Measurement scales and customer confidence assessment for Menu Foods

Scaling Techniques

The following concepts could be measured using the different kinds of measurement scales:

Store customers

Nominal -- specific geographic location of store customers within the store's trade area (i.e., residential location)

Ordinal -- comparative ranking of the store vs. other stores (i.e., store a has better service than store B, etc.)

Interval -- shopping hours or hours of the day when customers visit or go to the store

Ratio -- household income group (actual or estimated amount but will be re-categorized as high, medium, or low)

Voter attitudes

Nominal -- political affiliation or preference (Democrat, Republican, Independent, Other)

Ordinal - preference for a political candidate (prefer Candidate a than Candidate B, etc.)

Interval - number of hours per day (or number of days in a week) spent on engaging in politics-related activities

Ratio -- voter age (can be aggregated later as age group)

Hardness of steel alloys

Nominal -- steel alloy brand, geographic location of manufacturer, steel quality

Ordinal -- steel alloy quality (brand a harder than brand B, etc.)

Interval -- number of hours (interval time) for the steel alloy product to physically show "stress" in a product test (or hardness test)

Ratio -- hardness or thickness grade as ascertained from the product test

Preference for a particular common stock

Nominal -- industries or markets of interest when it comes to choosing and purchasing common stock

Ordinal -- assessment of stock option offerings (stock options for industry/company a performing better than stock options for industry/company B)

Interval -- years of engagement/involvement in stock investments

Ratio -- amount invested on common stock every quarter (or every year)

Profitability of various divisions in the company

Nominal -- division in the company the respondent belongs to Ordinal -- comparative ranking of profitability across divisions (division a more profitable than division B, etc.)

Interval -- number of months in a year that division has reached its target profit quota

Ratio -- profits earned per quarter or annually per division

2. Customer Confidence study for Menu Foods

Constant sum scale

"Given a grocery budget of $50, how many percent or what proportion of that budget will you allocate to Menu Foods products?"

Likert scale

Respond to this statement: "Menu Foods products meet my standards on product safety and quality."

5- Strongly agree 4- Agree 3- Neither agree nor disagree 2- Disagree 1-Strongly disagree

Semantic differential scale

Please evaluate and rate Menu Foods products based on the following characteristics:

Safe

Unsafe

Stapel scale

Rating of Menu Foods brand in the following attributes/characteristics:

Safety

Quality

Trustworthy

Honest

+5

+5

+5

+5

+4

+4

+4

+4

+3

+3

+3

+3

+2

+2

+2

+2

+1

+1

+1

+1

-1

-1

-1

-1

-2

-2

-2

-2

-3

-3

-3

-3

-4

-4

-4

-4

-5

-5

-5

-5

Forced ranking scale

"How would you rate, in general, Menu Foods with respect to the safety of its products?"

5 -- Product safety of products highly meets the standards.

4 -- Product safety meets more than the basic standards, but not high enough to be commendable or exceptional.

3 -- Product safety meets the basic standards.

2 -- Product safety does not meet all the basic standards.

1 -- Product safety does not meet the basic standards.

3. Evaluation of the following survey questions:

When did you first start chewing gum?

While this is a simple and good enough question to ask about the respondent's first usage and consumption of a chewing gum, there is a possibility that s/he might not recall the first time s/he chewed a gum. This would leave the respondent unsure that it would take time for him/her to answer the question, and could even lead to an unanswered question in the survey. To account for this uncertainty, the question could be phrased, "Based on what you can recall (or based on your recollection), when did you first start chewing gum?" While the answer could not be accurately true, the response provided would at least be considered as reported/recalled by the respondent.

How much discretionary buying power do you have each year?

The term "discretionary buying power" is too complex for the respondent to understand. At best, the researcher could ask the respondent if s/he could provide the percentages or proportion of expenses s/he incur every year, and identify the products or services these percentages/proportions are spent on every year.

Why did you decide to attend Big State University?

While this question is acceptable to ask the respondent, the researcher must also indicate within the question that s/he knows there could be more than one reason why the respondent decided to attend Big State University. The question can be rephrased as follows: "What are the reasons that made you decide to attend Big State University? What else? Anything else?" Probing questions are added to ensure that all possible answers are exhausted from the respondent.

Do you think the president is doing a good job now?

This question can be answered by a simple "yes" or "no." If the researcher is looking for more depth in the respondent's answer than a simple yes or no, then s/he could rephrase the question to, "Do you think the president is doing a good job now? Why? Why else? Anything else?" Probing questions are added to ensure that all possible answers are exhausted from the respondent.

4. Since there is no prior data that could give an indication of concertgoers' profiles, the best that the researcher could do using non-probability sampling is to provide a profile of concertgoers surveyed, noting that the profiles would not be representative of the concergoer/viewer population that has attended the concerts/events.

At best, the researcher could implement quota sampling, assigning a 50%-50% split between male and female concertgoers. This 50-50 split is based on the assumption that since the researcher does not have an idea about the male-female proportion in the concertgoer population, it is best to provide an equal split, so that both groups are equally represented in the sample. From this 50-50 split, the researcher could just interview anyone in the concert venue through intercept interviews. In intercept interviews, respondents are identified and surveyed since s/he happens to be at the location or venue in which the survey enumerator or researcher is conducting his/her survey. This 50-50 split will be implemented in every concert or musical event that the researcher will include in his/her survey sample.

However, to establish the percentage of male and female concertgoers in the venue or event, one method is to identify them immediately at the venue entrance. The researcher could assign field researchers who could use clickers and identify whether the incoming concertgoer at the gate is a male or a female. This method provides not only the total number of concertgoers, but also the proportion of males and females who have attended the concert/event. Once the male-female proportion is determined, the researcher could then use this as a basis for interviewing concertgoers based on convenience sampling and intercept interviewing.