Marketing researchers have a choice of three main
research instruments in collating primary data; questionnaires, qualitative
measures and mechanical devices.

In this article let us discuss about the Questionnaire.

A questionnaire consists of a set of questions
presented to respondent. Because of its flexibility, the questionnaire is by
far the most common instrument used to collect primary data. Questionnaire needs
to be carefully developed, tested, and debugged before they are administered on
a large scale. In preparing a questionnaire, the researcher carefully chooses
the question and their form, wording and sequence. The form of the question can
influence the response. Marketing researchers distinguish between closed-end
and open-end questions. Closed-end question specify all the possible answers
and provide answers that are easier to interpret and tabulate. Open-end
question allow respondents to answer in their own words and often and reveal
more about the thoughts of the audience. They are especially useful in
exploratory research, where the researcher tries to get an insight into how
people are think rather than measuring how many people think in a certain
way.  

Dos
And Donts of Questionnaire

1. Ensure
   that questions are not biased. Do not lead the
   respondent into an answer. Let the respondent decide upon his own answer
   without being prompted.


2. Make
   the questionnaire as simple as possible. Do not make
   the questions confusing by including multiple ideas or two questions in
   one.


3. Make
   the questions specific.  It
   is good to be specific with time periods while putting forth the questions
   to the respondents


4. Avoid
   jargons. Avoid trade jargons, acronyms and
   initials which are not a part of daily language.


5. Steer
   clear of sophisticated or uncommon words. Only
   use words in common speech. The purpose of the questions is to know the
   thoughts of the questions and not confusing them using uncommon words.


6. Avoid
   ambiguous words. Words such as “usually” or “seldom”
   etc have no specific meaning. They can be treated by individual
   respondents in different way and thus can lead to wrong conclusions. As
   stated earlier, questions should be specific.


7. Avoid
   negative questions. It is better to ask “ Do you
   ever…..” than “ Don’t you ever….”.


8. Avoid
   hypothetical questions. It is difficult to
   answer questions about imaginary situations. These answers cannot always
   trusted. It is advisable never to ask questions related to products or
   services of each the respondents have no clue. So, it is very necessary to
   do a detailed study of the target audience before approaching the audience
   with the questionnaire.


9. Avoid
   using words that can be misheard or have multiple meanings. This
   is specifically important for telephonic interview.


10. Desensitize
    questions by using response bands. For questions that
    ask people about their age or yearly turnover, it is best to offer a range
    of response bands.


11. Ensure
    that fix response do not overlap. Categories used in
    fixed response questions should be sequential and not overlapping.


12. Allow
    the option of
    “other” in fixed response questions. Closed end questions should
    always allow for response other than those listed.

Types
Of Questions

v  Closed-end Questions

a.     
Dichotomous: A question with
only two possible answers.

b.     Multiple choices: A question with three or more
answers.

c.       Likert scale: A question with which the respondent shows
the amount of agreement or disagreement.

d.     Semantic differential: A scale connecting
two bipolar words. The respondent selects the point that represents his or her
opinion.

e.      Importance scale: A scale that rates the importance of
some attributes.

f.       Rating scale: A scale that rates some attributes from
“poor” to “excellent”.

g.      Intention-to-buy scale: A scale that
describes the respondent’s intention to buy.

v  Open-end Questions

a.      Completely unstructured: A question that
respondents can answer in an almost unlimited number of ways.

b.     Word association: Words are presented, one at a time,
and respondents mention the first word that comes to mind.

c.        Sentence
Completion: an incomplete story is presented, and respondents are asked to
complete it.

d.     Picture: A picture of two characters is presented,
with one making a statement. Respondents are asked to identify with the other
and fill in empty balloon.

e.      Thematic appreciation test: A picture is presented
and respondents are asked to make up a story about what they think is happening
or may happen in the picture.

Goals indicate what a business unit wants to
achieve; strategy is a game plan for
getting there. Each business needs to design a strategy for achieving its
goals, consisting of various strategies.

PORTER’S STRATEGIES

Michael Porter has proposed three general strategies
that provide a good starting point for strategic thinking:

Overall
Cost Leadership – Some business works hard to achieve the
lowest product and distribution costs so that it can price its products lower
than its competitors’ and win a large share of the market. For pursuing this strategy
the firm must be good at engineering, purchasing, manufacturing and physical
distribution. Such strategies give less stress on marketing and thus firm need
less skill in marketing. But the general problem with this strategy is that
other firms can easily compete with still lower cost and hurt the firm that
rested its whole future on cost.

Differentiation
-
The business concentrates on achieving superior performance in an important customer
benefit area valued by a large part of the market. The firm cultivates those
strengths that will contribute to the intent differentiation. Thus, the firm
seeking quality leadership, for example, must make product with the best
components, put them together expertly , inspect them carefully and effectively
communicate their quality.

Focus
– Some
business focuses on one or more narrow market segments. The firm gets to know this
segment intimately and pursues either cost leadership on differentiation within
the target segment.

According
to Porter firm pursuing the same strategy directed to the same
target market constitutes a strategic group. The firm theta carries out the
strategy best, will make the most profit. Firms that do not pursue a clear strategy
and try to be good on all strategic dimensions do the worst.

Many companies believe they can win by performing the
same activities more effectively than their competitors; but competitors can
quickly copy the operationally effective company using benchmarking and other
tools, thus dimensioning the advantage of operational effectiveness.

Porter defines strategy as “the creation of a unique
and valuable position involving a different set of activities.” A company can
claim that it has a strategy when it “performs different activities from rivals
or performs similar activities in different ways”.

 This is going to be the last article on advertising lingo. I have tried and collated as much as of the terms possible & presented them to you. Hope these be of some use. In case I have missed out any terms, feel free to share.

S

Sales Promotion: It refers to the marketing activities that stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness through a combination of personal selling, advertising, and all supplementary selling activities. 

Seasonality: It refers to the variation in sales for goods and services throughout the year, depending on the season. For e.g. Air conditioner is advertised more during the summers than in the winters. 

Selective Demand Advertising:Advertising which promotes a particular manufacturer's brand as opposed to ageneric product. 

Selective Distribution:It allows manufacturers to maintain more control over the way their products are sold and discourages price competition among sellers of the products by distributing their products only to those wholesalers and retailers who follow the manufacturer's guidelines. 

Share-of-Audience: It’s the percent of audiences that are tuned into a particular medium at a given time, e.g. the number of people watching television between the hours of 8:00 p.m. to 11:00p.m. 

Simmons Market Research Bureau: SMRB is a syndicated service which provides audience exposure and product usage data for print and broadcast media. 

Slicks: A high-quality proof of an advertisement printed on glossy paper which is suited for reproduction. 

Slotting Allowances:It’s the fees paid by a manufacturer to a retailer for occupying the retailer's shelf space. 

Soft Sell:It’s the technique of using low pressure appeals in advertisements and commercials. 

Split Run:Two or more different forms of an advertisement which are ran simultaneously in different copies of the same publication. It’s majorly used to test the effectiveness of one advertisement over the other, to appeal to regional or other specific markets. 

Spot Announcements:These refer to the commercials or public service announcements that are placed on television or radio programs. 

Spread: It refers to a pair of pages facing each other in a periodical, or an advertisement which is printed across two such pages. 

Staggered Schedule: It’s a schedule of advertisements spread over in a number of periodicals with different insertion dates.

Standard Rate and Data Service: SRDS refers to a commercial firm that publishes reference volumes that include up-to-date information on rates, requirements, closing dates, and other information necessary for ad placementin the media. 

Storyboard: It’s the blueprint for a TV commercial which is drawn to portray the copy, dialogues and action.It includes caption notes regarding filming, audio components, and script. 

Shoot: Once an adverting concept is ready, it has to be converted into reality and made believable. An advertisement shoot leads to the filming of the ad using models in the right location giving substance to the concept.

Subliminal Persuasion:It’s an advertising message presented below the threshold of consciousness. A visual or auditory message that is allegedly perceived psychologically, but not consciously is also called subception. 

Supplementary Media: It refers to the non-mass media vehicles used for product promotion, e.g., Point-of-purchase advertising. 

Sweeps: It refers to a time during the months of November, March and May, when both Nielson and Arbitron survey all local market broadcast media for the purpose of rating the stations and their programming. 

Selling Orientation: It’s a company- centered rather than a client-centered approach to conduct of business. This orientation tends to ignore what the customer/user really wants and needs.

T

Target Audience: It refers to the most prospective group of customers for a product/service. Every business must identify their target audiences to make sure that all their advertising and marketing efforts are directed toward sreaching these viable prospective customers.   

Tabloid: It’s a publication of size 14" high by 12" wide. It is roughly half the size of a standard newspaper. 

Tear Sheets: It’s a page cut from a magazine or newspaper that is sent to the advertiser as proof of the ad insertion. It’s also used to check colour reproduction of advertisements. 

Teaser Campaign: It’s an advertising campaign aimed at arousing interest and curiosity for a product. 

Time Compression:It’s a technique used in broadcast production to delete time from television commercials. 

Theater Testing: It’s a method used in testing the viewer responses of a large, randomly selected audience after being exposed to an advertisement. It uses forced exposure to test rough television message executions in controlled settings. 

Trade Stimulants: Sales promotions directed toward retailers and distributors that are designed to motivate them both and increase sales. 

Transit Advertising: It refers to the advertising that appears on public transportation or on waiting areas and bus stops. 

Time Slot: It refers to the specific time slots during which the media planners schedule the ads.

U

Unaided Recall: It’s a mean of evaluating the effectiveness of a company's recent advertising; without help from the researcher. The level of unaided recall in recipients of marketing communications is used as one measure of communication effectiveness. 

Unique Selling Proposition: The campaigns state the unique propositions to the customer and that this convinced them to switch brands.

V

Valuesand Lifestyles (VALS) Research: A research method which is used to enhance the ability to predict consumer behaviour. It classifies people based on certain characteristics such as their values, life styles, and demographics. The groups of people are arranged in a rectangle and are based on two dimensions. The vertical dimension segments people are based on the degree to which they are innovative and have resources such as income, education, intelligence, leadership skills and energy. Where as the horizontal dimension represents primary motivations.

Vehicle: It refers to aspecific channel or publication for carrying the advertising message to a target audience.

Vertical Discount: It’s the reduced rate offered to advertisers who purchase air time on a broadcast medium for a limited amount of time.

Visits: It refers to the number of unique visits and visitors to a website in agiven period of time - day/week/month.

W

Waste Circulation:It refers to advertising in an area where the product or service is not available or has no sales potential.

Wave Scheduling: It’s an advertising strategy that consists of scheduling space in the media in intermittent periods, e.g., two weeks on, two weeks off.

Wear Out:It’s the point reached when an advertising campaign loses it's effectiveness due to repeated overplay of ads.

Wipe: It is a transition of scenes in a visual production where one image appears to wipe the previous one from the screen.

Word Painting:It refers to a technique used in the radio broadcast industry that uses highly descriptive words to evoke images in reading material as an attempt to place the listener into the scene.

X

Y

Z

Inthe last post, I have discussed about the ad terms beginning with the alphabetA – C. Now, let us discuss about a few more of the terms.

D

DAGMAR: This model developed byRussel Colley, denotes DefiningAdvertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results. A process ofestablishing goals for an ad campaign such that it is possible to determine whetherthe goals have been met. According to DAGMAR, a sale must carry a potentialcustomer through four stages:

I.Awareness

II.Comprehension

III.Conviction

IV.Action 

Drive Time: It’s those parts of theday, used in radio to signify primary listening being done in cars. Generallyconsidered to be Monday-Friday 6- 10 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. HUT-(Households UsingTelevision) - a broadcast research term indicating the percent of homes withsets on during a specific time period. 

Direct Advertising: Promotions techniques toencourage audience to directly respond to the advertiser, by mail, telephone,e-mail, or some other means of communication. 

Day-after Recall Test: It’s a market researchtechnique. It’s a method used for measuring the percentage of people whoremember seeing an advertisement the day after it was telecasted. 

Demographics: It refers to selected population characteristics used in various researches.

Marketers combine severalvariables to define a demographic profile. A demographicprofile ot demographics, provides enough information about a typical member ofthis group to create a mental picture of this hypothetical aggregate. Forexample, a marketer might speak of the single, female, middle-class,age 18 to 24, college educated demographic. 

Database: It’s the list of currentand/or potential customers for a company's product or service that can be usedfor direct marketing purposes. 

E

Earned Rate: It is the rate awardedto an advertiser based on the frequency with which an ad or commercial is runor the volume of advertising placed, or both, over a specific time periodranging from one month to one year. 

Eight – Twenty Rules: A thumb rule for thetypical product category, which states that eighty percent of the productssold, will be consumed by twenty percent of the customers.

Equal Time: As per FederalCommunications Commission requirement, if a broadcaster allows a politicalcandidate a particular time span to broadcast a message, opposing candidatesmust be offered equal broadcast time. 

Exposure: It refers to thatsection of the audience who have been exposed to the media vehicle once,regardless of the fact whether they have paid attention to it or not. 

Exclusivity: It refers to anagreement signed between the media house and the advertiser. As per this, themedia vehicle agrees to run no advertising directly competitive to theadvertiser purchasing the media vehicle or program. 

Eye Tracking: It’s a research methodto track which part of an advertisement the audience generally look at, bystudying the pattern of their eye movements. 

F

Federal Communications Commission(FCC): FCCis the regulatory body responsible for regulation broadcasts and electroniccommunications. 

Fixed – Sum – Per –Unit:It’s a method of setting the promotional budget. Under this method the, theadvertising budget of a product for a specified period, is directly based onthe number of units of that product sold. 

Flighting: It’s a term for a timingpattern in which advertisements are scheduled to run during intervals that areseparated by periods in which no advertising messages appear for that item.Flight is the period of time during which the messages appear, and a period ofmessage inactivity is usually called a hiatus. 

Flow Chart: The document summarizesthe action element of the media plan. It shows the media to be used, the schedulesfor the advertisements, the weightage to be given to each, the reach and thefrequency of the plan, ad sizes and the cost of each element that adds up tothe total budget. 

Fighting Brand: It is a lower priced,lower quality version of the main brand , launched temporary to capture thelower-priced products of other producers in a given market. The fighting brandusually has a separate brand identity and its purpose is to hold customerswithout having to lower the price of the main brand. 

Frequency: The number of times aperson, household, or member of a target market is exposed to a media vehicleor an advertiser's media schedule within a given period of time. This number isusually expressed as an average frequency (the average number of exposuresduring the time period) or as a frequency distribution (the number of peopleexposed once, twice, three times, etc.). 

G

Gallery Proof: A typeset copy of anad or editorial material, before it is made into pages forfinal production. 

Guaranteed Circulation: It is a media ratethat comes with a guarantee that the publication will achieve a certaincirculation. 

Gross Audience: The audiences of allvehicles or media in a campaign, combined. Some or much of the gross audiencemay actually represent duplicated audience. 

Gross Impression: It is the sum total ofall unduplicated audiences of several media vehicles or several announcementswithin a vehicle. 

GRP: GRP (Gross Rating Point)is the total of all rating points for an advertising schedule statedusually on a weekly basis. 

Guerilla Marketing: Guerilla Marketinginvolves unusual approaches such as intercept encounters in public places,street giveaways of products, public relation stunts, any unconventionalmarketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.  

H

Heavy – up: It refers to an increasein advertising activity for a limited period. 

Hiatus: It is the scheduledperiod of inactivity in between advertising flights. 

Holding Power: It is the ability tohold on to the audience throughout a broadcast, rather than having them changechannels. It is represented as a percent of the total audience. 

Holdover Audience: It refers to thepercent of a program's audience that watched or listened to the immediatelypreceding program on the same station. It is also known as Inherited audience. 

Horizontal Discount: A discount on a mediapurchase resulting from a promise to advertise over an extended period. 

Horizontal Publications: These refer to thebusiness publications, designed to appeal to people of similar interests orresponsibilities, in a variety of companies or industries. 

Host/Hostess Gift: A gift presented to aconsumer, who sponsors a sales demonstration party or meeting. 

House Agency: It is the in-houseagency of an advertiser, which handles the advertisers account. 

House Organ: It refers to thepublication/publications owned and operated by an advertiser, to promote itsproducts/services. 

Households UsingTelevision:It is a term concocted by A.C. Nielsen. It refers to the number of householdsin a given market watching television at a certain time.