Measurement Scales

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Measurement Scales

The measurement of marketing research is essential to obtain meaningful data for marketing analysis. Measurement scales convert the features of an object into a formula that can be analyzed by a market researcher. Generally, scales are used to compute consumer data and responses into the following four categories; nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.

Nominal

At the nominal level of measurement, numbers or other symbols are consigned to a fixed set of groups for the principle of labeling, naming, or classifying the studies. Gender can be an example of a nominal level variable. Applying the numbers one and two, for example, one can organize our studies into the categories "males" and “females,” with one indicating females and two indicating males. Researchers can apply any range of symbols to correspond to the distinct groups of a nominal variable; however, when numbers are utilized to denote the various categories, researchers are not indicating anything about the significance or quantitative variance among the groups. In nominal scale questions, it is important that the answer categories contain all probable answers. In order to be all-inclusive in the answer groupings, a researcher should include a grouping such as uncertain, other or do not know, so that respondents will not misrepresent their information by attempting to force fit their answer into the sets provided. It is important to be sure that the groupings provided are equally exclusive, meaning that they do not duplicate or overlap in any way (Stat Trek, 2011).

Ordinal

An ordinal scale designates direction, in addition to providing nominal information. Faster and slower or high, medium, and low are illustrations of ordinal levels of meas...

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... than real. Educational performance assessment tests have a zero, but it is an artificially formed zero rather than a real zero. In a ratio scale, a zero is real (Stat Trek, 2011).

Conclusion

It is important that measurement scales are used effectively to define data retrieved from numerous market research data sources. Measurement scales are essential in determining what can and cannot be stated about the research data. In order to predict and gauge the consumers responses to a questionnaire correctly the questionnaire must be assembled with the appropriate guidelines to attain the desired statistical results.

Works Cited

Lane, D. (2003). Levels of Measurement. Retrieved from http://cnx.org/content/m10809/latest/

Stat Trek. (2011). Scales of Measurement in Statistics. Retrieved from http://stattrek.com/AP-Statistics-1/Measurement-scales.aspx?Tutorial=AP

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