Measurement and Scaling Concepts

Jag Sahil Saini & Abhishek Arora
MBA Entrepreneurship
Workshop on Business Research, 2019
Professor: Dr. Gunmala Suri
Researchers do not measure consumers but their perceptions, beliefs,
attitudes, preferences and so on. The idea of assigning numbers can be helpful
in many ways in accurate understanding of a phenomenon.
It allows statistical hypothesis testing of the data.
 It helps facilitate easier communication as people have a clear idea

with regard to what 10% or 20% means worldwide.
Numbers also provide objectivity in understanding a phenomenon.

Measurement and scaling is highly important in marketing research due
to the overall objectivity they provide.
Measurement:
Measurement is the process of observing and recording the
data that is collected as part of research.
Recording of the data may be in terms of numbers or other

symbols for characteristics of objects according to certain
prescribed rules. The respondent’s, characteristics are feelings,
attitudes and opinions etc.
Most important aspect of measurement is the specification of

rules to assign numbers to characteristics. These rules should be
standardized and applied uniformly.
Scaling:
Scaling can be defined as an extension to the process of
measurement.
To successfully measure a phenomenon the researcher must

gather appropriate raw data. The appropriateness of the raw
data depends directly on the scaling technique used by the
researcher.
Using the scale researchers can measure consumer

responses easily.
For example- Using Likert scale to measure degree of
satisfaction of buyers of a consumer product.
TYPES OF SCALES
Nominal Scale Ordinal Scale
Interval Scale Ratio scale

Nominal Scale:
 It is simplest of all the scales. In this different scores on a
measurement shows different categories.
For example- Labeling men and women as ‘1’and ‘2’ for data
count, which is very common way of labeling gender for data
recording purpose.
Researchers use them to determine frequency counts.
Ordinal Scale:
 In this scale, items are classified according the degree of a
characteristic.
For Example- Measuring degree’s of satisfaction -’Not Satisfied’

to ‘Extremely Satisfied’.
Statistical analysis like median and mode can be done on this, but
not mean.
Interval Scale:
 Interval scale provides a researcher all the information of an ordinal
scale, and at the same time, allows comparison between different
objects.
For Example- Rating service of a Restaurant from 1-5, ‘1’ being

least rating and ‘5’ being the best rating.
Statistical Analysis like mean, median, mode, Standard deviation can

be applied here.
Ratio Scale:
 It is the highest form of measurement scale as it can measure relative
distance between two intervals and can compare it with an absolute
value.
For Example- Measuring Height, weight, Sales etc.
 Every Statistical Analysis technique can be applied on this scale.

Comparative
• Paired comparison
• Rank order
• Constant sum scale
• Q-sort
Non-comparative
• Likert
• Semantic
• Staple
Paired Comparison
 In paired comparison scaling, respondents are asked to choose
one among two alternatives on a selected criterion.
 For example, a respondent may be asked to choose between two

well known toothpaste brands on the criterion of quality
Rank Order
 Rank order scaling as the name suggests is about ranking a
specific set of stimuli on a predefined criterion.
 For example, ordering newspaper on basis of readability from

least to most.
Constant sum Scale
In constant sum scaling, respondents are asked to assign a
constant sum of units (could include points, currency, and
so on) to different criterion for choosing an object.
Given below is the constant sum scale for the Criteria for choosing a newspaper
Q-Sort Scale
 Q-sort can be called an extension to rank order
scaling. It uses a rank order procedure in which objects
are sorted into piles based on similarity with respect to
some pre-defined criteria.
 This process segments the data into different

category.
 For Example- Sorting 100 brands of cola into five

categories of taste (worst, bad, Ok, good, best).
Likert Scale
 Likert scale is one of the highly used scales in marketing
research which focuses on degree of agreement or
disagreement.
 A typical Likert scale constitutes of five items ranging from

‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’.
Semantics Differential Scale
 Semantic differential scale includes a seven-point bi-
polar scale in comparison to Likert’s five-point scale.
 For example, ‘satisfaction’ and ‘dissatisfaction’ can be

used as the endpoints. Figure given below provides an
example of semantic differential scale for Newspaper X.
Stapel scale
 Stapel scale consists of a single criterion in the middle of an even-numbered
range of values, from -5 to +5. The scale is generally presented vertically.
There is no neutral value in the scale.
Stapel scale looks fairly similar to semantic differential scale however, it’s
represented by negative and positive numbers.
Example given below measures experience of a cruise ship based on two criteria.
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Jag Sahil Saini & Abhishek Arora

It allows statistical hypothesis testing of the data.

 It helps facilitate easier communication as people have a clear idea

Numbers also provide objectivity in understanding a phenomenon.

Recording of the data may be in terms of numbers or other

Most important aspect of measurement is the specification of

To successfully measure a phenomenon the researcher must

Using the scale researchers can measure consumer

Nominal Scale Ordinal Scale

Interval Scale Ratio scale

Researchers use them to determine frequency counts.

For Example- Measuring degree’s of satisfaction -’Not Satisfied’

For Example- Rating service of a Restaurant from 1-5, ‘1’ being

Statistical Analysis like mean, median, mode, Standard deviation can

For Example- Measuring Height, weight, Sales etc.

 Every Statistical Analysis technique can be applied on this scale.

 For example, a respondent may be asked to choose between two

 For example, ordering newspaper on basis of readability from

 This process segments the data into different

 For Example- Sorting 100 brands of cola into five

 A typical Likert scale constitutes of five items ranging from

 For example, ‘satisfaction’ and ‘dissatisfaction’ can be

There is no neutral value in the scale.

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