SCALING

Scaling describes the procedures of assigning numbers to various degrees of opinion, attitude and other concepts. This can be done in two ways viz., 

(i) making a judgement about some characteristic of an individual and then placing him directly on a scale that has been defined in terms of that characteristic and

(ii) constructing questionnaires in such a way that the score of individual’s responses assigns him a place on a scale. It may be stated here that a scale is a continuum, consisting of the highest point (in terms of some characteristic e.g., preference, favourableness, etc.) and the lowest point along with several intermediate points between these two extreme points. These scale-point positions are so related to each other that when the first point happens to be the highest point, the second point indicates a higher degree in terms of a given characteristic as compared to the third point and the third point indicates a higher degree as compared to the fourth and so on. Numbers for measuring the distinctions of degree in the attitudes/opinions are, thus, assigned to individuals corresponding to their scale-positions.

All this is better understood when we talk about scaling technique(s). Hence the term ‘scaling’ is applied to the procedures for attempting to determine quantitative measures of subjective abstract concepts.

Scaling has been defined as a “procedure for the assignment of numbers (or other symbols) to a property of objects in order to impart some of the characteristics of numbers to the properties in question.”

Scaling is a technique used for measuring qualitative responses of respondents such as those related to their feelings, perception, likes, dislikes, interests and preferences. An attitude is a person's feeling toward and evaluation of some object or event.

Measurement Scales

Scaling is the measurement of a variable in such a way that it can be expressed on a continuum. Rating your preference for a product from 1 to 10 is an example of a scale.

Concept: A researcher has to know what to measure before knowing how to measure something. The problem definition process should suggest the concepts that must be measured.

 A concept can be thought of as a generalized idea that represents something of meaning. Concepts such as age, sex, education, and number of children are relatively concrete properties. They present few problems in either definition or measurement.

Other concepts are more abstract. Concepts such as loyalty, personality, channel power, trust, corporate culture, customer satisfaction, value, and so on are more difficult to both define and measure. For example, loyalty has been measured as a combination of customer share (the relative proportion of a person’s purchases going to one competing brand/store) and commitment (the degree to which a customer will sacrifice to do business with a brand/store).Thus, we can see that loyalty consists of two components, the first is behavioral and the second is attitudinal.

There are four types of measuring scales:

1. Nominal Scale

2. Ordinal Scale

3. Interval Scale

4. Ratio Scale

1.Nominal Scale: 

This is a very simple scale. It consists of assignment of facts/choices to various alternative categories which are usually exhaustive as well mutually exclusive. These scales are just numerical and are the least restrictive of all the scales.

Instances of Nominal Scale are - credit card numbers, bank account numbers, employee id numbers etc. It is simple and widely used when relationship between two variables is to be studied. In a Nominal Scale numbers are no more than labels and are used specifically to identify different categories of responses. Following example illustrates -

What is your gender?

[ ] Male

[ ] Female

Another example is - a survey of retail stores done on two dimensions - way of maintaining stocks and daily turnover.

How do you stock items at present?

[ ] By product category

[ ] At a centralized store

[ ] Department wise

[ ] Single warehouse

 

Daily turnover of consumer is?

[ ] Between 100 – 200

[ ] Between 200 – 300

[ ] Above 300

2.Ordinal Scale

Ordinal scales are the simplest attitude measuring scale used in Marketing Research. It is more powerful than a nominal scale in that the numbers possess the property of rank order. The ranking of certain product attributes/benefits as deemed important by the respondents is obtained through the scale.

Example: Rank the following attributes (1 - 5), on their importance in a microwave oven.

1. Company Name

2. Functions

3. Price

4. Comfort

5. Design

The most important attribute is ranked 1 by the respondents and the least important is ranked 5. Instead of numbers, letters or symbols too can be used to rate in a ordinal scale. Such scale makes no attempt to measure the degree of favourability of different rankings.

Example 2 - If there are 4 different types of fertilizers and if they are ordered on the basis of quality as Grade A, Grade B, Grade C, Grade D is again an Ordinal Scale.

Example 3 - If there are 5 different brands of Talcum Powder and if a respondent ranks them based on say, “Freshness” into Rank 1 having maximum Freshness Rank 2 the second maximum Freshness, and so on, an Ordinal Scale results.

Median and mode are meaningful for ordinal scale.

3. Interval Scale

Herein the distance between the various categories unlike in Nominal, or numbers unlike in Ordinal, are equal in case of Interval Scales. The Interval Scales are also termed as Rating Scales. An Interval Scale has an arbitrary Zero point with further numbers placed at equal intervals. A very good example of Interval Scale is a Thermometer.

Example - How do you rate your present refrigerator for the following qualities.

Company Name Less Known 1 2 3 4 5 Well Known

Functions Few 1 2 3 4 5 Many

Price Low 1 2 3 4 5 High

Design Poor 1 2 3 4 5 Good

Overall Satisfaction Very Dis- Satisfied1 2 3 4 5 Very Satisfied

Such a scale permits the researcher to say that position 5 on the scale is above position 4 and also the distance from 5 to 4 is same as distance from 4 to 3. Such a scale however does not permit conclusion that position 4 is twice as strong as position 2 because no zero position has been established. The data obtained from the Interval Scale can be used to calculate the Mean scores of each attributes over all respondents. The Standard Deviation (a measure of dispersion) can also be calculated.

4.Ratio Scale

Ratio Scales are not widely used in Marketing Research unless a base item is made available for comparison. In the above example of Interval scale, a score of 4 in one quality does not necessarily mean that the respondent is twice more satisfied than the respondent who marks 2 on the scale. A Ratio scale has a natural zero point and further numbers are placed at equally appearing intervals. For example scales for measuring physical quantities like - length, weight, etc.

The ratio scales are very common in physical scenarios. Quantified responses forming a ratio scale analytically are the most versatile. Ratio scale possess all the characteristics of an internal scale, and the ratios of the numbers on these scales have meaningful interpretations. Data on certain demographic or descriptive attributes, if they are obtained through open-ended questions, will have ratio-scale properties. Consider the following questions :

Q 1) What is your annual income before taxes? ______ $ / Rs

Q 2) How far is the Theater from your home ? ______ miles / kms

Answers to these questions have a natural, unambiguous starting point, namely zero. Since starting point is not chosen arbitrarily, computing and interpreting ratio makes sense. For example we can say that a respondent with an annual income of $ 40,000 earns twice as much as one with an annual income of $ 20,000.

ATTITUDE MEASURING SCALES

Attitude is a resultant of number of external and internal factors. Depending upon the attitude to be measured, appropriate scales are designed.

Attitudes have two important aspects: Direction (positive/negative, for or against) and Intensity (strength of feeling). For example, you might like horses - thus, your attitude towards horses has a positive direction. 

Every attitude has three components that are represented in what is called the ABC model of attitudes: A for affective, B for behavioral, and C for cognitive.

The affective component refers to the emotional reaction one has toward an attitude object. For example, 'I feel scared when I think about or see a snake.' 

Various methods of attitude measuring scales

Attitude is a group of opinions, values and dispositions to act associated with a particular object or concept. Measuring attitude in your survey can be difficult because it requires a series of questions to evaluate it effectively. An attitude scale is designed to provide a valid, or accurate, measure of an individual's social attitude

Here are some examples of subjects that an attitude survey might attempt to measure.

 Attitude on Choice of smart phone

 Attitude on customer service

 Attitude on use of software

Various methods of attitude measurements are:

1. Likert Scale

It was developed Rensis Likert. Here the respondents are asked to indicate a degree of agreement and disagreement with each of a series of statement. Each scale item has 5 response categories ranging from strongly agree and strongly disagree.

5 Strongly agree

4 Agree

3 Indifferent

2 Disagree

1 Strongly disagree

Each degree of agreement is given a numerical score and the respondents total score is computed by summing these scores. This total score of respondent reveals the particular opinion of a person. Likert Scale are of ordinal type, they enable one to rank attitudes, but not to measure the difference between attitudes. They take about the same amount of efforts to create as Thurston scale and are considered more discriminating and reliable because of the larger range of responses typically given in Likert scale.

A typical Likert scale has 20 - 30 statements. While designing a good Likert Scale, first a large pool of statements relevant to the measurement of attitude has to be generated and then from the pool statements, the statements which are vague and non-discriminating have to be eliminated. Thus, likert scale is a five point scale ranging from ’strongly agreement’ to ’strongly disagreement’. No judging gap is involved in this method.

2. Semantic Differential Scale

This is a seven point scale and the end points of the scale are associated with bipolar labels.

1Unpleasant Submissive 2 3 4 5 6 7 Pleasant Dominant

Suppose we want to know personality of a particular person. We have options

i.Unpleasant/Submissive

ii. Pleasant/Dominant

Bi-polar means two opposite streams. Individual can score between 1 to 7 or -3 to 3. On the basis of these responses profiles are made. We can analyse for two or three products and by joining these profiles we get profile analysis. It could take any shape depending on the number of variables.

 

Profile Analysis

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Mean and median are used for comparison. This scale helps to determine overall similarities and differences among objects.

When Semantic Differential Scale is used to develop an image profile, it provides a good basis for comparing images of two or more items. The big advantage of this scale is its simplicity, while producing results compared with those of the more complex scaling methods. The method is easy and fast to administer, but it is also sensitive to small differences in attitude, highly versatile, reliable and generally valid.

 

3. Stapel’s Scale

It was developed by Jan Stapel. This scale has some distinctive features:-

Each item has only one word/phrase indicating the dimension it represents.

i. Each item has ten response categories.

ii. Each item has an even number of categories.

iii. The response categories have numerical labels but no verbal labels.

For example, in the following items, suppose for quality of ice cream, we ask respondents to rank from +5 to -5. Select a plus number for words which best describe the ice cream accurately. Select a minus number for words you think do not describe the ice cream quality accurately. Thus, we can select any number from +5,for words we think are very accurate, to -5,for words we think are very inaccurate.

This scale is usually presented vertically.

+5

+4

+3

+2

+1

High Quality

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

4. The Constant Sum Scale:

The constant sum scale requires the respondent to divide a constant sum, generally 10 or 100, among two or more objects or attributes on order to reflect the respondent’s relative preference for each object, the importance of the attribute, or the degree to which an object contains each attribute.

Divide 100 points among the characteristics listed so that the division will reflect how important each characteristic is to your selection of a new automobile.

Price ____

Economy ____

Dependability ____

Safety ____

Comfort ____

Style ____

Total 100

 

5. Guttman Scales/Scalogram Analysis

A Guttman scale presents a number of items to which the person is requested to agree or not agree. This is typically done in a 'Yes/No' dichotomous format. It is also possible to use a Likert scale, although this is less commonly used.

Questions in a Guttman scale gradually increase in specificity. The intent of the scale is that the person will agree with all statements up to a point and then will stop agreeing.

The scale may be used to determine how extreme a view is, with successive statements showing increasingly extremist positions.

If needed, the escalation can be concealed by using intermediate questions.

Example

Place a check-mark against all statements` with which you agree

I like eating out [ ]

I like going to restaurants [ ]

I like going to themed restaurants [ ]

I like going to Chinese restaurants [ ]

I like going to Beijing-style Chinese restaurants [ ]