Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e- Improving Decisions
with Marketing
Information
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002234 Chapter 8
cost of locating consumer respondents, interviews
are sometimes done at a store or shopping mall.
This is called a mall intercept interview because
the interviewer stops a shopper and asks for
responses to the survey.
Researchers have to be careful that having an
interviewer involved doesn’t affect the respondent’s
answers. Sometimes people won’t give an answer
they consider embarrassing. Or they may try to
impress or please the interviewer. Further, in some
cultures people don’t want to give any information.
For example, many people in Africa, Latin Amer-
ica, and Eastern Europe are reluctant to be
interviewed. This is also a problem in many low-income, inner-city areas in the
United States; even Census Bureau interviewers have trouble getting cooperation.^14
Sometimes questioning has limitations. Then observing may be more accurate or
economical.Observing—as a method of collecting data—focuses on a well-defined problem.
Here we are not talking about the casual observations that may stimulate ideas in
the early steps of a research project. With the observation method, researchers try
to see or record what the subject does naturally. They don’t want the observing to
influencethe subject’s behavior.
A museum director wanted to know which of the many exhibits was most pop-
ular. A survey didn’t help. Visitors seemed to want to please the interviewer and
usually said that all of the exhibits were interesting. Putting observers near
exhibits—to record how long visitors spent at each one—didn’t help either. The
curious visitors stood around to see what the observer was recording, and that
messed up the measures. Finally, the museum floors were waxed to a glossy shine.
Several weeks later, the floors around the exhibits were inspected. It was easy to tell
which exhibits were most popular—based on how much wax had worn off the floor!
In some situations, consumers are recorded on videotape. Later, researchers can
study the tape by running the film at very slow speed or actually analyzing each
frame. Researchers use this technique to study the routes consumers follow
through a grocery store or how they select products in a department store. Simi-
larly, firms that have online shopping services on the Internet can use software to
“watch” how consumers use the website, how much time they spend at each dis-
play, and the like.
Similarly, many franchise companies use the observation method—to check how
well a franchisee is performing. KFC hires people to go to different KFC stores and
act like normal customers. Then these “secret shoppers” report back to KFC on how
they were treated, the quality of the service and food, and the cleanliness of the store.Observation methods are common in advertising research. For example, Nielsen
Media Research (www.nielsenmedia.com) uses a device called the “people meter”
that adapts the observation method to television audience research. This machine
is attached to the TV set in the homes of selected families. It records when the set
is on and what station is tuned in.Computerized scanners at retail checkout counters, a major breakthrough in
observing, help researchers collect very specific, and useful, information. Often this
type of data feeds directly into a firm’s MIS. Managers of a large chain of stores canObserving—what you
see is what you get
Observing is common
in advertising research
Checkout scanners
see a lot