ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT AND SCALING TECHNIQUES

• Attitude is one of the most pervasive notions in all of the marketing

• Plays a pivotal role in the major models describing consumer behavior, as well as in many, if not most investigations of consumer behavior that do not rely on a formal integrated model

• Many marketers believe that attitudes directly affect purchase decisions and their purchase and use experiences, in turn, directly affect their subsequent attitudes toward the product or service

WHAT IS AN ATTITUDE?

• It is defined as a predisposition to respond to an idea or object

• Attitudes are state-of-mind constructs that are not directly observable

• The true structure of an attitude lies in the mind of individual holding that attitude

• In marketing it refers to the consumer’s predisposition to respond to a product , idea or service

• If predisposition is favorable, it is assumed that the consumer is likely to purchase the product or service

ELEMENTS OF ATTITUDES Attitudes are composed of Beliefs about the object of concern, such as its strength or economyEmotional feelings about the object such as like and dislikesAnd readiness of the individual to respond behaviorally to the object that is to buy itThere is tendency in marketing to bring these three elements into what is called image

Importance of Attitude measurement 1. Attitude represents a predisposition to

respond to an object, not actual behavior toward the object. Attitude thus possess the quality of readiness

2. Attitude is persistent over a period of time it can change, to be sure, but alteration of an attitude that is strongly held requires substantial pressure

3. Attitude is potential variable that produces consistency in behavior, either verbal or physical

4. Attitude has a directional quality it implies a preference regarding the outcomes involving – The object– Evaluations of the object– Or positive/negative/neutral feelings for the object

5. Attitude measurement tends to focus on measurement of beliefs about a product’s (service’s) qualities and emotional feelings about those qualities

Attitudinal studies are useful in Market segmentation Advertisement effectiveness Brand positioning or Repositioning

THE CONCEPT OF MEASUREMENT AND SCALING

• Measurement can be defined as a standardized process of assigning numbers or other symbols to certain characteristics of the objects of interest

• Researchers engage in using the measurement process by assigning either numbers or labels

to people’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and characteristics , the features or attributes of objects

• Any type of phenomenon or event using specific rules to represent quantities and qualities of the factors being investigated

Measurement process consists of • Construct development• Scale measurement The goal of construct development is:

to precisely identify and what is to be measured, including any dimensionality traits

The goal of scale measurement is to determine how to precisely measure each

construct

To understand construct development and scale development we must understand the term object

What is an object ?It refers to any tangible item in a person’s environment that can be clearly and easily identified through the senses

It has two properties: • Objective properties• Subjective properties

OBJECTIVE PROPERTIES • Researchers do not measure the objects per se but rather the elements that makes up the object

• Objective properties are used to identify and distinguish an object from another

• These properties represent attributes that make up an object of interest and are

directly observable Physically verifiable and measurable in nature

Such as the physical and demographic characteristics of a person age , sex , occupation status , color of eye etc.

Or the actual number of purchases made of a particular product

Or the tangible features of the object horsepower, style, color, stereo system of an Automobile etc.

Subjective properties Subjective properties are abstract, intangible characteristics that can not be directly observed or measured

Why? Because they are the mental images (aspects) a person attaches to an object, such as :Attitudes, feelings, perceptions, expectations, or expressions of future actions (i.e., Purchase intentions)

Construct development can be viewed as an integrative

process in which researchers focus their efforts on Identifying the subjective properties for which data should be collected for solving the defined research problem

Objective properties-

Eg. Air plane • no. Of engines• Heights• Weight• Length• Seating capacity• Physical characteristics of seats

• Type of airplane

Air plane

Subjective properties

• Quality of in flight service• Comfort ability of seats

• Smoothness of take-off and landing etc.

Consumer

Objective properties :• Age, sex, • Marital status, • Income,• Brand last purchased,• Rupee amount of purchases• Types of products purchased• Color of eyes and hair

Consumer Subjective properties

• Attitudes towards a product

• Brand loyalty• High involvement purchases Emotions (love, fear, anxiety etc)• Intelligence, personality, risk taker

Organization

Objective properties

• Name of company• No. Of employees • Total assets • Type and no. Of product offerings

Organization

Subjective properties

• Competence of employees

• quality control, channel power, • competitive advantage, • company image, consumer oriented Practices etc

Scale measurement

• Scaling is the process of creating a continuum on which objects are located according to the amount of the measured characteristic they possess

• There are several types of scales, each of which possesses different characteristic

• The characteristics of a scale determine the scale’s level of measurement

Characteristics of scales

• Description• Order• Distance• Origin

Description • Description refers to use of a unique descriptor, or label, to stand for each designation in the scale

• This property allows a researcher to take the responses and categorize them into mutually exclusive groups each with its own identity

• Any descriptor can be used for response for instance, “yes” or “no”, “agree” or “disagree” and the number of years of a respondent’s age

Order Order refers to the relative sizes of the descriptors or relative magnitude between the descriptors, or labels, used as scale points Here the key word is “relative’ and includes such descriptors as “greater than”“less than” &“equal to”

Example• “1 is less than 5”• “Extremely satisfied” is more intense than “somewhat satisfied”

• “Most important” has greater importance than “only slightly important”

• It allows the researcher to establish either a “highest to lowest” or “lowest to highest”

• Order identifies only the relative differences between the responses and not the absolute differences

Distance

A scale has the characteristic of distance when absolute differences between the descriptors are known and may be expressed in units

ORIGIN

• A scale is said to have a characteristic of

origin if there is a unique beginning or true zero point for the scale

• The origin property relates to a numbering system where zero is displayed or referenced starting point in a set of possible responses

• Eg, Zero is the origin for an age scale just as it is for number of miles traveled to the store

Each scaling property builds on the previous one

THIS IMPLIES:•Any scale will have description property •A scale that includes order property automatically possesses description property

•A scale having distance property, has order and description properties

•The scale that is build on origin property also have description, order, and distance

properties

Nominal scale

• Nominal scales are defined as those that use only label; that is, they possess only the characteristic of description

• The response does not include any level of intensity

• If one describes respondents in a survey according to their occupation— Banker, doctor, computer programmer— One has used a nominal scale

Examples • Designations as to race, religion, • Type of dwelling• Gender • Brand last purchased• Answers that involve yes-no, agree-disagree • Or any other instance in which descriptors can

not be differentiated except qualitatively

Nominal- scaled questions Check all the brands you would

consider purchasing

I. SonyII. VideoconIII. SamsungIV. Lg

Do you agree or disagree that “delta is ready when you are”?

Agree disagree

Which of the following supermarkets have you shopped in the last 30 days?

I. EbonyII. Star mall III. Sab mall IV. MigrosV. Sahara mall

Do you like or dislike chocolate ice cream?

I. LikeII. Dislike

Ordinal scale• An ordinal scale is obtained by ranking objects or

arranging them in order with regard to some common variable

• The question is simply whether each object has more or less than some other object

• It permits the researcher to rank order the respondents or their responses

• The researcher can rank order the responses into hierarchical pattern

• This scale does not allow a researcher to determine the absolute difference in any of the ordinal relationships

Ordinal- scaled questions Please rank each brand in terms of your

preference Please place “1” by your first choice, a “2” by your second choice, and so onI. SonyII. VideoconIII. SamsungIV. LgV. BplVI. Phillips

Interval scale • Interval scales are those in which the distance

between each descriptor is known. • It demonstrates absolute differences between

each scale point• The distance is normally defined as one scale unit• For example, a coffee brand rated “3” in taste is

one unit away from one rated “4”

Example That is: If you were asked to evaluate a store’s sales

people by selecting a single designation from the list of

• Extremely friendly• Very friendly• Some what friendly• Some what unfriendly• Very unfriendly• Extremely unfriendly

The researcher would probably assume that each designation was one unit away from the preceding one

In these cases we say that the scale is “assumed interval”

INTERVAL – SCALED QUESTIONS

Please rate each brand in terms of its overall performance

• BRAND RATING (CIRCLE ONE)• VERY POOR

VERY GOOD

MONT BLANC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

PARKER

CROSS

Indicate your degree of agreement with following statements by circling the appropriate number

• STATEMENT STRONGLY STRONGLY • AGREE DISAGREE• I ALWAYS LOOK FOR BARGAINS 1 2 3 4 5• I ENJOY BEING OUT DOORS 1 2 3 4 5• I LOVE TO COOK 1 2 3 4 5

In a typical week (7 day period), how often you access internet from a home computer?

• ___ MORE THAN 20 TIMES• ___16 TO 20 TIMES • ___11 TO 15 TIMES• ___6 TO 10 TIMES• ___1 TO 5 TIMES• ___DO NOT ACCESS IT

Ratio scale • Ratio scales are the ones in which true zero origin exists— Such as

-- actual number of purchases in a certain time period,

-- rupees spent, miles traveled etc.• This characteristic allow us to construct ratios when comparing the results of measurement

• A ratio scale tends to be most sophisticated scale in the sense that it allows the researcher not only to identify the absolute differences between each scale point but also to make absolute comparisons between the responses

RATIO-SCALED QUESTIONS

Please indicate your age --- Years

Approximately how many times in the last month have you purchased any thing over rs.1000 in value at nanz store?

0 1 2 3 4 5 more ( specify_ )

How much do you think a typical purchaser OF A rs. 5 lakh term life insurance policy pays per month that policy?

Rs.__________

What is the probability

that you will use a lawyer’s services when you are ready to make a will?

______Percent

Typically the issues like

quantity sold number of consumers probability of

purchase etc.

Form ratio scale measurement

Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio Scales Provide Different Information

Facts About the Four Levels of Scales

Facts About the Four Levels of Scales (cont’d)

EXAMPLE OF FOUR BASIC TYPES OF QUESTION PHRASINGS:

Information requirement:

to determine how often customers use their primary automobile service provider’s facilities / services

NOMINAL QUESTION PHRASING: When your vehicle requires maintenance service or you have problems ,do you usually take the vehicle to your primary automobile service provider?

The logical response to this question would be a

yes or no

ORDINAL QUESTION PHRASING: When your vehicle requires maintenance service or you have problems, how often do you take it to your primary automobile service provider? (Check only one response)

The logical responses might be:• __Never • __seldom • __occasionally • __usually • __every time

INTERVAL QUESTION PHRASING: Since purchasing your vehicle,

approximately how often have you used the services at your primary automobile service provider? (Check the one appropriate response)

• Less than 3 times• 4 to 8 times • 9 to 12 times• 13 to 16 times • Over 16 times

RATIO QUESTION PHRASING:

In the past 12 months how many times

did you take your vehicle for service or repairs to your primary automobile service provider?

___No. Of times

ASSESSING A RESPONDENT’S LIKING OF SOFTDRINKS WITH NOMINAL ORDINAL, INTERVAL

AND RATIO SCALES

Nominal scale

Which of the following soft drinks on the following list do you like? Check all that apply

Coke Thums up Mountain dew Pepsi Seven up Sprtie

Ordinal scale

Please rank the soft drinks on the following list according to your degree of liking for each, assigninig most preferred drink rank=1 and your

least preferred drink rank=6

Coke Thums up Mountain dew Pepsi Seven up Sprtie

INTERVAL SCALE

Please indicate your degree of liking of each of the softdrinks on the following list by checking the appropriate position on the scale

Dislike dislike likelike a lot

CokeThums upMountain dewPepsiSeven upSprtie

RATIO SCALE

Please divide 100 points among each of the following soft drinks according to your degree of liking for each

Coke Thums up Mountain dew Pepsi Seven up Sprtie

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCALES AND SCALING PROPERTIES

SCALING PROPERTIES

SCALE DESCRIPTION ORDER DISTANCE ORIGIN

NOMINAL YES NO NO NO ORDINAL YES YES NO NO INTERVAL YES YES YES NO RATIO YES YES YES YES

SCALE AND TYPE OF STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES

SCALE BASICCHARACTERISTICS

MARKETING EXAMPLES

PERMISSIBLE STATISTICS

DESCRIPTIVE INFERENTIAL

NOMINAL NUMBERS IDENTIFY AND CLASSIFY OBJECTS

BRAND NUMBERS, STORE TYPES

PERCENTAGES Chi-SQUARE MODE BINOMIAL TEST

ORDINAL NUMBERS INDICATE THE RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE OBJECTS BUT NOT THE MAGNITUDE OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THEM

PREFERENCE RANKINGS, MARKET POSITION, SOCIAL CLASSPREFERENCE FOR BRANDS

DESCRIPTIVE INFERENTIAL

PERCENTILE, RANK ORDER CORRELATION FRIEDMAN ANOVAMEDIAN

INTERVAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OBJECTS CAN BE COMPARED; ZERO POINT IS ARBITRARY

ATTITUDES, OPTIONS, INDEX NUMBERSATTITUDES TOWARDS BRANDSGRADE POINT AVERAGE

DESCRIPTIVE INFERENTIAL

RANGE PRODUCT MOMENT- CORRELATIONS MEAN t TESTSSTANDARDDEVIATIONS ANOVA REGRESSION ANALYSIS FACTOR ANALYSIS

RATIO ZERO POINT IS FIXED; RATIOS OF SCALE VALUES CAN BE COMPUTED

AGE, INCOME,COSTS, SALES, MARKET SHARESNO. OF PURCHASESPROBABILITY OF PURCHASE

DESCRIPTIVE INFERENTIAL

GEOMETRICMEAN COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION

HARMONIC MEAN