Livingston Lures develops and markets electronic fishing lures that emit various sounds associated with baitfish. This feature makes a Livingston Lure much more effective than traditional lures because it attracts fish from a considerable distance, and the sound causes fish such as bass or trout to savagely attack the lure. In an effort to survey the reactions of potential buyers, the company hires a research firm to intercept fishermen at boat launches, secure their cooperation to use a Livingston Lure electronic lure under development sometime during their fishing trip that day, meet them when they return, and verbally administer questions to them. As an incentive, each respondent will receive three lures to try that day, and five more will be given to each fisherman who answers the questions at the end of the fishing trip. What opening comments should be verbalized when approaching fishermen who are launching their boats? Draft a script to be used when asking these fishermen to take part in the survey.
Case 8.1: Nick Thomas, CEO of Auto Concepts, has hired CMG Research to perform a survey. Cory Rogers, vice president of CMG Research, now feels he has a good grasp of the objectives needed to conduct the research study. Furthermore, he has taken some time to write operational definitions of the constructs, so he has done most of the preliminary work on the questionnaire. The next step is questionnaire design. Cory and Nick have decided that the best approach to the survey is to use an online panel. This choice, while somewhat expensive, will guarantee that the final sample is representative of the market. That is, companies that operate such panels assure their clients that the sample will represent any general target market the client may desire to research. In the case of Auto Concepts, the market of interest is “all automobile owners,” meaning that practically all adults qualify. Consequently, it is time to design a questionnaire suitable for administration to an online panel of adult consumers. The survey objectives relevant to questionnaire design for this phase of the research project include the following:
