analysing the questionnaire should also be allowed the opportunity to sign it off before it goes into the field, as he or she may well spot coding or routing problems.

Special questionnaires: conjoint analysis

Conjoint analysis is concerned with understanding how people make choices between products or services, and is used to identify what combinations of features people like and are prepared to pay for. If we ask people what they want in a conventional way, the response is likely to be the first thing that comes to mind and may not necessarily reflect what they actually do want. All choices involve compromises and trade-offs, as the ideal is rarely attainable, so we need an approach that allows us to simulate this decision making in the questions we ask.

Conjoint analysis provides the framework for asking these questions. In order to develop appropriate questions, we need to break the products and services down into their features and benefits, which we call attributes. These attributes can be offered at different levels – high quality/low quality; delivered in an hour/delivered in a week and so on. It is these attributes and the levels of the attributes that we show to respondents, and we ask them which they would choose.

Conjoint analysis takes these attributes and level descriptions of products/services and combines them in numerous ways that are put before respondents for their consideration. People are asked to review the different choices and concepts and say which they would buy (if any). In the following example there are two concepts (envelope A and B) with three attributes and a price at two levels. Which would you choose?

Envelope A

Envelope B

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