MSG Team's other articles

11850 What is a Corporation: Evolution, Features and Purpose

The corporation has been defined in many ways as interpreted by individuals; however lawyers and economists call it a nexus of contracts. This means that a corporation is nothing but a sum of all the agreements which lead to its creation. Corporations are also defined as a device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. […]

12186 Why Selling Online is Expensive?

In many countries across the world, small retailers are against e-commerce websites. This is because they believe that these websites use unfair trade practices like predatory pricing in order to put them out of business. However, e-commerce websites refute this charge. They often encourage small retailers to sell on their websites. After all, in theory […]

10539 Organizations and Types of Relationships

Organizations today live in highly dynamic environments. Essentially the existence and growth of the business is dependent upon several external and internal factors such as highly segmented geographical markets, aggressive competition and shorter life cycle. These and many more factors exert a lot of pressure on the Organizations to innovate both in terms of its […]

12933 Corporate Social Responsibility or Profits: The Debate

In recent years, CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility has become the latest buzzword among the companies. This refers to the practice of the corporates in “giving back” to society in the form of programs that benefit the less privileged members of society. They can take the form of outreach programs that adopt schools; communities etc […]

10950 Relationship Marketing in Practice

There is a realisation and understanding that Customer Retention is beneficial and rewarding than the efforts required in finding a new customer. Marketing managers can be successful only when they know how to build an interactive ongoing interaction with their customers. The scenarios of being in tune with the customer varies from business to business. […]

Search with tags

  • No tags available.

The Survey method is the technique of gathering data by asking questions to people who are thought to have desired information. A formal list of questionnaire is prepared. Generally a non disguised approach is used. The respondents are asked questions on their demographic interest opinion.

Advantages of Survey Method

  1. As compared to other methods (direct observation, experimentation) survey yield a broader range of information.

    Surveys are effective to produce information on socio-economic characteristics, attitudes, opinions, motives etc and to gather information for planning product features, advertising media, sales promotion, channels of distribution and other marketing variables.

  2. Questioning is usually faster and cheaper that Observation.

  3. Questions are simple to administer.

  4. Data is reliable

  5. The variability of results is reduced.

  6. It is relatively simple to analyze, quote and interrelate the data obtained by survey method

Disadvantages of Survey Method

  1. Unwillingness of respondents to provide information- This requires salesmanship on the part of the interviewer. The interviewer may assure that the information will be kept secret or apply the technique of offering some presents.

  2. Inability of the respondents to provide information- This may be due to:

    1. Lack of knowledge

    2. Lapse of memory

    3. Inability to identify their motives and provide “reasons why?” for their actions

  3. Human Biases of the respondents are there, for eg: “Ego”

  4. Symantec difficulties are there - it is difficult, if not impossible, to state a given question in such a way that it will mean exactly same thing to each respondent. Similarly two different wordings of the same question will frequently produce quite different results.

How to overcome the limitations of Survey Method

  1. Careful framing and phrasing of questions.

  2. Careful control of data gathering by employing specially trained investigators who will observe carefully report on subtle reactions of persons interviewed

  3. Cautious interpretations by a clear recognition of the limitations of the data and understating of what exactly the data represents. This is especially true of responses to questions like - “What price would you be willing to pay for this product?”

  4. Looking at facts in relative rather than absolute terms. For eg - A survey by a dentist team showed that the number of families in the middle income group used toothpaste taken by itself in the absolute sense, the results of the survey are in some doubt. Even though the individual group readings shall differ say for eg: for upper income group families it could be 90 %. Hence we should look at the facts in relative rather than in absolute terms.

Article Written by

MSG Team

An insightful writer passionate about sharing expertise, trends, and tips, dedicated to inspiring and informing readers through engaging and thoughtful content.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Conjoint Analysis – Meaning, Usage and its Limitations

MSG Team

Case Study

MSG Team

Brand Health Survey

MSG Team