Questionnaire Development

Creating our questionnaire was a little bit demanding. The experience went well though because since we are college students we could frame questions we knew they would understand, which may not always be the case when you do questionnaires for other target markets that you are not familiar with to start off with.The easiest part was coming up with questions that related to what types of things college students wanted to see in their drinks. I think this was easier because doing the focus group (our exploratory research) led us to great ideas and information. The results from this research also helped us to be more specific in our questions. The hardest part was creating questions that were general and not leading or suggesting anything. You do not realize that you may be coaxing the respondent to a certain alternative. The coding concept was also a little hard to grasp at first because you cannot code as easily for open-ended questions than you can for closed ones.
Overall I think my group and I came up with an efficient questionnaire that will relate and be understood by our target group, college students.

Observation Methods

The observation method I found most interesting was mechanical observation to measure physiological reactions. This is because you can use this to find out what types of things grab the reader's attentions just by using eye-tracking monitors. The four major categories in this type of observing are: eye-tracking monitors, pupilometers, psychogalvanometers and voice pitch analyzers. They use the psychogalnanometers alot to see emotional arousal or tension when taking lie detector tests. I find this type of thing to be very interesting because it has helped alot in solving crimes. The voice pitch analyzer is a great way to see how people's tones give off how they are feeling at the moment. The observation technique that I believe is the most helpful to researchers is the direct observation method. This is because the observer just records what happens and does not try to control the situation. This will produce accurate findings and will limit any bias behavior. This is also the most straigtforward for of data collection so it is the most natural way. A form is used alot so that any recording is done right away so that nothing is forgotten.

Ethical Issues/ Marketing 3808

Ethical issues arise frequently when research companies offer consumer surveys online. Research firms do not have any way to tell if the respondent is giving out legitimate information about themselves. Firms also face a broad spectrum of respondents, anywhere from people who actually do care about the issue all the way to people who just want the incentives. There may also be people who are taking the survey over and over again. They need more accurate methods.
Recently, market and consumer researchers have come up with a few solutions. One firm is trying to remove personal gain by donating money to a charity that is preferred by the respondent. I agree with this method because then they will be able to tell who is filling out the survey and for the right reasons. Another foundation uses something called true sample to weed out and track people who take the survey more than once.
Overall, I think these research companies need to make their surveys a little more in depth so that respondents need to think about the answers and give opinions. They could use drop down boxes or open ended questions to get a more detailed response. This way they are not getting just a yes or no answer. If a person actually takes the time to take it and write real answers then they know that the person truly cares about the issues and not just the incentives. I also agree with using social networking because it still protects confidentitality but at the same time you can still confirm that the person is who they say they are.