CHAPTER 14 – IDEA DEVELOPMENT AND MARKET RESEARCH Closed Questions
Closed questions ask for a yes or no answer or for a specific piece of information. For example, ‘Would you buy salted caramel ice cream? Yes or no?’ and ‘What price would you be willing to pay for a 150 ml tub of salted caramel ice cream?’
• An advantage of closed questions is that they provide data that can be represented in charts and graphs and analysed. For example, 60% of the people surveyed said they would pay €3–4 for a 150 ml tub of salted caramel ice cream.’
• A disadvantage of closed questions is that they do not allow the person being questioned to reflect on their answer or to offer further opinions on the product or service.
Example
Lara and the Happy Cow marketing team created the following survey to find out more about their target market’s ice cream buying habits.
Happy Cow Ice Cream Survey Tick () where appropriate
1. What age are you? 12–15 16–19
20–29 2. How often do you buy ice cream?
Once a week More than once a week 1–2 times a month 3–5 times a month More than 5 times a month
3. Where do you usually buy ice cream? Local shop
Large supermarket Deli 4. Which ice cream flavours do you buy most often? 5. What do you like most about the ice cream offered by other companies?
6. How likely are you to buy salted caramel ice cream? Very likely
Not likely €3–4 Unsure
7. What price would you be willing to pay for a 150 ml tub of salted caramel ice cream? €5–6
Less than €3 Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. 30–39 40–49 50+
