QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES:ATTITUDE SCALES

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Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)

Lesson 09

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES

OBJECTIVES:

o Understanding Attitude

o Defining the Attitude Scales

o Learning four types of Attitude Scales:

Liker Scale

1. Satisfaction Measures

2. Importance Scales

Semantic Differential Scale

Behavior Intention Scale

Rank Order Scale

ATTITUDE SCALES

To be successful a company must understand the needs of specific groups of consumers and then satisfy these

needs more effectively than the competition does. Studying consumer behavior in all its ramifications enables

marketers to predict how consumers react to a certain promotional message and to understand why they make

certain decisions they do. So it becomes important for the researchers to understand attitudes of the consumers

Attitude

Attitude is a relatively stable disposition to act in a certain way towards a target objective

Attitude Scale

Instruments used to capture evaluative data. Researchers provide respondents with a list of products or product

attributes for which they are asked to indicate their relative feelings or evaluations

Types of Attitude Scales

Most frequently used attitude scales are:

Likert Scale

Semantic Differential Scale

Behavior Intention Scale

Rank-Order Scale

1. Likert Scale

Likert Scale is easy to prepare and interpret for the researcher and for the respondent to answer. Respondents

check or write the number corresponding to their level of agreement or disagreement with each series of

statements that describes the attitude object under investigation. The scale consists of an equal number of

agreement/disagreement choices on either side of the neutral choice.

Example:

For each of the following statements please check the response that best describes the extent to which you agree

or disagree with the statement

Statements

Strongly

Somewhat

Neither

Somewhat

Strongly

Agree

Agree Nor

Disagree

Its fun to shop on-line

I'm afraid to give my credit

card number on-line

Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)

Applications of Likert Scale:

Two widely used applications of Likert Scale are:

1. Satisfaction Measures

Overall how satisfied are you with bank X's on-line banking

Statement

Very

Somewhat

Neither

Somewhat

Very

Satisfied

Satisfied Nor

Dissatisfied

Overall how satisfied are

you with bank X's on-

line banking

2. Importance Scales

Following list of features are associated with shopping on the internet. For each feature, please check the one

alternative that best describes how important or unimportant is that feature for you

Features

Extremely

Somewhat

Neither

Somewhat

Not at all

Important

Unimportant

Important

Nor

Unimportant

Speed of downloading the order

form

Being able to register with the

site

Benefits of Likert Scale

Principal benefit of Likert Scale is that it gives researcher the option to consider response to each statement

separately or of combining the responses to produce an over-all score s

2. Semantic Differential Scale (SDS)

SDS like Likert scale is easy to construct and administer. The scale typically consists of a series of bi-polar

adjectives e.g. good/bad, hot/cold, like/dislike anchored at the ends of an odd numbered continuum (e.g. 5 point

or 7 point scale). Respondents are asked to evaluate a concept (or product or company) on the basis of each

attribute by checking the point on the continuum that best reflects their feelings or beliefs

Important Features of Semantic Differential Scale:

Odd numbered scale (e.g. 5 point or 7 point scale) is used for keeping a neutral option

Sometimes even numbered scale is used for eliminating the neutral option

Care must be taken to vary the location of the positive and negative terms. When using English

Language positives are kept on the left side because English language is written from left hand side to

right hand side and vice versa in Urdu language.

SDS may be used to develop graphical consumer profiles of the concept under study

SDS profiles are used to compare the consumer perceptions of competitive products and to indicate

areas for product improvement when perceptions of existing products are measured against perceptions

of the ideal product

Example:

Suppose a Carbonated Soft Drinks (CSD) (Cola Drinks) manufacturing company wants to improve the features of

its product according to the taste preferences of target consumers. As a first step they need to know, the taste

profile of an ideal CSD with reference to different taste features. Then they will have to learn what the existing

Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)

taste profile of their CSD is. Once they have the ideal and the existing taste profiles they can compare both

profiles to adjust the existing taste profile according to the ideal taste profile.

To conduct such a research the organization may effectively use Semantic Differential Scale in the following

manner:

The three features of the taste profile under study are:

Strong VS. Light

Sweet VS. Bittern

Served Chilled VS. Room Temperature

The Semantic Differential Scale prepared for the study looked something like the figure below:

Strong

Light

Sweet

Bitter

Served Chilled

Served at Room

Temperature

After the questionnaire was filled by a large number of target consumers, the ideal taste profile turned out to be

something like the figure below:

Strong

Light

Sweet

Bitter

Chilled

Room Temperature

Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)

The same questionnaire was used to learn about the existing taste profile. After the questionnaire was filled by a

large number of target consumers, the existing taste profile turned out to be something like the figure below:

Strong

Light

Sweet

Bitter

Chilled

Room Temperature

Both profiles are compared in the figure below to pin point the differences and it turned out be something like the

figure below:

Strong

Light

Sweet

Bitter

Chilled

Room Temperature

3. Behavior Intention Scale

Behavior Intention Scale measures the likelihood that consumers will act in a certain way in the future, such as

buying the product again or recommending it to a friend. The scales are easy to construct and consumers are asked

to make subjective judgments regarding their future behavior.

Example:

The management of a bank would like to know that how their services will rate with their consumers during the

next six months. To have a reasonably reliable prediction they may use Behavior Intention Scale in the following

manner:

Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)

How likely are you to continue using Bank X's on-line banking for the next 6 months

Definitely will

Probably will continue

Might or might not

Probably will not

Definitely will not

continue

How likely are you to recommend Bank X's on-line banking to a friend

Definitely will

Probably will

Might or might not

Probably will not

Definitely will not

recommend

4. Rank Order Scale (ROS)

Subjects are asked to rank items such as products (or retail stores or websites) in order of preference in terms of

some criterion, such as over-all quality or value for the money. ROS provide important competitive information

and enable marketers to identify needed areas of improvement in product design and product positioning

Example:

We would like to find out about your preferences regarding the banking methods. Please rank the following

banking methods by placing a "1" in front of the method that you prefer most. A "2" next to your second

preference and continuing until you have ranked all of the methods

Inside the bank

On-line Banking

Banking by Telephone

ATM

Banking by mail

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