Types of Questions
Mail Survey
• Economical : The cost includes cost of postage (pre paid envelopes are
sent along with the survey) and the printed questionnaire .
• Wide geographical coverage :
• Interviewer’s bias is eliminated
• Convenience to respondents:-- as thee is no pestering by interviewer and
there is no pressure to fill up on the spot. The respondent can take their
own time and this allows them to think before answering .
• Repondents and supervisors not required.—major expenses saved
• Family views can be ascertained.
• Economical
• Quick response
• Busy people prefer telephonic interviews
• As the interviews are short, more people can be contacted in a day.
• The interviewer’s time and money is saved considerably.
Demerits
1) Nominal scale :
In this scale, numbers are only used as labels, they have no numerical
sanctity. e.g To categorize male and female respondents we could say
a nominal scale of 1 for male and 2 for female.
Other examples could be to indicate categories of any variable which is
not be given a numerical significance ---
Religion--- Hindu—1, Muslim--- 2, Christian – 3 etc.
Education level: H.S.C Pass--- 1, Graduate ---2, P.G--- 3 etc.
Languages spoken: --- English--- 1, Marathi--- 2 etc.
2) Ordinal scale:
ordinal scale variables are ones, which have a
meaningful order to them.
e.g. : A typical marketing variable is ranks given to brands by
respondents. These ranks are not interchangeable, as nominal scale
labels are.
This is because rank 1 is higher then rank 2 and so on.
The distance between each rank is not known. Ranking simply
denotes that rank 1 is higher then rank 2, rank 2 is higher then rank 3 ,
but by how much is unknown.
4) Ratio scale :
In a ratio type scale , there is a unique zero or beginning point.
Interval scale doesnot have a unique zero. Also the ratio of two values of
the scale corresponds to the same ratio among the measured values.
Courteous _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Rude
4)Intention –to –buy scale : A scale that describes the respondents intention
to buy. E.g If an inflight telephone service was available on
along flight , I would
Definitely buy Probably buy Not sure Probably
not buy
Definitely not buy.
5) Projective techniques
a) Word association : Words are presented , one at a time and
respondents mention the first word which comes to their mind
e.g :-- What is the first word which comes to your mind when you
hear the following :
Airlines : ____________
Jet Airways:___________
Air Deccan :___________
Travel :_______________