The measurement of marketing phenomenon is fundamental to provide meaningful information for marketing decision making.
Measurement transforms the characteristics of an object into a form that can be analyzed by a research. Normally, scales are used to measure response and classified into following four categories:
\"market Research\"
1. Nominal
2. Ordinal
3. Interval
4. Ratio
1. Nominal:
A nominal scale is one in which numbers are only used as labels and have no quantitative or numerical significance. Variables such as sex, geographic location, occupation, religion, brand awareness are studied under nominal scales.
2. Ordinal scales:
Ordinal scales are used to measure attitudes, preferences, occupation, social classes etc. Ordinal scales help to place different entities like objects, individuals or responses in relative position with respect to a particular aspect.
3. Interval scales:
This scale is used to measure common statistical measures such as range, standard deviation and correlation. A researcher gauges preference, liking or importance of a particular aspect of brand on a continuous basis and distance between one point of scale to another is the same.
4. Ratio scales:
These are the most powerful of the above scales. Unlike interval scales they have a zero point. They can be used for all kind of statistical calculation. They are used for variables such as age, number of customers, sales, costs, height, length etc.
Selecting the appropriate scale to use: Before finalizing on the scale usage, it is advisable to consider the following aspects,
1. Type/details of information required.
2. Time and cost constraints.
3. Literary level of target respondents (for easy communication)
4. Stimulus characteristics
5. Analysis methodology to be used
6. Past experience to be used
7. Rural vs. urban context
8. Expected and desired response
Types of Scales in Market Research
Harekrishna Patel is a specialist in conversion rate optimization. He has also rich experience of Internet business strategy, planning and executions. He is helping businesses to drive quality search engine traffic and conversion rate improvement.
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