MARKET RESEARCH ANSWERS

QUESTION 6
Discuss Problem Identification and Problem Solving Research. Discuss how these two
types of research are related. Develop an example showing the relationship between these
two types of research.

ANSWER
Problem Identification is the introductory phase of the marketing research process. Basically, it
involves a clear and precise understanding of the problem at hand. It is crucial that the research team
identifies, understands and defines the problem in its entire capacity, as it affects all the subsequent
activities involved in the research process. Research teams make use of customer feedback, internal
and external data reports, sales graphs, purchasing patterns, etc. to come up with an accurate problem
definition. This research is undertaken to help identify problems which are not necessarily apparent on
the surface and yet exist or are likely to arise in the future.
Example- Market potential, market share, image, market characteristics, sales analysis, forecasting
and business trends research.
Problem identification mainly involves identifying a problem which exists in the following forms-

1. The problem is stated as a question. E.g.- “Will the new product, if launched, gain at least a
10% market share?”
2. The problem statement should express a relation between two or more variables. E.g.- “Are
consumers with above average income more likely to buy exotic fruits than the lower income
groups?”
3. The research problem is directly related to decisions that management need to take.

Here are some factors your marketing department might discover by conducting problem-identification
research:

 Knowing the Characteristics of Your Target Market(s): Market research sheds lights on the
intricacies of essential consumer demographics. Not just the widely prevailing similarities that
define specific consumer cohorts, but also the equally important differences. It is after all
essential to consider all aspects that drive various consumers to purchase from your
company. Customers in different geographic regions are likely to exhibit different purchase
patterns and behaviors. Understanding the differences between subcultures and then
subsequently meeting those needs will help your business marketing strategies succeed.
 Gauging Customer Perceptions of Your Brand Image: Companies can ill afford to remain
ignorant of how customers view them. Therefore, it’s essential to research your consumers’
current perceptions and what they want or expect from your company. Awareness of
customer perceptions breeds opportunities to determine which strategies are best fit to
positively influence brand image going forward.
 Pinpointing Your Market Share: Often as individuals we learn a lot about ourselves based on
how we stack up against our peers. Through the aid of market research, this is true also in the
 corporate world by understanding how the percent of your total product sales compare to your
competitors. Market share provides companies not only with an estimate of the amount of
market they hold, but by comparison also reveals some of your competitors’ capabilities and
strengths which then can allow you to develop an appropriate strategy.
 Estimating Your Products’ Potential Profit: Research can reveal how consumers may react to
advertising or pricing changes in your company’s products before action is actually initiated.
This allows companies to be better prepared and market to their consumers more accurately.

Problem solving is the mental process of analyzing a situation, learning what options are available and
then choosing the alternative that will result in the desired outcome or some other selected goal.
The following options will help solve research problems and capitalize opportunities identified by the
company.

 Distribution Research: determining where your product should be sold and how to get it
there. Distribution Research helps you plan the best way to get your product from the manufacturer to
the retail shelf. In addition to deciding which retailers should carry your product, you should
determine where your inventory will be held.
 Market Segmentation: Grouping customers by similar backgrounds or similar purchase
behaviours. Utilizing problem-solving research can determine how to most accurately accomplish this
and even how to design advertisements to attract those groups. You will need to collect both
qualitative and quantitative data to accurately understand your market segments.
 Pricing Research: determining the ideal price for your product. Setting the price for your
product is one of the most important marketing steps. You need to keep the customer in mind as well
as remember that the main goal is to maximize your profits. Consider whether or not customers can be
gained through lower prices. Can you maximize profit through increasing price? How sensitive will
your customers be if you begin slightly increasing price? All aspects need to be well thought-out.
Researching customer’s reactions to price sensitivity is essential.
 Product Research: testing your new or revised products or completing test marketing.
Researching secondary data or observing how your products will be used can allow you to
effectively compete in the market. Testing different components can identify new products or
discover ways to modify existing products, for example, updating a product to compete with
newer products.
 Promotional Research: following up with the effectiveness of your advertising strategies. If
your company is using advertisements, there are factors you need to be checking up on.
Unless you are evaluating your advertising budget, if your ads are useful in both retaining and
gaining customers and researching what type of ads (online, commercial or print) are most
effective, you truly cannot know whether you’re wasting your company’s money.

These two types of research are interdependent and interrelated. Problem Identification precedes
Problem Solving research. Only when one identifies a problem can he think of going ahead to solve it.
EXAMPLE SHOWING A RELATION BETWEEN PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION AND
PROBLEM SOLVING RESEARCH

In this scenario, a veteran market researcher wants to enter into the business of operating a
coffee shop and the problem is to identify the potential market and to find the appropriate
outlet and product mix for the products and services of the business. The determination of
product line and the price to be charged for the product is the identified problem. At the same
time, the business is also facing problems with the positioning of the shop in the relevant
market.

Problem solving- Conducting a survey by distributing questionnaires-

Questions-

1. What market holds the most promise for a new coffee shop?
2. What type of location is best for a coffee shop?
3. What makes a coffee shop popular?
4. What kind of coffee Indians love?

In this case, the documentation of the process will help researcher to find out his potential
market and customers for the coffee shop, as well as help him to position the coffee shop
in the best market. The researcher will be able to find answers to questions raised with the
help of effective report generation and presentation. The report will include the number of
potential customers, their consumption habits, the numbers and types of competitor etc.
Thus, it is important to have effective and relevant presentation of research finding to
help the researcher to find appropriate markets and potential customers for the coffee
shop.

Thus, problem identification and problem solution research go hand in hand and form an
important part of market research.
 Question- 7. “Marketing Research is much concerned with proper fact finding, analysis
and evaluation.” Do you agree with this statement? Give reasons in support of your
answer, mentioning each step in the Research Process.

ANSWER-
Yes, research deals with fact finding, analysis and evaluation.
Research begins with a theory or thesis statement. This statement has to be proven or
disproven as true/false. Given that research is based on proving or disproving a theory, it
means that research is concerned with finding facts, analysing facts and evaluating the
response, in order to form a conclusion regarding the research topic.

There have been occasions, when research has been called into question.
Corporate espionage and other issues such as; corporations skewing the facts to fit their
data have existed. It is a downside to dishonesty in people; however, the ethical, moral,
and scientific belief is that all research has to be based on facts.

This does not mean the facts will not change. Research is conducted with what
information and tools are available at that time. This means that in 100 years research
being conducted now could be found false, but at the time it is true because of the
limited technology or facts that could be found.

As always when someone learns about research and the research method, one is told that
a theory is never solely factual, but proved or disproved based on what could be found at
that time. It goes back to the fact, that proper information, analysis, and evaluation are
needed in order to conduct proper research. Inaccurate facts will skew the data and render
the entire research invalid.

Steps in a research process

Step 1. Define the Objective & Your “Problem”

Perhaps the most important step in the market research process is defining the goals of the
project.  At the core of this is understanding the root question that needs to be informed by
market research.  There is typically a key business problem (or opportunity) that needs to be
acted upon, but there is a lack of information to make that decision comfortably; the job of a
market researcher is to inform that decision with solid data.  Examples of  “business problems”
might be “How should we price this new widget?” or “Which features should we prioritize?”

By understanding the business problem clearly, you’ll be able to keep your research focused and
effective.  At this point in the process, well before any research has been conducted, I like to
imagine what a “perfect” final research report would look like to help answer the business
question(s).  You might even go as far as to mock up a fake report, with hypothetical data, and
ask your audience: “If I produce a report that looks something like this, will you have the
information you need to make an informed choice?”  If the answer is yes, now you just need to
get the real data.  If the answer is no, keep working with your client/audience until the objective
is clear, and be happy about the disappointment you’ve prevented and the time you’ve saved.

Step 2. Determine Your “Research Design”

Now that you know your research object, it is time to plan out the type of research that will best
obtain the necessary data.  Think of the “research design” as your detailed plan of attack.  In this
step you will first determine your market research method (will it be a survey, focus group,
etc.?).  You will also think through specifics about how you will identify and choose your sample
(who are we going after?  where will we find them?  how will we incentivize them?, etc.).  This is
also the time to plan where you will conduct your research (telephone, in-person, mail, internet,
etc.).  Once again, remember to keep the end goal in mind–what will your final report look like? 
Based on that, you’ll be able to identify the types of data analysis you’ll be conducting (simple
summaries, advanced regression analysis, etc.), which dictates the structure of questions you’ll be
asking.

Your choice of research instrument will be based on the nature of the data you are trying to
collect.  There are three classifications to consider:

Exploratory Research – This form of research is used when the topic is not well defined or
understood, your hypothesis is not well defined, and your knowledge of a topic is vague.
Exploratory research will help you gain broad insights, narrow your focus, and learn the basics
necessary to go deeper.  Common exploratory market research techniques include secondary
research, focus groups and interviews.  Exploratory research is a qualitative form of research.

Descriptive Research – If your research objective calls for more detailed data on a specific topic,
you’ll be conducting quantitative descriptive research.  The goal of this form of market research
is to measure specific topics of interest, usually in a quantitative way.  Surveys are the most
common research instrument for descriptive research.

Causal Research – The most specific type of research is causal research, which usually comes in
the form of a field test or experiment.  In this case, you are trying to determine a causal
relationship between variables.  For example, does the music I play in my restaurant increase
dessert sales (i.e. is there a causal relationship between music and sales?).

Step 3. Design & Prepare Your “Research Instrument”

In this step of the market research process, it’s time to design your research tool.  If a survey is
the most appropriate tool (as determined in step 2), you’ll begin by writing your questions and
designing your questionnaire.  If a focus group is your instrument of choice, you’ll start preparing
questions and materials for the moderator.  You get the idea.  This is the part of the process where
you start executing your plan.

By the way, step 3.5 should be to test your survey instrument with a small group prior to broad
deployment.  Take your sample data and get it into a spreadsheet; are there any issues with the
data structure?  This will allow you to catch potential problems early, and there are always
problems.

Step 4. Collect Your Data

This is the meat and potatoes of your project; the time when you are administering your survey,
running your focus groups, conducting your interviews, implementing your field test, etc.  The
answers, choices, and observations are all being collected and recorded, usually in spreadsheet
form.  Each nugget of information is precious and will be part of the masterful conclusions you
will soon draw.

Step 5. Analyze Your Data

Step 4 (data collection) has drawn to a close and you have heaps of raw data sitting in your lap. 
If it’s on scraps of paper, you’ll probably need to get it in spreadsheet form for further analysis. 
If it’s already in spreadsheet form, it’s time to make sure you’ve got it structured properly.  Once
that’s all done, the fun begins.  Run summaries with the tools provided in your software package
(typically Excel, SPSS, Minitab, etc.), build tables and graphs, segment your results by groups
that make sense (i.e. age, gender, etc.), and look for the major trends in your data.  Start to
formulate the story you will tell.

Step 6. Visualize Your Data and Communicate Results

You’ve spent hours pouring through your raw data, building useful summary tables, charts and
graphs.  Now is the time to compile the most meaningful take-aways into a digestible report or
presentation.  A great way to present the data is to start with the research objectives and business
problem that were identified in step 1.  Restate those business questions, and then present your
recommendations based on the data, to address those issues.

When it comes time to presenting your results, remember to

present insights, answers and recommendations, not just charts and tables.  If you put a chart in
the report, ask yourself “what does this mean and what are the implications?”  Adding this
additional critical thinking to your final report will make your research more actionable and
meaningful and will set you apart from other researchers.

While it is important to “answer the original question,” remember that market research is one
input to a business decision (usually a strong input), but not the only factor.
Question- A good questionnaire varies in terms of its ‘format’ and also in terms of the way if its
administered. Following to the statement, define the different questionnaire formats and discuss the
steps involved in designing a good questionnaire.

A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions or other types of prompts
that aims to collect information from a respondent. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of
close ended questions and open ended questions. Open-ended, long-form questions offer the
respondent the ability to elaborate on their thoughts. Research questionnaires were developed in 1838
by the Statistical Society of London.

The data collected from a data collection questionnaire can be both qualitative as well as quantitative
in nature. A questionnaire may or may not be delivered in the form of a survey, but a survey always
consists of a questionnaire.

Questionnaires can be classified as both, quantitative and qualitative method depending on the nature

of questions. Specifically, answers obtained through closed-ended questions with multiple choice
answer options are analyzed using quantitative methods and they may involve pie-charts, bar-charts
and percentages. Answers obtained to open-ended questionnaire questions are analyzed using
qualitative methods and they involve discussions and critical analyses without use of numbers and
calculations.
For a standard 15,000-20,000-word business dissertation, including 25-40 questions in questionnaires
will usually suffice. Questions need be formulated in an unambiguous and straightforward manner
and they should be presented in a logical order.
Advantages of questionnaires include increased speed of data collection, low or no cost requirements,
and higher levels of objectivity compared to many alternative methods of primary data collection.
However, questionnaires have certain disadvantages such as selection of random answer choices by
respondents without properly reading the question. Moreover, there is usually no possibility for
respondents to express their additional thoughts about the matter due to the absence of a relevant
question.

There are following types of questionnaires: 

Computer questionnaire. Respondents are asked to answer the questionnaire which is sent by mail.
The advantages of the computer questionnaires include their inexpensive price, time-efficiency, and
respondents do not feel pressured, therefore can answer when they have time, giving more accurate
answers. However, the main shortcoming of the mail questionnaires is that sometimes respondents do
not bother answering them and they can just ignore the questionnaire.
 
Telephone questionnaire. Researcher may choose to call potential respondents with the aim of
getting them to answer the questionnaire. The advantage of the telephone questionnaire is that, it can
be completed during the short amount of time. The main disadvantage of the phone questionnaire is
that it is expensive most of the time. Moreover, most people do not feel comfortable to answer many
questions asked through the phone and it is difficult to get sample group to answer questionnaire over
the phone.
 
In-house survey. This type of questionnaire involves the researcher visiting respondents in their
houses or workplaces. The advantage of in-house survey is that more focus towards the questions can
be gained from respondents. However, in-house surveys also have a range of disadvantages which
include being time consuming, more expensive and respondents may not wish to have the researcher
in their houses or workplaces for various reasons.
 
 Mail Questionnaire. This sort of questionnaires involve the researcher to send the questionnaire list
to respondents through post, often attaching pre-paid envelope. Mail questionnaires have an
advantage of providing more accurate answer, because respondents can answer the questionnaire in
their spare time. The disadvantages associated with mail questionnaires include them being expensive,
time consuming and sometimes they end up in the bin put by respondents.
 
Questionnaires can include the following types of questions: 
Open question questionnaires. Open questions differ from other types of questions used in
questionnaires in a way that open questions may produce unexpected results, which can make the
research more original and valuable. However, it is difficult to analyze the results of the findings
when the data is obtained through the questionnaire with open questions.
 
Multiple choice questions. Respondents are offered a set of answers they have to choose from. The
downsize of questionnaire with multiple choice questions is that, if there are too many answers to
choose from, it makes the questionnaire, confusing and boring, and discourages the respondent to
answer the questionnaire.
 
Dichotomous Questions. This type of questions gives two options to respondents – yes or no, to
choose from. It is the easiest form of questionnaire for the respondent in terms of responding it.
 
Scaling Questions. Also referred to as ranking questions, they present an option for respondents to
rank the available answers to the questions on the scale of given range of values (for example from 1
to 10).
Survey Monkey represents one of the most popular online platforms for facilitating data collection
through questionnaires. Substantial benefits offered by Survey Monkey include its ease to use,
presentation of questions in many different formats and advanced data analysis capabilities.

Steps involved in designing good questionnaire are as follows-

1. Specify the Information Needed: The first and the foremost step in designing the
questionnaire is to specify the information needed from the respondents such that the objective of the
survey is fulfilled. The researcher must completely review the components of the problem,
particularly the hypothesis, research questions, and the information needed.
2. Define the Target Respondent: At the very outset, the researcher must identify the target
respondent from whom the information is to be collected. The questions must be designed keeping in
mind the type of respondents under study. Such as, the questions that are appropriate for serviceman
might not be appropriate for a businessman. The less diversified respondent group shall be selected
because the more diversified the group is, the more difficult it will be to design a single questionnaire
that is appropriate for the entire group.
3. Specify the type of Interviewing Method: The next step is to identify the way in which the
respondents are reached. In personal interviews, the respondent is presented with a questionnaire
and interacts face-to-face with the interviewer. Thus, lengthy, complex and varied questions can be
asked using the personal interview method. In telephone interviews, the respondent is required to give
answers to the questions over the telephone. Here the respondent cannot see the questionnaire and
hence this method restricts the use of small, simple and precise questions.

The questionnaire can be sent through mail or post. It should be self-explanatory and contain all the
important information such that the respondent is able to understand every question and gives a
 complete response. The electronic questionnaires are sent directly to the mail ids of the respondents
and are required to give answers online.

4. Determine the Content of Individual Questions: Once the information needed is specified

and the interviewing methods are determined, the next step is to decide the content of the question.
The researcher must decide on what should be included in the question such that it contribute to the
information needed or serve some specific purpose.

In some situations, the indirect questions which are not directly related to the information needed may
be asked. It is useful to ask neutral questions at the beginning of a questionnaire with intent to
establish respondent’s involvement and rapport. This is mainly done when the subject of a
questionnaire is sensitive or controversial. The researcher must try to avoid the use of double-
barreled questions. A question that talks about two issues simultaneously, such as Is the Real juice
tasty and a refreshing health drink?

5. Overcome Respondent’s Inability and Unwillingness to Answer: The researcher should

not presume that the respondent can provide accurate responses to all the questions. He must attempt
to overcome the respondent’s inability to answer. The questions must be designed in a simple and
easy language such that it is easily understood by each respondent. In situations, where the respondent
is not at all informed about the topic of interest, then the researcher may ask the filter questions, an
initial question asked in the questionnaire to identify the prospective respondents to ensure that they
fulfil the requirements of the sample.

Despite being able to answer the question, the respondent is unwilling to devote time in providing
information. The researcher must attempt to understand the reason behind such unwillingness and
design the questionnaire in such a way that it helps in retaining the respondent’s attention.

6. Decide on the Question Structure: The researcher must decide on the structure of questions
to be included in the questionnaire. The question can be structured or unstructured. The unstructured
questions are the open-ended questions which are answered by the respondents in their own words.
These questions are also called as a free-response or free-answer questions.

While, the structured questions are called as closed-ended questions that pre-specify the response
alternatives. These questions could be a multiple choice question, dichotomous (yes or no) or a scale.

7. Determine the Question Wording: The desired question content and structure must be
translated into words which are easily understood by the respondents. At this step, the researcher
must translate the questions in easy words such that the information received from the respondents is
similar to what was intended.

In case the question is written poorly, then the respondent might refuse to answer it or might give a
wrong answer. In case, the respondent is reluctant to give answers, then “nonresponse” arises which
increases the complexity of data analysis. On the other hand, if the wrong information is given, then “
response error” arises due to which the result is biassed.

8. Determine the Order of Questions: At this step, the researcher must decide the sequence in
which the questions are to be asked. The opening questions are crucial in establishing respondent’s
involvement and rapport, and therefore, these questions must be interesting, non-threatening and easy.
Usually, the open-ended questions which ask respondents for their opinions are considered as good
opening questions, because people like to express their opinions.
9. Identify the Form and Layout: The format, positioning and spacing of questions has a
significant effect on the results. The layout of a questionnaire is specifically important for the self-
 administered questionnaires. The questionnaires must be divided into several parts, and each part shall
be numbered accurately to clearly define the branches of a question.
10. Reproduction of Questionnaire: Here, we talk about the appearance of the
questionnaire, i.e. the quality of paper on which the questionnaire is either written or printed. In case,
the questionnaire is reproduced on a poor-quality paper; then the respondent might feel the research is
unimportant due to which the quality of response gets adversely affected.

Thus, it is recommended to reproduce the questionnaire on a good-quality paper having a professional

appearance. In case, the questionnaire has several pages, then it should be presented in the form of a
booklet rather than the sheets clipped or stapled together.

11. Pretesting: Pretesting means testing the questionnaires on a few selected respondents or a

small sample of actual respondents with a purpose of improving the questionnaire by identifying and
eliminating the potential problems. All the aspects of the questionnaire must be tested such as
question content, structure, wording, sequence, form and layout, instructions, and question difficulty.
The researcher must ensure that the respondents in the pretest should be similar to those who are to be
finally surveyed.

Thus, the questionnaire design is a multistage process that requires the researcher’s attention to many
details.
Question- Research design in exploratory studies must be flexible but in descriptive studies, it must

minimize bias and maximize reliability.” Discuss.

Answer- In the context of marketing research, every research problem is unique in its own way, but
almost all research problems and objectives can be matched to one of three types of research designs
—exploratory, descriptive, or causal. The researcher’s choice of design depends on available
information such as nature of the problem, scope of the problem, objectives, and known information.
Exploratory research design is chosen to gain background information and to define the terms of the
research problem. This is used to clarify research problems and hypotheses and to establish research
priorities. A hypothesis is a statement based on limited evidence which can be proved or disproved
and leads to further investigation. It helps organizations to formulate their problems clearly.

Exploratory research design is conducted for a research problem when the researcher has no past data
or only a few studies for reference. Sometimes this research is informal and unstructured. It serves as
a tool for initial research that provides a hypothetical or theoretical idea of the research problem. It
will not offer concrete solutions for the research problem. This research is conducted in order to
determine the nature of the problem and helps the researcher to develop a better understanding of the
problem. Exploratory research is flexible and provides the initial groundwork for future research.
Exploratory research requires the researcher to investigate different sources such as published
secondary data, data from other surveys, observation of research items, and opinions about a
company, product, or service.

Example of Exploratory Research Design:

Freshbite is a one and half year-old e-commerce start-up company delivering fresh foods as per the
order to customer’s doorstep through its delivery partners. The company operates in multiple cities.
Since its inception, the company achieved a high sales growth rate. However, after completion of the
first year, the sales started declining at brisk rate. Due to lack of historical data, the sales director was
confused about the reasons for this decline in sales. He prefers to appoint a marketing research
consultant to conduct an exploratory research study in order to discern the possible reasons rather than
making assumptions. The prime objective of this research was not to figure out a solution to the
declining sales problem, but rather to identify the possible reasons, such as poor quality of products
and services, competition, or ineffective marketing, and to better understand the factors affecting
sales. Once these potential causes are identified, the strength of each reason can be tested using causal
research.

Descriptive research is a type of research that describes a population, situation, or phenomenon that is
being studied. It focuses on answering the how, what, when, and where questions If a research
problem, rather than the why. This is mainly because it is important to have a proper understanding of
what a research problem is about before investigating why it exists in the first place. It validates some
sort of hypothesis or objective when it comes to a specific group of people.

For example, an investor considering an investment in the ever-changing Mumbai housing market
needs to understand what the current state of the market is, how it changes (increasing or decreasing),
and when it changes (time of the year) before asking for the why. This is where descriptive research
comes in.

Compared to exploratory research, descriptive research follows a very rigid approach. Its data
collection methods are highly rigid as compared to the unstructured and flexible approach used in
exploratory research. Exploratory research often forms the basis for descriptive research and the
knowledge acquires through exploratory research is used to select respondents, setting priority issues,
framing and asking questions as well as setting the time and place for the respondents like when and
where to ask questions. While exploratory research can provide the hypotheses, you need to conduct
descriptive research to prove the hypotheses. Exploratory research will answer the basic questions
related to who, where, what when, why and how if descriptive research but then descriptive research
will answer the final questions related to the market. The main difference between exploratory and
descriptive research is that the first does not follow standardized methods but the second does.
Exploratory research provides an opportunity to understand the problem thus making it very flexible
as compared to descriptive research.

10. What is the meaning of measurement in research? What difference does it make whether

we measure in terms of a nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio scale? Explain giving

examples.

Answer- Measure is important in research. Measure aims to ascertain the dimension, quantity, or
capacity of the behaviors or events that researchers want to explore. According to Maxim (1999),
measurement is a process of mapping empirical phenomena with using system of numbers.

Basically, the events or phenomena that researchers interested can be existed as domain. Measurement
links the events in domain to events in another space which called range (Figure 1). In another words,
researchers can measure certain events in certain range. The range is consisting of scale. Thus,
researchers can interpret the data with quantitative conclusion which leads to more accurate and
standardized outcomes. Without measure, researchers can’t interpret the data accurately and
systematically.

Quantitative Measurements

Quantitative Measurement is a quantitative description of the events or characteristics which involves

numerical measurement. For example, the description made as “There are three birds in the nest”.
This description includes the numerical measurement on the birds. Quantitative measurement enables
researchers to make comparison between the events or characteristics. For example, researchers tend
to know who the tallest person in a family is. So, they use centimetre to measure their height and
make comparison between all the family members.

Characteristics of a Measurement Scale

Identity
Identity refers to the assignment of numbers to the values of each variable in a data set. Consider a
questionnaire that asks for a respondent's gender with the options Male and Female for instance. The
values 1 and 2 can be assigned to Male and Female respectively.

Arithmetic operations can not be performed on these values because they are just for identification
purposes. This is a characteristic of a nominal scale.
Magnitude
The magnitude is the size of a measurement scale, where numbers (the identity) have an inherent
order from least to highest. They are usually represented on the scale in ascending or descending
order. The position in a race, for example, is arranged from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd to the least.

This example is measured on an ordinal scale because it has both identity and magnitude.

Equal intervals
Equal Intervals means that the scale has a standardized order. I.e., the difference between each level
on the scale is the same. This is not the case for the ordinal scale example highlighted above.

Each position does not have an equal interval difference. In a race, the 1st position may complete the
race in 20 secs, 2nd position in 20.8 seconds while the 3rd in 30 seconds. 

A variable that has an identity, magnitude, and the equal interval is measured on an interval scale.

Absolute zero
Absolue zero is a feature that is unique to a ratio scale. It means that there is an existence of zero on
the scale, and is defined by the absence of the variable being measured (e.g. no qualification, no
money, does not identify as any gender, etc.

The four levels of measurement are:

Nominal–Latin for name only (Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian)

Ordinal–Think ordered levels or ranks (small–8oz, medium–12oz, large–32oz)

Interval–Equal intervals among levels (1 dollar to 2 dollars is the same interval as 88 dollars to 89
dollars)

Ratio–Let the “o” in ratio remind you of a zero in the scale (Day 0, day 1, day 2, day 3, …)

The first level of measurement is nominal level of measurement.  In this level of measurement, the
numbers in the variable are used only to classify the data.  In this level of measurement, words, letters,
and alpha-numeric symbols can be used.  Suppose there are data about people belonging to three
different gender categories. In this case, the person belonging to the female gender could be classified
as F, the person belonging to the male gender could be classified as M, and transgendered classified as
T.  This type of assigning classification is nominal level of measurement.

The second level of measurement is the ordinal level of measurement.  This level of

measurement depicts some ordered relationship among the variable’s observations.  Suppose a student
scores the highest grade of 100 in the class.  In this case, he would be assigned the first rank.  Then,
another classmate scores the second highest grade of an 92; she would be assigned the second rank.  A
third student scores a 81 and he would be assigned the third rank, and so on.   The ordinal level of
measurement indicates an ordering of the measurements.
The third level of measurement is the interval level of measurement.  The interval level of
measurement not only classifies and orders the measurements, but it also specifies that the distances
between each interval on the scale are equivalent along the scale from low interval to high interval.
For example, an interval level of measurement could be the measurement of anxiety in a
student between the score of 10 and 11, this interval is the same as that of a student who scores
between 40 and 41.   A popular example of this level of measurement is temperature in centigrade,
where, for example, the distance between 940C and 960C is the same as the distance between 1000C
and 1020C.

The fourth level of measurement is the ratio level of measurement.  In this level of measurement, the
observations, in addition to having equal intervals, can have a value of zero as well.  The zero in the
scale makes this type of measurement unlike the other types of measurement, although the
properties are similar to that of the interval level of measurement.  In the ratio level of measurement,
the divisions between the points on the scale have an equivalent distance between them.
The researcher should note that among these levels of measurement, the nominal level is simply used
to classify data, whereas the levels of measurement described by the interval level and the ratio level
are much more exact.