234 Research Methodology

`5 to 10 lakh respectively). The management of Prestige is looking at expanding its operation in the other metros.
Over the last several years, they have been offering advice in all financial instruments and other investment options.
Management is concerned with how its customers rate the service and the personnel at the consultancy, and they
would like to know the customers’ impressions of Prestige. Design a mail questionnaire that can be sent to the
bank’s customers to obtain the desired information.
2. The administrators of Parents’ Pride, one of the city’s largest chain of pre-nursery schools, are concerned with the
attitude parents have towards the various aspects of the school and whether they would recommend the school to
their friends and colleagues. They have authorized the undertaking of a marketing research study to gather this in-
formation, and have directed that it cover the following areas—all the functions with which the parents and the child
come into contact (such as admissions, school infrastructure, teachers, teachers’ attitude, meals, fee structure,
parent-teacher interaction, hygienic conditions and so on). Design a questionnaire that can be used for this study.
Would your design change if this was a schedule? How?
3. Rainbow Seven is a regional brand of water whose share of the market has remained fairly stable for the past few
years. The management wants to increase the brand’s market share through the use of a more effective advertising
theme. For the last two years, Rainbow’s advertising has featured a well-known Bollywood actress who presents a
‘safe and secure, always’ message in all the commercials.
The company knows that it needs to make the brand more progressive and needs to reposition it. Thus they wish
to carry out a short study to know the perception about Rainbow as compared with the new brands available today.
They feel that such information will help them structure the positioning exercise better. They are not sure whether a
structured or an unstructured approach would be better. Thus, you are required to:
(a) Design an unstructured and concealed questionnaire and
(b) Design a formalized and unconcealed questionnaire.
Justify your approach and specify what information needs you are covering in each.
Which one, according to you, is a better approach for this exercise? Why?
4. Suppose you want to ascertain the amount of money students spend on eating outside. Assuming you want to ask
just one question, how would you phrase it in each of the following forms: open-ended, dichotomous, and multiple-
category? In what ways would the type of data obtained through each form differ?

CASE 8.1

MALLS FOR ALL

A research was undertaken to ascertain the attitude of the Delhi shopper towards the mall shopping experience. For
the study, the researcher identified the following research objectives:
• To understand the typical Delhites’ shopping behaviour
• To understand the parameters that influence his/her selection of a mall
• To understand the respondents’ spending pattern in a mall
• To understand consumer awareness about specific malls in Delhi/NCR
• To understand the consumer’s evaluation and satisfaction with respect to the malls that he/she has shopped
in
• To adequately profile the typical Delhi mall shopper
Subsequently, a mailing questionnaire is to be designed for this purpose. The following questionnaire was designed
for the study.
1. How would you evaluate the instrument as a whole? In terms of
• questionnaire structure and sequencing
• the clarity and content of the questions asked
2. Evaluate the questions in the light of the above stated objectives. That is, which question(s) was/were designed
to match which objectives. Kindly list the same.
3. Has the questionnaire been effective in meeting the study objectives? Why/Why not?
4. How would you like to modify the questionnaire in the light of your answers to the above questions?

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 Questionnaire Designing 235

Instructions
1. The questionnaire deals with the analysis of consumers on their mall buying behaviour.
2. All the questions are quite general and simple but if there are any queries, then please feel free to clarify.
3. The questionnaire is solely an academic exercise, so please feel free to give us the information.

Name (Optional): Mr/Ms/Mrs

Mailing address (Area):

Age(in yrs):
10-20
21-30
31-40
>40

Occupation:
Student
Housewife
Professional/Service
Self employed/Own Busines
Others (Please specify_______________)
1. Do you shop? Yes/No
a) How often do you shop ?
Once a month
Twice a month
Thrice a month
More than thrice a month
b) When do you prefer to shop ?
Weekdays morning
Weekend morning
Weekdays afternoon
Weekend afternoon
Weekdays evening
Weekend evening

2. Where do you shop normally?

A local area market (Could you please specify the market _____________)
A shopping mall
Both of the above

3. Please tell us about your awareness and number of visits to the following malls?

Awareness (Tick) Number of visit (No. of times in a month)

Ansal Plaza
Sahara Mall
Waves Noida
Metropolitan Mall
Ansals Faridabad
DT’s Gurgaon

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 236 Research Methodology

4. Please give your views on malls for the following aspects.

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

agree disagree
Malls are convenient
Malls offer more variety
Malls are hygienic
Malls offer value for money
Malls are more expensive
The atmosphere in malls is very congenial
Malls are fashionable
Malls are good for outing with family/friends

5. Please specify your spending for the following with respect to a mall.

Spending 0-10 per cent 10-20 per cent >20 per cent
Reasons

For eating or drinking

For entertainment (movies, etc.)
For shopping

6. How would you classify your spending behaviour (Can have multiple options)?
On the spot mood
Planned purchases
Linked spending (e.g., eating out if you have come for shopping)

7. Could you please give us your individual rating of the mall with respect to the following (Please rate from 1-5,
good to bad)? (Please specify the name of the mall if you are taking a specific one______________)
V. Good __________ V. Bad
Availability of products 1 2 3 4 5
Eating joints 1 2 3 4 5
Multiplex/entertainment 1 2 3 4 5
Mall atmosphere 1 2 3 4 5
Facilities (AC, staff, parking) 1 2 3 4 5
Overall experience 1 2 3 4 5

Date: Place:

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