Market research plays an integral role in the growth and launch of a product or brand. Before launching the new product, the grocery wants to confirm how likely the current and potential customers are going to accept the products. To achieve this, the grocery can use marketing research’s rating scales like the Likert scale, Semantic Differential Scale, and Stapel scale (Dalati, 2018). Moreover, some of the descriptive factors to be studied are; who would purchase the products, the possibility of purchasing the products over rival products, and the customers’ perceived quality of each product (Wilson, 2018). Therefore, this paper will discuss the use of primary scales for measuring consumer preference for quinoa-based products.
Likert Scale
The Likert scale is a scale that uses five responses ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. This scale was chosen because it can be used to understand the respondents’ level of agreement or disagreement on each set of statements provided (Dalati, 2018). For instance, the table below depicts a Likert scale for Quinoa-based products that the grocery store might evaluate. The grocery store can request the respondents to respond to the statements as shown below.
Semantic Differential Scale
A Semantic Differential Scale is a scale that requests the respondents to a brand, product, or organization using a multi-point rating option. This rating scale is used because it is the most reliable way to get information on an individual’s emotional attitude towards a given subject (Dalati, 2018). For example, when using this scale, the grocery will request the respondent to rate the price they are willing to purchase a Quinoa.
Question 1: How much are you willing to pay for each Quinoa?
Stapel Scale
Stapel scale is a scale developed to determine the respondent’s attitude towards a given product or brand. This rating scale was selected because it is easy to administer (Dalati, 2018). In addition, the rating nature of the responses makes it easier for a survey to answer the questions correctly (Dalati, 2018). The scale also prevents the respondents from having a neutral response because there are no zero points.
The Descriptive Factors to be Studied
Descriptive factors are integral in understanding the respondents’ perception of Quinoa products. The first factor is the likelihood of respondents buying Quinoa products over competitors’ offerings in the market (Wilson, 2018). This factor was selected because it helps reveal how respondents view the product. The grocery store could use this information to understand the performance of their product in the market. The other factor is the respondent’s perception regarding the price of Quinoa products (Calantone et al., 2018). This information would be helpful for the grocery to understand the price that the respondents would choose for the products.
Moreover, the other descriptive factors are respondents’ perceived quality of products, the likelihood of purchase, and loyalty to the product. Product quality is about its capability to meet the standards of users (Wilson, 2018). This information obtained would assist the grocery store in understanding the respondent’s view of the quality of the product. The likelihood of purchasing a product would provide information on the respondents’ willingness to buy the products (Calantone et al., 2018). The information about respondents’ loyalty to the product indicates their ability to choose the products over and over (Wilson, 2018). Therefore, the grocery store should use this information to understand the performance of their product.
Ethical Implications
The ethical issues that need to be considered are privacy and stereotyping. To start with, the research should be developed in a manner that the respondents have control over information regarding their views and beliefs (Masters, 2019). In addition, respondent bias can occur when a question is phrased incorrectly. Based on this, it is important to do a survey pre-test to determine if the questions will appropriately answer the marketing questions while also avoiding needless respondent bias (Masters, 2019). So, when performing market research, the grocery store should consider these ethical issues.
Conclusion
To give the grocery store insight into what the respondents think of their new shop’s private label quinoa items, the Likert scale, Semantic Differential Scale, and Stapel scale were utilized. Consumer views of products’ value compared to competitors and perceived product quality are revealed through the information obtained through the measuring scales. When designing these scales, a researcher must always use balanced scales with similar positive and negative adjectives to avoid ethical concerns. If ethics are not followed in the grocery store, reactions may be biased and misconstrued, making information on quinoa goods subjective and misleading.
References
Calantone, R. J., Di Benedetto, A., & Rubera, G. (2018). Launch activities and timing in new product development. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 28(1), 33-41. doi.org/10.1080/21639159.2017.1410771
Dalati, S. (2018). Measurement and measurement scales. In modernizing the academic teaching and research environment (pp. 79-96). Springer, Cham.
Masters, T. (2019). Ethical considerations of marketing research. Houston Chronicle.
Wilson, A. (2018). Marketing research (4th ed.) Macmillan International Higher Education.