Development of Survey Questionaire

Developing a questionaire requires creativity. To begin, it was decided that a variety of question-response formatssuch as Open-Ended, Close-Ended, and caled-!esponse be used. "or Open-

Ended questions, the probed format was used to encourage the respondent comments. to provide information a beyond the of has initial first

There

was

variety

Closed-Ended only two

questions.Dichotomous

closed-ended

questions

response options, such as #male$ or #female$. There were also a few multi category closed-ended questions. %oth forms were

chosen because they facilitate the questioning process as well as data entry.& 'abeled scaled-response questions were chosen to measure sub(ective properties of consumers.

)n developing the survey questionaire, the ultimate goal was to devise a way to tap the respondent*s true response

without influencing him or her either blatantly or subtly.The questions developed focussed on the research problem #+hy is ,didas loosing -ar.et hare in the / 0$. ,fter numerous drafts,

unecessary and redundant words were eliminated. This process was important because brevity will help the respondent to comprehend the central question and reduce the distraction of wordiness. 1 The questions were designed using everyday language but did not

1 2

Burns; Bush, Marketing Research: 306 Burns; Bush, Marketing Reserch: 347

include

slang

or

(argon

and

was

easily

interpreted

by

each

respondent. The group decided on a disguised survey where the

sponsoring company, in this case ,didas, was not identified. The purpose of the survey was identified in the introduction of the questionaire which stated # +e are students at Temple /niversity and need your help in conducting a survey for a -ar.eting

!esearch Class.$ To questions facilitate were the questioning questions, process, which the to first few

screening

were

determine

whether the respondent qualified to participate in the survey. ,n E2ample of this you question bought in is the # ,bout past how many pairs of the

snea.ers

have

year0$

"ollowing

screening were warm-up questions which were simple and easy to answer. The flow of questions used the funnel approach which, uses a wide-to-narrow or general-to-specific flow of questions that places inquiries at the beginning of a topic on the

questionaire that are general in nature, and those requiring more specific and detailed responses later on 3 Once the questions had been approved by the instructor and minor corrections were made, data collection began by using convenience sampling.

Burns;Bush, Marketing Research: 363

Sample Profile
-a(ority of the respondents were Temple /niversity

undergraduates. 445 of the respondents were female and 645 were male. 745 of the respondents had purchased between one and si2 snea.ers in the past year. 895 purchased snea.ers anytime, 395 purchased snea.ers on sale and &95 at full price.

Characteristics of Respondents
-ost of the students surveyed were from :eneration ;. These are low income, fashionable and education oriented people, who have a great <eal for life. -ost generation ;er*s or Echo

boomers are trendsetters changing the face of many industries and how products to are mar.eted. once !espondents were were generally that the

willing

participate

they

informed

researchers were fellow students. -all intercepts were used to create diversity of respondents.

Usage of Sneakers
)t was not until the mid-&7=9*s that the >orth ,merican

general public*s increased interest in health and fitness began to change the face of shoe-ma.ing, spawning industry giants such as >i.e and !eebo..6 >i.e?s ,ir technology, which used a gasfilled bag of air inserted in the sole of the shoe to cushion the impact of running, first appeared in &7=7 .5 ,thletic shoes
4 5

Fritz, Sandy. High !"#h$ !o%s.& Popular Science 'u(y 1))4: 67. *a+n"y, ,ndr"-. ./unning on ,ir.. Popular Mechanics 0ay 1))4: 37.

!unning shoes became more of a fashion item than an athletics item in the early &779?s.8 ince that time, athletic shoes have become increasingly speciali<ed and snea.er prices have grown in accordance to the advances in technology.= 895 of the respondents surveyed said they used snea.ers for fashion and were concerned about being cool. 895 respondents did not purchase ,didas shoes because they were perceived as uncool.

Results of the survey

+hen as.ed the most important factor when choosing a pair

of snea.ers@ 395 said brand and visual appeal, 345 said comfort and quality, 195 said price and product selection, and &45 said color. 495 of the respondents said >i.e was their favorite

brand, &45 !eebo., 195 >ew %alance, and &95 ,didas. +hen as.ed how li.ely respondents were to buy ,didas, 695 said somewhat li.ely, 195 said e2tremely unili.ely and 145 were neutral, &95 were somewhat unli.ely, and 45 were e2tremely li.ely. A95 9f respondents had never used ,didas shoes and 15 had received ,didas shoes as gifts and A5 had purchased ,didas shoes based on price. 745 of respondents said they would consider purchasing ,didas shoes if the styles were appealing, more colors, more comfort and if Bobe %ryant was removed from the commercials.
6

B"tts, 1ath"rin". .Fashion 2u3%s 4%.. Vogue 'an. 1))4: 54. S3ith, *"o++r"y. .Sn"a6"rs that 'u3% into th" 2ast.. Business Week 13 0ar. 1))5: 71.

Limitations
Considering the fact that the researchers were students and had no budget, convenience sampling was the only alternative available. The time frame for the research was short even though this pro(ect began the second wee. of class. -all intercepts and self administered surveys were used because they are fast and convenient data collection methods. The sample si<e could not be determined before hand since convenience sampling was being used and the sample si<e was relatively small and not representative of the total population. >onreponse was a problem since some questions were partially anwered and had to be deleted from the decoding process.

Conslusions
"rom the survey and focus group, it became apparent that our research problem was accurate. Consumers thought ,didas was uncool, uncomfortable and price was not an issue when purchasing shoes. The use of .obe %ryant in commercials was not helping ,didas since his attitudes were being transferred to the shoes. ome respondents complained the three stipes were too much. )t also came to light that even though consumers were very loyal to brands, most would switch brands if persuaded with the right tools.

Recommendations

,didas

stands

to

gain

mar.et

share

if

it

broadens

its

product line with innovative shoes that are visually appealing and comfortable. ,didas could create new commercials that have a better li.ed athlete than Bobe %ryant and could buy prime time spots so the ads would have wide reach.