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The Brand Connection: Brands connect products or services to people. This connection is through the meaning that the brand brings into the lives the people that use it. Brands tap into six modes of communication to convey meaning. These modes are instrumental in determining advertising effect:

• Naming
• Wording
• Describing
• Picturing
• Symbolizing
• Animating

The personal benefits and values of the core product are reinforced and strengthened as the brand meaning grows and it becomes more connected to the person. In the language of a brand manager, the result is a high equity brand that is surrounded by loyal customers.

To flesh out a brand design schematic, researchers often integrate means-end research with other forms of marketing or consumer research.

Hierarchical Value Maps: Hierarchical Value Maps based on the means-end analysis identify the connection between the brand attributes and the market needs. These are expressed as personal benefits of brand use and values that are reinforced and give creative directors a rich set of concepts for producing advertisements.

To sell a product we must "play to strength," but often that strength is not valued by people. Our "strength" is a "so what." The goal of market driven strategies is to change the "so what" into a "WOW." One way of doing this is to use means-end analysis and hierarchical value maps.

The following example shows a portion of a hierarchical value map for a bank considering how to position its credit card.

The means-end study was used to produce a hierarchical map based on a set of attribute statements that were linked to positive and negative psycho-social consequence statements (benefits).

Higher order value statements were also used in the study and appear at the top of the map. This portion of the hierarchical value map clearly shows two psychological values as key to credit card users: "Peace of Mind" and "Self Esteem." Peace of mind is a direct result of the card being broadly accepted by merchants and the support locations available. These credit card attributes are seen to link, in turn, to independence, dependability, and security.

The branch of the hierarchical value map dealing with Self Esteem is similarly interpreted through the linked positive benefits and associated attributes.

Understanding the values behind the brand will help you better conduct your research.

Qualtrics offers hundreds of suggestions for superior research techniques. Our last blog series, posted every Wednesday, highlighted some research tips. If you are looking for some more in-depth guidance to improve your research, consider the following resources.

1.      Fundamentals of Marketing Research.

This book covers all the facets of advanced marketing research including method, technique, and analysis at all levels. Our founder, Scott Smith, Ph.D. co-authors this 900-page reference book that is sure to answer your questions about advanced research.

2.      Articles in Marketing Research

Having people describe a brand by picking attributes from a list is a quick and simple way to assess brand performance and positioning. When used for online survey research, such pick data can also save time and reduce respondent dropout rates. This article outlines how best to collect pick data and construct a multi-brand sample in order to optimize pick data reliability and discriminating power.

3. An Introduction to Marketing Models

This book covers the essentials of building marketing models andconsequently has been required in many marketing courses. Some topics include models in marketing, product planning, segmentation, distribution models, and more.

Researchers have forever struggled with measuring that one single concept that provides the silver bullet for describing, understanding, or predicting that all important concept of interest. For survey researchers, concepts must be identified, understood, with relationships identified and measured.

Metatheory, the investigation of investigation, is a critical part of being a superior researcher who understands not only what is being measured, but why.

Metatheory may be broadly defined as the theory of investigation. In survey research, metatheory gives understanding and interpretation to that all important process of reducing abstract concepts to observation and measurement.

Surveys are conducted with the goal of providing an operational interpretation of the concepts of interest. Surveys apply measurement, or the “assignment of numbers to respondents to represent amounts or degrees of a property (concept) possessed by all of the respondents.” This measurement provides interpretation of the properties of persons, cognitions, behaviors, emotions, events, objects, relationships, and many other “concepts” of interest to the researcher. Metatheory is a prized resource for preparing a well designed, organized, and meaningful survey.

Modeling for Completeness Metatheory involves the organization of the concepts being investigated into models that represent relationships. We are all familiar with the use of models, whether model airplane kits, drawings of buildings, descriptive text and flowcharts, or icons on a computer screen. The most fundamental issue in modeling is the convergence between the model and the reality it is designed to represent. This applies to both the process being modeled as well as the components that are part of that process. Models are intended to represent reality.

The most exceptional and powerful surveys are not hodge-podge lists of questions, but are questions built around a model of what is being investigated. Survey questions are most effective when they focus on concepts that model a process or components and confidently represent reality on all significant issues.

Purpose of Employee Behavioral Interviews

Behavioral interviews are designed to predict behavior or to explain the reasons for past behavior. A classic example of behavioral interviews is where an employee made a poor decision and then made a worse decision by lying or failing to report the mistake and repercussions of the initial decision.

During behavioral interviews, questions are presented about how the employee acted or reacted in a specific job-related situation. In many situations, employees do not recognize the source of the behavioral problem and how decisions could or should have been made differently.
Behavioral interviews can be instructive, diagnostic, and insightful for both the interviewer, manager, and the employee.
Employee Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral interview questions may be asked in personal interview, phone, or questionnaire form and focus on specific decisions or challenges that were faced. Employee Behavioral Interview questions that are general in nature may be used in employee job interview questionnaires. These questions would provide insights about behavior in future employment situations. In general behavioral situations, we might include questions like:

• Describe a time that you were challenged or put under pressure.
• Tell me about a time when you took it upon yourself to accomplish a task on the job, without being asked.
• Which accomplishment on the job gave you more satisfaction than any other?
• How would you handle it if a coworker (or subordinate) was not pulling his or her fair share of the load?
• What was a major obstacle you have overcome?
• Depending on the initial questions and answers, secondary behavioral interview questions might include:
• How did you deal with it?
• How did you go about achieving it?
• What was the outcome?
• What were you thinking at the time?
• How did it make you feel?
• What did you say or do?
• What are some examples?
• How did you know there was a problem?

Employee behavioral interview questions of a specific nature would focus on understanding past behavior. In specific behavioral situations, we might include questions like:

• Describe the situation in which the challenge took place.
• Describe your assessment of the situation and challenge.
• What were the risks involved?
• What alternative courses of action could have been taken?
• How did you deal with it?
• What did you say or do?
• How did you go about achieving it?
• What was the outcome?
• What were you thinking at the time?
• How did it make you feel?
• What are some examples?
• How did you know there was a problem?
• What could have been done better?

We hope these suggestions can get your mind turning. Maybe conducting behavioral interview surveys is the answer for you!

Sampling is the process of selecting a subset of units from the population. After choosing a sampling method, the next step is to decide how many people should be sampled.

We use sampling formulas to determine how many to select. It is important to select the right amount of people because it is based on the characteristics of this sample that we make inferences about the population.

The most common method of sample size determination is based on proportions. For example, suppose we are preparing for the winter Olympics and are interested in estimating "the proportion of out of state skiers that took at least one overnight trip." We might use this number of people that would consider traveling to the Olympics.

In this case, the sample size is estimated using proportions. sp = (p/(1-p)/ n) where p is the proportion of "out of state skiers that took at least one overnight trip". The most conservative number for this proportion is .50 and if the desired accuracy was .05 and the formula would appear as: (Number of Standard Errors)^{2 * ((proportion)*(1-proportion)) / (Accuracy)}

Using this formula explained above, the following sample sizes will result. If you are curious how your sample size will match up, take a look at this table.

Remember to carefully select your sample size to ensure a representative study.

You can see that as the sample size increases, the percentage of error decreases. Hope this  explanation will help you choose the best sample for your research.

Thanks for coming to our final post in our series about writing great survey questions. We hope that we have offered some valuable help that will get you past some common roadblocks when you design your surveys.

Here are a few more things to consider:

Two-part questions. Make sure answers are independent. For example, "Do you think of basketball players as independent agents or as employees of their team?" Some believe that yes, they are both. In order to get the responses you are looking for, avoid asking dichotomous questions.

Long questions. Multiple choice questions are the longest and most complex. Free text answers are the shortest and easiest to answer. When you increase the length of questions and surveys, you decrease the chance of receiving a completed response. Be creative in your questions so that respondents don’t get tired with your survey.

Questions on future intentions. Yogi Berra (famous New York Yankees baseball player) once said that making predictions is difficult, especially when they are about the future. Predictions are rarely accurate more than a few weeks or in some case months ahead. Avoid asking questions like, “Do you anticipate watching TV in the next 24 hours?” This will create some uneasiness in your respondents, because they are trying to decipher their future intentions.

Just when you think you got the hang of surveys, you sometimes find a hang-up. To avoid problems with surveys, check out three simple suggestions to help you write great questions.

Non-exhaustive listings

When you are writing multiple choice questions, sometimes it’s difficult to think of every option.

For example, if you are asking “What kind of car do you drive?” and can only think of Honda, Toyota and Ford, you might need some help thinking of other answer choices.

It is good to ask yourself: Do I have all of the options covered? If you are unsure, conduct a pretest using the "Other (please specify) __________" option.

As you read through what test respondents wrote under “other” you can go back and edit your survey before making it live to your target respondents. For example, you might have found that a lot of people wrote BMW and Jeep, you could consider putting those as options in your multiple choice question. Revising the question can help you make sure that you cover at least 90% of the respondent answers.

Unbalanced listings

Unbalanced scales may be appropriate for some situations and biased in others. When measuring alcohol consumption patterns, one study used a quantity scale that made the heavy drinker appear in the middle of the scale with the polar ends reflecting no consumption and an impossible amount to consume. A better option would be to keep all of the scale points fairly even. So instead, ask if the level of alcohol consumption is no consumption, moderate consumption, or heavy consumption.

This suggestion is displayed below:


Double barreled questions

Two questions should not be asked in the same question. For example, "What is the fastest and most economic Internet service for you?" The fastest is certainly not the most economical. Be careful to read your questions to ensure you are only asking one question at a time.

Adding images to your graphics library is quite simple.  We get to the Graphics Library by clicking the Library tab at the top of any page in Qualtrics.  We are taken into the Library Overview where you can see a summary of all your different libraries.  Now click the Graphics Library button (the button with mountains in it) and you will be able to see all of the images or graphics currently in your library.

To add more images, click the “Upload a New Graphic” button.  Now you’re going to select from where you will upload the graphic.  This is either from a file on your computer or from the internet.

      To upload a file, click “Choose File,” and find the location of the image on your computer, name the image, select the dimensions (default dimensions are automatically inputted), and click “Open."

      To upload from the internet, click “Use a Graphic from Web,” copy and paste the location (URL) of the image (you will see a preview of the image to be uploaded and be able to name it and assign it to a folder), and click “Save.”

Now you should see the image in your account and be able to select that image for use in any or your surveys.

Qualtrics users are constantly asking us how to write better survey questions.  Here are a few tips to remember while writing questions:

Write to Respondents:  Remember your audience when writing a survey.  Using words that are unfamiliar to them can cause problems.  Industry-specific jargon, technical data, and acronyms are not effective for all audiences.  If your audience does not understand the survey, then your results will be meaningless.  If you aren’t sure if a question is clear, ask someone from your desired population read over it and give you feedback.

Avoid Forcing Answers:  Sometimes respondents may not want or be able to provide the information requested.  Privacy is an important issue to most people. Questions about income, occupation, finances, family life, personal hygiene, and beliefs (personal, political, religious) can be too intrusive and rejected by the respondent. 

It is usually a good idea to allow respondents to not answer questions that may be considered sensitive. 

Before sending your survey out to hundreds of respondents, you may want to test it with the Quick Send.

When creating a panel for a large sample, distributing your survey through the Survey Mailer saves time and energy. In contrast, the Quick Send is designed to make smaller mailings more convenient.

With Quick Send, when the mailing is sent, a panel is created based off of the email addresses and other information included for each respondent. This panel can be reviewed in the Panels tab, and will include all regular panel features such as reminders and thank you messages.

The Quick Send also provides a great way to test surveys with embedded data.  Even if you will eventually use the survey mailer to distribute your survey, test it out with the Quick Send by sending yourself a copy with the embedded data fields added.  This will allow you to review it and make changes accordingly.