Primary Data a nd Data Collecting Techniques

1. Primary Data and Data Collecting Techniques

2. Primary data are originated by a researcher for the specific purpose of addressing theproblem at hand. The purpose of survey research is to collect primary data Compared with readilyavailable data from a variety of sources, this tailoring means higher costs and a longertime frame in collecting and analyzing the data.

3. Primary Data consists of a collection of original primary data. It is often undertaken after the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by reviewing secondary research or by analyzing previously collected primary data. Primary data can be collected only by survey or observation techniques. It can be accomplished through various methods, including questionnaires and telephone interviews in market research, or experiments and direct observations in the physical sciences, amongst others.

4. Classification of Survey Methods

6. Telephone interviews Traditional telephone interviews involve phoning a sample of respondents and asking them a series of questions. The interviewer uses a paper questionnaire and records the responses with a pencil. From a central location, a wide geographical area can be covered, includinginternationalmarkets.

7. These interviews tend to be short in duration and have questions with few options as answers. Today, this approach is rarely used in commercial marketing research, the common approach being a computer- assistedtelephoneinterview.

8. Phone InterviewCharacteristics ■ SPEED ■ COST ■ LESSCOOPERATION ■ NO FACE-TO-FACE CONTACT

10. Computer-assistedtelephoneinterviews (CATI)

11. Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) uses a computerisedquestionnaireadministered to respondents over the telephone. The interviewer sits in front of a terminal and wears a small headset. The terminal replaces a paper and pencil questionnaire, and the headset substitutes for a telephone. Upon command, the computer dials the telephone number to be called. When contact is made, the interviewer reads questions posed on the screen and records the respondent’s answers directly into the computer memory bank, ready for immediate analysis.

12. The computer systematically guides the interviewer. Only one question at a time appears on the screen. The computer checks the responses for appropriateness andconsistency. It uses the responses as they are obtained to personalisthe questionnaire.

13. The data collection flows naturally and smoothly. Interviewing time is reduced, data quality is enhanced, coding questionnaires and entering data into the computer are eliminated. Because the responses are entered directly into the computer, interim and update reports on data collection or results can be provided almost instantaneously.

14. Interviews as Interactive Communication Human interactivemedia are a personal form of communication. One human being directs a message to andinteracts with another individual (or a small group). When most people think of interviewing,they envision(düşünmek)two people engaged in a face-to-face dialogue or a conversation on thetelephone. Electronic interactive media allowresearchers to reach a large audience, personalize individualmessages, and interactusing digital technology.

15. Electronic interactive media arecontrolled by the users themselves. No other human needbe present. Survey respondentstoday are not passive audiencemembers. They are actively involved in a two-waycommunication using electronic interactive media. The Internet is radically altering(değiştirmek)many organizations’research strategies, providing a prominent example of thenewelectronic interactive media.

17. PersonalFacetoFace In personal in-home interviews, respondents are interviewed face-to-face in theirhomes or in their workplace. The interviewer’s task is to contact therespondents, askthe questions and record the responses. In recent years, the use of personal in-homeinterviews has declined due to their high cost.Nevertheless, they are still used, particularlyby syndicated firms.

18. Omnibus(toplayıcı) survey A distinctive(belirgin)form of surveythat serves the needs of asyndicatedgroup. Theomnibussurveytargetsparticulartypesof respondents such as those in specificgeographiclocations, e.g. Kayseri residents, orconsumersof particulartypes of products, e.g. businessairtravellers. With that target group ofrespondents, a core set ofquestions can be asked, withotherquestionsaddedas syndicatememberswish.

19. In-office research is used extensively in business-to-businessresearch to researchsubjects who cannot be effectively interviewed by telephone or mail. Managersbeing interviewed have the comfort and security of their office andcan control thetiming and pace of the interview. For the researcher, the big benefit of meetingmanagers in their office is the ability to build up a rapport, probe and gain the fullattentionof themanager.

20. Street interviews In street interviews, respondents are intercepted(durdurmak)while they are shopping in town centersor shopping centers. They may be questioned there and then inthe street or takento a specific test facility. In the testing of new product formulations, test facilities areideal to allow respondents the time and context to sample and evaluateproducts. Thetechnique can also be used to test merchandising ideas, advertisements and otherforms of marketing communications

22. Computer-assistedpersonalinterviews In computer-assisted personal interviewing, the third form of personal interviewing,the respondent sits in front of a computer terminal and answers aquestionnaire onthe screen by using the keyboard or a mouse. There are several user-friendly electronicpackages that design relatively simple questions forthe respondent tounderstand. Help screens and courteous error messages are also provided.

23. A major development for marketers, especially in financial services, has been theuse of customer satisfaction surveys to guide strategic and operational decisions. Withtraditional interview techniques, the interviewer may have to carry a huge questionnaireto cope with questions that measure attitudes to a range of banks and a range ofservices taken from those banks.

24. Advantages of PersonalInterviews OPPORTUNITY FOR FEEDBACK Providesthe opportunity for feedback and clarification. For example, if a consumer is reluctant toprovide sensitiveinformation, the interviewer may offer reassurance that his orher answers will bestrictlyconfidential. 2. PROBING COMPLEX ANSWERS If a respondent’s answer is too brief or unclear, the researcher may request a more comprehensiveor clearer explanation. In probing, the interviewer asks for clarification with standardizedquestions such as “Can you tell me more about what you had in mind? 3. LENGTH OF INTERVIEW If the research objective requires an extremely lengthy questionnaire, personal interviews may be theonly option. A general rule of thumb on mail surveys is that they should not exceed six pages, andtelephone interviews typically last less than ten minutes

25. 4. COMPLETENESS OF QUESTIONNAIRE The social interaction between a well-trained interviewerand a respondent in a personal interviewincreases the likelihood that the respondent will answer all the items onthe questionnaire. 5. PROPS AND VISUAL AIDS Interviewing respondents face-to-face allows the investigator to show them new product samples,sketches of proposedadvertising, or other visual aids. 6. HIGH PARTICIPATION Although some people are reluctant to participate in a survey, the presence of aninterviewergenerally increases the percentage of people willing to complete the interview. Respondentstypically are required to do no reading or writing—all they have to do is talk

26. Disadvantages of PersonalInterviews ■ INTERVIEWER INFLUENCE Some evidence suggests that demographic characteristics of the interviewer influence respondents’answers. For example, one research study revealed that male interviewers produced largeramounts of interviewer variance than female interviewers in a survey in which 85 percent of therespondents were female. Older interviewers who interviewed older respondents produced morevariance than other age combinations, whereasyounger interviewers who interviewed youngerrespondents produced the least variance.

27. ■ LACK OF ANONYMITY OF RESPONDENT Because a respondent in a personal interview is notanonymous and may be reluctant to provideconfidential information to another person, researchers often spendconsiderable time and effort tophrasesensitivequestionstoavoidsocialdesirabilitybias.

28. ■ COST Personal interviews are expensive, generally substantiallymore costly than mail, Internet, or telephonesurveys. The geographic proximity of respondents, the length andcomplexity of the questionnaire,and the number of people who are nonrespondents because they could not be contacted(not-at-homes) will all influence the cost of the personalinterview

29. ■ LACK OF ANONYMITY OF RESPONDENT Because a respondent in a personal interview is not anonymous and may be reluctant to provideconfidential information to another person, researchers often spend considerable time and effort tophrase sensitive questions to avoid social desirability bias. For example, the interviewer may showthe respondent a card that lists possible answers and ask the respondent to read a category numberrather than be required to verbalize sensitive answers.

30. ■ DOOR-TO-DOOR INTERVIEWS Doortodoorinteviewsare a part of streetinterviews. The presence(mevcudiyet)of an interviewer at the door generally increases the likelihood that a person willbe willing to complete an interview. Because door-to-door interviews increase the participationrate, they provide a more representative sample of the population than mail questionnaires. People who do not have telephones, who have unlistedtelephone numbers, or who are otherwise difficult to contact may be reached using door-to-door interviews.

31. MALL INTERCEPT INTERVIEWS

32. The main reason mall intercept interviews are conducted is because their costsare lower. No travel is required to the respondent’s home; instead, the respondent comes to theinterviewer, and many interviews can be conducted quickly in this way. A major problem with mall intercept interviews is that individuals usually are in a hurry toshop, so the incidence of refusal is high—typically around 50 percent.

33. In a mall interview, the researcher must recognize that he or she should not be looking for arepresentative sample of the total population. Each mall has its own target market’s characteristics,and there is likely to be a larger bias than with careful household probability sampling. However,personal interviews in shopping malls are appropriate when the target group is a special marketsegment such as the parents of children of bike-riding age.

35. Traditional mail interviews In the traditional mail interview, questionnaires are mailed to preselected potentialrespondents. A typical mailinterview package consists of the outgoing envelope,cover letter, questionnaire, return envelope, and possibly an incentive(teşvik edici). The respondentscomplete and return thequestionnaires. There is no verbal(sözel)interaction betweenthe researcher and the respondent in the interview process.There may be an initialcontact with potential respondents, to establish who is the correct person to send thequestionnaire to, and to motivate them before they receivethe survey.

36. An initial task is to obtain a valid mailing list. Mailinglists can be compiled from telephone directories, customer databases or associationmembership databases, or can be purchased from publication subscription lists orcommercialmailinglistcompanies.

38. Mail panels A mail panel consists of a large,nationally representative sample of households that have agreed to participate in periodicmail questionnaires, product tests and telephone surveys. The households arecompensated(telafi etmek)with various incentives. Mail panels can be used to obtain informationfrom the same respondents repeatedly. Thus, they can be used to implement a longitudinaldesign.

40. Electronic mail Electronic mail can be broken down into email and Internet interviews. To conduct asurvey by email, a list of email addresses needs to be obtained. The survey is writtenwithin the body of the email message and sent to respondents.

41. Internet Surveys An Internet surveyis a self-administeredquestionnaireposted on a Web site. Respondentsprovide answers to questions displayed onscreen byhighlighting a phrase, clicking an icon, orkeying in an answer. Like every other type of survey, Internet surveys have both advantages anddisadvantages.

42. ■ SPEED AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS Internet surveys allow researchers to reach a large audience (possibly a global one), personalizeindividual messages, and secure confidential answers quickly and cost-effectively. Thesecomputer-to-computerself-administered questionnaires eliminate the costs of paper, postage,and data entry, as well as other administrative costs.

43. ■ VISUAL APPEAL AND INTERACTIVITY Surveys conducted on the Internet can be interactive. The researcher can use more sophisticatedlines of questioning based on the respondents’ prior answers. Many of these interactive surveysutilize color, sound, and animation, which may help to increase respondents’ cooperation andwillingness to spend time answering the questionnaires.

44. ■ RESPONDENT PARTICIPATION AND COOPERATION Participation in some Internet surveys occurs because computer users intentionally navigate to a particular Web site where questions are displayed.

45. ■ REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLES The population to be studied, the purpose of the research, and the sampling methods determinethe quality of Internet samples, which varies substantially. If the sample consists merely of those who visit a Web page and voluntarily fill out a questionnaire, then it is not likely to be representativeof the entire U.S. population, because of self-selection error.

46. ■ ACCURATE REAL-TIME DATA CAPTURE The computer-to-computer nature of Internet surveys means that each respondent’s answers areentered directly into the researcher’s computer as soon as the questionnaire is submitted. In addition,the questionnaire software may be programmed to reject improper data entry.

47. ■ CALLBACKS When the sample for an Internet survey is drawn from a consumer panel, those who have notcompleted the survey questionnaire can be easily recontacted. Computer software can simplyautomatically send e-mail reminders to panel members who did not visit the welcome page.

48. ■ PERSONALIZED AND FLEXIBLE QUESTIONING Computer-interactive Internet surveys are programmed in much the same way as computerassistedtelephone interviews. That is, the software that is used allows questioning to branch offinto two or more different lines depending on a respondent’s answer to a filtered question. Thedifference is that there is no interviewer. The respondent interacts directly with software on a Web site.

49. ■ RESPONDENT ANONYMITY Respondents are more likely to provide sensitive or embarrassing information when they canremain anonymous. The anonymity of the Internet encourages respondents to provide honestanswerstosensitivequestions.

50. ■ RESPONSE RATES The methods for improving response rates for an Internet survey are similar to those for otherkinds of survey research. A personalized invitation may be important. In many cases, the invitationis delivered via e-mail. The respondents may not recognize the sender’s address, so the message’ssubjectline is critical.