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Types of market research questions

In general we have 3 types of questions:

Open-ended questions

These are questions which give the respondent the choice of the content, the form and the length of the answer.

It is a way to discover relevant issues, to obtain a full range of responses and to explore the respondents’ views in an in-depth manner. However it complicates the data summary and analysis.

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Close-ended questions

These are questions which impose the form and a limited number of possible answers on the respondent. Within this family we have 3 groups:

Dichotomous questions: When a question has two possible responses, we consider it dichotomous. Surveys often use dichotomous questions that ask for a Yes/No, True/False or Agree/Disagree response..

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Multiple choice questions with a single answer: the respondent has to choose one answer among more than 2 options

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Multiple choice questions with multiple answers: the respondent can choose one or several answers among more than 2 modalities.

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The scaled questions

These questions are aimed at measuring a belief, a will, the importance given to something, etc. Various scales exist :

Likert scale: this measure how much one agrees or not to a given statement.

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Semantic differential: the interviewee is asked to choose where his or her position lies, on a scale between 2 bipolar adjectives, expressions or sentences. That type of question is aimed at measuring a brand, product or firm image (strong / weak, beautiful / ugly).

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Unidimensional semantic: scales on which wordings are equally distant from each other on a psychological point of view.

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Intent scale: the objective of this type of question is to measure a declared behaviour intention from the interviewee.

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Smiling face scale: these scales allow studies on populations whose treatment capacities are limited (e.g.: children) or vary from our own.

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