Methodology

Structure of the Questionnaire

The consumer questionaire was in the form of an online survey. The survey respondents were recuited via email. It was designed using Dreamweaver, and analyzes consumer preference of three brands of vodka: Finlandia, Ketel One, and Stolichnaya. The layout was designed specifically for online data collection. The questionnaire consisted of 9 sections.

Title Page

The introductory page was the first page that the respondents saw upon clicking on the weblink. It was designed to thank participants and inform them that the survey was confidential and for academic purposes only.

Section 1

This section had three questions which asked respondents to type in last brand of whiskey, beer, and vodka they had purchased. The purpose of this question is to determine which brands are "top of mind" to the respondent and which brands the respondent may feel loyal to. At this point, the survey did not reveal the focus of the study. The goal was to minimize biases when collecting this data.

Section 2

The questions in this section asked the respondents to divide 10 points among three different brands of whiskey, three different brands of beer and three different brands of vodka, based on how likely they were to purchase each distinct product. The values from this scale are eventually used to analyze pre- and post-ad exposure changes.

Section 3

The respondents were then exposed to the three print ads for different brands of vodka. The respondents are told to view the ads for approximately 30 seconds in order to replicate the viewing environment of viewing the ad in a magazine.

Section 4

After viewing the ads, the respondents were asked to indicate purchase intention for each brand of vodka in the same manner as before the ad exposure. This "post-exposure" question allows for comparisons of pre- and post-exposure scores in order to obtain a change score for each brand of mascara.

Section 5

This section asked respondents to indicate whether or not viewing the ad changed their opinion of the brand. If there was no difference, the respondent skipped ahead to Section 6. If the respondent marked yes, he or she was then asked which brand was affected, whether the impact was favorable or unfavorable, and to note any other comments about the difference of opinion.

Section 6a, 6b, and 6c

This section established the brand attitudes of respondents. In section 6 there were ten statements about Finlandia vodka, each followed by a Likert scale. They had options to check “strongly agree,” “agree,” “neither agree nor disagree,” “disagree,” or “strongly disagree.” Each scale point was coded as a numeric value for later statistical analysis. A value of 5 was given to “strongly agree,” and 1 to “strongly disagree" on positively worded phrases and a value of 1 is given to “strongly agree,” and 5 to “strongly disagree” on negatively worded phrases.

The statements were:

Finlandia is a good vodka.
Finlandia is smoother than other vodkas.
Finlandia is not the type of vodka for me.
I prefer using Finlandia over other vodkas when making mixed drinks.
People who really appreciate vodkas would request Finlandia.
I would bring a bottle of Finlandia vodka to a party as a gift.
Finlandia vodka is more pure and natural than other vodkas.
I think Finlandia vodka is a good value.
Finlandia vodka has a pretty bad taste.
Finlandia vodka isn't really special in any way.

These two sections 6b and 6c were identical to 6a, except that the statements used different brands. Section 6b was about Ketel Oneand Section 6c was about Stolichnaya.

Section 7

This section asked the respondents to check any statements they agreed with concerning three ads, giving a yes or no boolean response. The respondents were asked to respond to the following impressions: "Please think back to the three ads you reviewed and checkmark the words that describe each ad, without looking back at the ads": Confusing, Important, Hard to Believe, Easy to Understand, Attention-getting, Unique, Memorable, Informative, Ordinary, and Boring.

Section 8

Next, the respondents were asked to give another set of boolean responses for ten different statements on ad effectiveness for the different vodka brands. These questions pertain to specifics about the ads' execution, and are as follows:

This ad was clever/funny.

This ad was convincing.

This ad was annoying.

This ad would appeal to young people.

I would like to see more ads similar to this.

This ad caught my attention.

This ad made me curious about the brand

This ad was stylish and beautifully made.

This ad reminded me that I enjoy vodka.

This ad made me thirsty for a vodka drink.

Section 9

This section collected demographic data about the respondents: sex, age, level of education, location, and how frequently they drink vodka.

 

Design

This study is a survey with no control group to compare with the group that is exposed to the ads. Instead, comparison is made between before and after advertising exposure using the same sample. By subtracting pre-exposure purchase intention from post-exposure purchase intention, the constant sum scale measures the effects of adverting.

 

Sampling Description

Due to time and monetary constraints, this study opted for a non-random, convenience sample. It was decided that a sample size of at least 60 would be enough to perform statistical analysis. This sample size also allowed for enough representation to frequently reach a statistical significance level of 85%, where a projection can be made in 85 or more samples of 100 samples within the same population we would find results of the same magnitude.

 

Data Collection Process

76 respondents completed this survey. The survey was designed in Dreamweaver and was connected to an MS Access database (.mdb) using a Coldfusion file (.cfm) so that the responses would be captured in the database. The responses were later transferred into SPSS ( Statistical Software Package for the Social Sciences) for analysis. About a dozen of the responses were from direct acquaintences of the researcher, contacted via email, asking for them to take the survey. For the remaining respondents, a post was placed on the web forums at Penny Arcade, a video game fansite, asking for their help with this project. As such, the respondents were almost exclusively male video game players.