Primary Research: Editing the Questionnaire

First Questionnaire

1. Male / Female

2. Age Category
18-24   25-30   31-40   41-50   51-60   60+

3. Occupation

4. What car do you drive?

5. What are your main hobbies and interests?

6. Describe your personality in 3 words.

7. What comes to mind when I say soap?

8. Out of the following brands which are you most likely to buy?

9. What soap/body wash do you currently use?

After creating my first questionnaire I looked at it critically and picked up on a few flaws:

3. Firstly I feel it would be better to ask people to categorise their jobs so this will be easier to analyse.

5. Instead of asking for a list of hobbies I have changed the wording of the question so it asks for just one hobby. This will be easier to analyse and compare to other answers.

6.  After deciding not to ask the respondent to describe their personality I have written 5 statements which they can circle how strongly they agree or disagree with. This will give a better insight into their lives and who they are.

Second Questionnaire
This is the second attempt at the questionnaire. There are 5 statements which should help to determine personality, again going over the questionnaire critically I noticed more problems. I want to keep editing the questionnaire until it is right because it is could cause real problems later when it comes to look at the results.

Problems:

• After showing my questionnaire to Ness she made a valid point - people may feel unhappy or sad circling unskilled work especially if it is their career. I have decided to get rid of the categories and just ask for the occupation, I can categorise them later myself.

• There needs to be some form of instruction and introduction. Although I will be reading it to the majority of people, I will send some out so it does need to make sense to someone who has no idea about what it is.

• After reading doing your research project by Judith Bell, she made it clear that you should always write a bit thank-you at the end. I will incorporate this as well as highlighting the quick time it takes to complete the questionnaire as if people can see it'll be under a minute then they will be more likely to do it. I will also highlight the fact that the questionnaire is anonymous unless they want to leave their contact details.

• I will add a bit at the bottom asking if people would be interested in participating in further research.

• Questions 9 and 10 are too similar - they will produce a similar result as they both find out whether someone is logically driven or more emotionally driven.

• Question 8 - You prefer to be surrounded by a group of people over spending time with yourself.
I don't think this will get good answers because everyone needs time with people just as everyone needs time alone. The question will be changed to "I am happy in my own company" this is a better way of wording it but it still find out what i want to know.

 Third Questionnaire
This questionnaire has included all the changes that have been previously noted. There is now an introduction at the beginning of the questionnaire so that it gives the questionnaire context and makes the questions seem less random together. In bold I have highlighted the fact the questionnaire will only take a minute to complete and that it is anonymous. I have left room to write a number in the top - this is something I will do as I go as it will be easier than printing loads off with different numbers. I have changed the structure of the questionnaire so that all the personality questions are at the bottom. This fits in the page a lot better as the other questions can be put into two columns but the personality ones need a longer line for the scale. Questions 11, 12 and 13 have been changed and shortened to make sure that they are all different and will all find out different information. I have written a thank-you section at the bottom and added an extra bit asking if people want to be contacted for further research - I know the majority of people will say no but it will be beneficial to ask and see.

Question 8: Out of the following brands which are you most likely to buy?

This question needed to have a bit more substance behind it. By researching into the target markets and selling points of main brands I will be able to see what people want from a brand. I have picked a few from different price points as well as aiming at various target markets; the more difference between product choices will create a clearer distinction between different market segments that answer. 

I was concerned that men may not feel like they would pick any of them, in an effort to reduce this possibility I have added two especially for men: Lynx and Old Spice. The other ranges: Dove, Nivea, Molton Brown, L'Occtaine, and Imperial Leather all have their own mens range of body was as well. The following question in the survey will allow them to write which brand they currently use, so this question will just be useful so seeing their preferences and what products they are most attracted to.

Lynx

Targets 16-24 year old males who want to be the attraction of all women. "Elida Faberge began by sending the - predominantly female - Lynx marketing department clubbing in towns such as Leeds and Manchester, to give them a feel for their target market of 16 to 24-year-old men." A clear image comes to mind of a lynx user out in Leeds on a Saturday night. Lynx own 50% of their target market which shows how they have perfectly tapped into what the young men want and desire.

Dove

Dove actually targets 18-34 year old women which is surprising because traditionally their packaging design shouts out to older women. Women who are middle class and have a high income, although their target market may have a high income, this is not reflected by their reasonable, affordable prices. This fits in with their motto "beauty should be for everyone." their products and advertisements aim to educate girls and women and empower a healthy self perception and self esteem.

Imperial Leather

Imperial leather is positioned as the best luxury soap products. It is luxury for the everyday. The logo has retained a luxurious quality whilst the designs have been revived to represent a gentle explosion of fragrance and indulgence. Some argue that the brand has lost touch with younger generations due to an amorphous personality.

Nivea

18-34 year old women who have a middle to high income. They are self empowered and want to take good care of their skin for their own health as well as too look good and boost their self esteem. Whilst the target market are strong and independent they are also gentle, caring, and feminine this has been reflected in the packagings amiable effeminate design.

  

Molton Brown
Molton Brown targets the upper end who appreciate a higher quality product and an affluent accompanying brand image. They are known as London's bath, body and beauty connoisseurs and their products can now be found in 5 star hotels, stylish homes and high end department stores. People who buy this like to present a wealthy and upper class lifestyle. The design is refined and classic, their products use rare ingredients and have specialist ranges for both men and women.

L’Occitane

Isn't limited by age, 20 year olds will buy the same products as 65 year olds because what they are looking for in the product is the same. L'Occitane brings traditional fragrances and natural products to a middle and upper class market who are willing to pay more for a quality, traditional product.

Palmolive
Palmolive is a gentle, caring product and company whose long line of history and tradition makes them a trusted brand and product choice today.  

Old Spice 

Old Spice is no longer viewed as the product your dad uses. Its approach has updated the masculine image which comes with using Old Spice, making it more attractive for women to purchase on behalf of their man as well as it being a more appealing option for men. The advertisements use humour to appeal to their target market, not to forget the sex appeal of their actors presenting "the man your man could smell like". This product is bought by 'real men' who don't want to be related to fancy smells and delicate fragrances.

http://www.slideshare.net/maysiriwan/nivea-marketing-communication-analysis
https://naturalcosmeticslovers.wordpress.com/xxxxxxxxxxxxx/loccitane/consumer-analysis-of-loccitane/
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/nov/20/marketingandpr
http://www.slideshare.net/carrinekezia/dove-marketing-plan-37041827
http://www.slideshare.net/asherwilson/imperial-leather-business-proposal

Primary Research: Personality Theory and Questions

Personality directly affects a person's perception of the world; a person with an adventurous, enthusiastic, and compassionate personality will have a much more positive outlook on life compared to someone who is callous and obstinate. People's personalities influence their view of the world, personalities also influence what they search for in products/packaging design.  Supermarkets bombard us with a mass of information all from different packages claiming to be the best. Our brains can naturally filter out unnecessary information and our eyes are drawn to packages that 'speak to us'.  The packages that tend to speak to us are the ones that have a relatable or likeable personality for us.

Xander Becket writes about four personality types: competitive, spontaneous, humanistic, and methodical. People's different personalities means what they look for in a package will be different,

"Once you've identified their type, you can tweak your approach to the process to better suit their needs. Your potential clients are not all the same, so your strategy for communicating with them shouldn't be either." Xander argues that designer's must know the most effective way to design for the different personalities. 

Competitive Personality

People with competitive personalities are independent and highly driven, they like to be ahead of everyone else and want to be seen as a leader. They look for products which reflect their direct nature by clearly outlining the solution to their problem; they want to know that the product is going to maintain their top position.

Spontaneous Personality

People with spontaneous personalities don't care for competition; they love projects that they have a genuine interest in. They are creative and enthusiastic people who look at 'the bigger picture' rather than being weighed down with the details and intricacies. This means that they are more attracted to packaging that focuses on bold, eye-catching design rather than informational design. They look for products which give them a feeling of excitement; the product needs to be instantly interesting as they loose interest quickly.

Humanistic Personality

People with humanistic personalities are magnanimous; they consistently put the needs of others' ahead of their own. Their thoughtfulness means they search for products which make everyone happy. Testimonials are a great way of persuading them to purchase since they are people orientated they like to hear the success other have had after purchasing the product. 

Methodical Personality

People with methodical personalities love information as they naturally analyse facts and information before making an informed decision. Emotional drives don't have a strong hold over their decision process but rather rational drives, because of this they don't purchase on an impulse, instead they spend a lot of time considering their decision. They are the most inquisitive personality and will often as a lot of questions; they look for the facts and figures in the packaging design to affirm their judgement prior to purchasing.

Questionnaire

After critically analysing my original questionnaire design, I decided that asking people to state three of their personality types was too vague and hard to answer. If I was put on the spot and asked for three of my personality traits I would really struggle to list three and the three I picked probably wouldn't be that accurate! If people don't give accurate answers then it will skew the results and although their responses may point to aspirational personality traits it doesn't reflect them as a person. 

Instead I could give a few statements which they would then circle how strongly they agreed or disagreed with, this would give an insight into their personality and how they cope in certain situations. 

For example: Winning a debate is more important that making sure no-one gets upset.

Strongly Disagree  /  Disagree  / Somewhere in between  /  Agree  /  Strongly Agree

OR I could give two opposing options and they have to circle the one that they mainly relate to.

For example: You like organisation and structure OR You go with the flow (are laid back)

Changing the structure of how I ask about their personality will hopefully minimise wrong answers. If the questions are structured so there is no right or wrong answer then people will be more willing to answer honestly. I think using a scale will work better than a one or another option as the majority of people won't feel really strongly about everything and will sit somewhere between the two options. I don't want people to feel like neither of the options apply to them, by offering a scale it gives people the reassurance that they can sit in the middle. I don't want to have loads on the questionnaire as it needs to remain as short as possible, however I equally don't want to have so few that it doesn't produce good, useful results. To find the right balance and get the most out of these questions I need to carefully think what I am going to ask as I don't want the questions to be similar and repetitive. I also need to define what the answers would tell me in order to justify why they are being asked. 

Xander Beckets four personality types can be used to guide what sort of personality category respondents fall into. This is by no means a definitive personality guide, it only offers an insight into the consumer and what they may look for in products, personality is subjective and therefore difficult to measure. If I had more time, money, and experience I would like to explore this further and in more depth however the questionnaire is about producing a broad range of results, I can conduct interviews later on to get more in-depth research.

 You prefer going with the flow and being spontaneous over organising and structuring your day. 

Spontaneous personality 
This will be a big indicator into how they live day to day life; whether they prefer to plan everything and have a plan or if they prefer having a blank start and seeing where the day takes them. People who prefer structure I feel will need more convincing with a product, whilst still being swayed by emotion they will need to back it up with reasons and rationalisation i.e "its a good price" "it has healthy ingredients". Where as those who go with the flow will show a more spontaneous personality being drawn to packages with an initial wow factor, they will be much more willing to give products a try as they are driven by emotions.

Winning a debate is more important than making sure no-one gets upset.

Competitive personality
Humanistic personality
People with a competitive personality are direct and are more self focused; their interest is in self progression, they are sure in their views and are happy to stand up for what they believe even if others disagree. They like to see themselves as leaders and buy products to project this image to others, they like products that cut straight to the point and tell them the benefits; how they will remain on top. Humanistic personalities are more emotionally driven and as they care for those around them and believe that keeping harmony is more important than always being right. They are attracted to products with a level of honesty and only want the best, not for themselves, but for those around them.

You prefer to be surrounded by a group of people over spending time with yourself
Competitive personality
Humanistic personality

Both the competitive and humanistic personality enjoy spending time around others as they both have sociable natures. The competitive personality enjoys being in a social environment and receiving comments about their latest products, the compliments reinforce their brand loyalty. People who are happy in their own company tend to be less persuaded by what others are doing or buying; they are secure in themselves and use more rational logic when buying products.

Logic is more important than heart when making important decisions

Methodical personality
Humanistic personality 
Methodical personalities look for clearly outlined benefits, they don't want to hear the products the best - they want to know why its the best. They look for the reasons behind things and are ruled by logic over emotion. Humanistic personalities are swayed more emotionally and tend to decide what to do based on how they feel about it rather than the facts, their heart rules their brain.

You like to focus on the possibilities of the situation rather than the realities

Spontaneous personality
Methodical personality

Optimistic or Realistic

This question tries to gage the respondents outlook on life - whether they look at situations optimistically and try to see the best in everything or whether they look more realistically at things and consider the facts and figures, much like the methodical personality.

Primary Research: Questionnaire

The purpose of the questionnaire is to segment the population and form different markets that I can target, for this reason the questionnaire will be quantitative. Questions will be quick and simple to answer, this will make it a lot easier to get a larger quantity of results. I initially want to get as many responses as I can as this will give me more data to work from as well as making any correlations more credible and valid. For the research to be effective, then ideally a diverse range of respondents will answer the questionnaire, I am aware that I do not have the budget nor the resources that a marketing agency would have however I want to do everything I can to make sure the questionnaire targets a range of people. I will go out on the streets of Leeds and ask the public myself, this way I know a range of people have had an input. It also means I can verbally ask the questions and be on hand to clarify their meanings.

This research will kick the design ball rolling, I want to use the questionnaire for two reasons: firstly, to get a brief overview of the respondents lifestyle and personality. After reading for my dissertation it has been apparent that the lifestyle and personality of the shopper does affect what products they are attracted to and then purchase. Secondly, part of the research will be specifically about soap - since this will be the practical outcome relevant questions will provide me with an insight into what products people use and what associations they have. The research questions will focus on these two areas and hopefully when all the questions are viewed I can pick up on beneficial correlations such as men of xx age tend to use xx product and have xx personality traits. Although qualitative research would be most appropriate for better understanding personalities and lifestyles, this questionnaire will give me a much broader range of results. The results will provide a good starting place and will allow me to conduct further in-depth interviews later on where I can focus on a smaller number of people but go more in-depth in understanding their lifestyle and personality and how this affects what they buy.

The first three questions will provide demographic information about the respondent. Providing their gender, age and occupation will give context to the other answers.

1. Male / Female
This is a simple start of question to help put the respondent at ease.

2. Age Category
18-24   25-30   31-40   41-50   51-60   60+
I've decided to use age categories instead of asking for an exact number because I think people will be happier, especially women, to circle a category rather than write a number. The age starts at 18 because although I do want to design a soap package for children the questions in this survey would not be appropriate. Partly because they aren't the buyer, they are just the consumer and whilst the design has to appeal to them it also has to appeal to the parents. I will write separate questions aimed at children or may just use informal in-depth interviews which will be easier for children to answer and understand as it would be more of a conversation. I will also ask the child's parents what they look for in the product and what is important to them so that the design can both take into account the mothers and child's needs.

3. Occupation
After reading about questionnaire design in Data Collection by Wendy Oslen, I have steered away from asking about the respondents income - instead I will ask for their occupation. The book discusses sensitive questions that people might not feel as comfortable answering - income is definitely one of these. In a different setting such as an in-depth interview it may be more acceptable to ask but because I am stopping strangers on the street for 30 seconds then this question is not appropriate as it will make the respondent feel uneasy. By asking what occupation they have it not only makes it easier for them to answer but also provides an insight into their life.

4. What car do you drive?
An easy, closed-ended question. In Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders he writes about how people's choice of car says a lot about them. A car is a big purchase and it says a lot about you to the outside world, by asking what type of car the respondent drives it will be an indicator to what sort of lifestyle they lead. Obviously there will be exceptions to this where people either don't drive cars, or their choice wasn't emotionally driven however on the whole a car reflects the individuals income and personal image.

5. What are your main hobbies and interests?
What people do in their spare time and what their interests are will provide a broader picture of the individual. If they enjoy rock climbing and hiking then we can assume they are more outdoorsy people and will purchase products which support and reflect this lifestyle.

6. Describe your personality in 3 words.
Asking individuals to describe their personality will show qualities they think they possess. The answers may not be accurate as the way we view ourselves is often quite different to how we are viewed however asking the respondent how they perceive themselves is useful because it suggests the personality traits they aspire to. Seeing as people tend to buy products with relatable personalities then this question may reveal the personality that the packaging will have to present.

7. What comes to mind when I say soap?
The aim of this question is to find out what people associate with soap. I've left the question open so that respondents could reply with words or an image that comes to mind. This is an open ended question but it will not be a long answer so it won't be hard to view statistically. It will be interesting to see if people from the same segments say the same sort of words.

8. Out of the following brands which are you most likely to buy?
• List Brands - separate for men and women
The aim of this question is to see what brands the respondent feels best resonates with them. I will perhaps take along images of the products so that they have something visual to compare. The question will show what type of brands would be the soaps competition.

9. What soap/body wash do you currently use?
This question will show what the respondents use and give me a point of reference for comparing designs and brand ethos. It would be interesting if their is a correlation between people who use certain products and their personality or lifestyle.

Would you be interested in partaking in a further informal in-depth interview?
I expect the majority of people will say no to this, which is fine. However if a few people said yes then it would give me respondents to approach later when I've got a better idea of what else I need to know.

It is important to ask the questions in a logical order, I have decided to ask the demographic questions first, then explore personality and lifestyle, finally I will ask soap related questions. This order is the most appropriate because the questions become more specified in relation to the practical design. Demographic information is easy to answer so by putting this first it makes the questionnaire seem less daunting or challenging.