Interview with a central location (hall test). Quantitative Research in Marketing Hall Test in Marketing

Now there are active discussions about which group of methods the product testing belongs to. From my point of view, this is a kind of symbiosis of quantitative and qualitative methods, which is very convenient because it allows ..

receive both qualitative information and some quantitative indicators. Basically, any testing of products has the same assumption as other qualitative methods (for example, focus groups), that is, the range of variations in psychological perception is significantly less than the range of variations in purchasing behavior. Thus, even on small samples, we can at least understand the specifics of purchasing behavior.

Of course, the Hall test is faster and cheaper. Hall test allows us to control the implementation of the method. Hall test allows the client to observe the research process. The Hall test allows you to apply a more complex methodology, including advertising testing and reproducing a purchase situation. Hall tests can be used to test large-sized samples. Why not use such a great method for all products? For many reasons.

Home test can replace the HALL test when:

First: representatives target audience in general, they do not walk the streets, or they are very rare, while the places of their parties are unknown to you. Suppose people with disabilities, lovers of knitting, sawing with jigsaws, and so on. This is an elusive audience for a Hall test.

Second: It is vitally important for you to be representative and you doubt that it is those who walk along the main streets during the day that make up your target audience. At the same time, you cannot use a telephone recruit on a budget. Here again the Home test comes to your aid.

Third. If it is necessary to compare with the product that the consumer usually uses.

Fourth. It is important to use the product in a real environment. That is, when it is necessary to obtain data from the consumer about the general impression of using the product in natural conditions. An example of how convenient the packaging of a new product is to fit into a standard refrigerator for an average family.

Fifth. Hall test is used when the evaluation of a product assumes a long period of its consumption. For example, sauces, dishwashing detergents and so on.

Sixth. Hall test is used when the use of a product in public is not possible for ethical reasons (for example, personal care products, toilet paper).

And finally, when you really want to combine the advantages of Monadic test and product comparison.

Sample size.

What is the sample size in Home tests and Hall tests? It depends on many factors:

The more samples you test, the larger the sample. One of the most important indicators is that they try it first. According to various estimates, there should be at least 150 - 300 such people. De facto, sampling has become widespread, where the group of the first sample of one product is 50 people.

The smaller the difference between the samples that you test, the more people should be in each group, so that you can catch even the smallest differences. As a rule, the tasks of Hall tests and Home tests are not a representative representation of your audience, but rather a comparison of attitudes towards the product of different groups. Therefore, the group is selected so as to ensure comparability of results, not only in percentage, but also in quantitative form. Roughly speaking, the number of men and women, the number of young people and older people, is roughly divided evenly.

With Home tests, the number of visits to each person who evaluates the products is several - at least three. First, you leave a product for testing, then you come to it, evaluate this product, leave another one and at the end compare it again. Thus, with each visit, the likelihood that the door will not be opened for you increases. You need to be prepared for the fact that the number of respondents will decrease with each visit. Therefore, for Home tests, the sample should be set with at least a 20% margin.

Hall tests. Venue of the Hall tests and the situation in Moscow.

The choice of venue for Hall tests is limited by several parameters. The first is the required amount of flow. It is clear that if 30-50 people pass along the street a day, then you will not be able to do the Hall test in the foreseeable future.

Second. The place of the survey is also very influential. It is foolish to test, for example, beer for a low-price category on central streets. Or about educational institution test cosmetics for older women.

Third. The need for room rotation. In order for your Hall test to give normal results, it cannot be performed in the same room. It is advisable to use several points and change them from time to time. Unfortunately, the situation with this in Moscow is not very good. Now the points are pretty worn out. All and constantly use the premises on Nikolskaya, Tverskaya, Preobrazhenskaya, as well as the premises of the research organizations themselves. Some researchers themselves find new points, and then carefully hide them from other companies.

Fourth. Price. The premises, depending on your budget, are chosen on the outskirts or in the center of the city. The difference is usually twofold. If a room in the center costs about $ 110, then a room on the outskirts is $ 50-60.

Fifth. Compliance of the premises with the methodology. It is not always enough just one room, it is important to be able to separate different parts for different parts of the interview, the presence of a back room for technical work and storage of materials If you need to conduct double recruitment, if you need to hide the testing product, then you need to have some more premises.

Sixth. Lack of distractions for the respondent. If your test is carried out in a store, then there should be no distracting smells, sounds, and so on. If the Hall test is held anywhere, then your environment should be arranged in such a way that it is convenient to conduct the interview: the ideal option is when the respondent does not see or hear anyone except the interviewer. Go at least has the ability to speak freely and not hear the opinions of others.

And finally, the organization of the survey site. There should be a technical room for storing materials and samples that you are not currently working with.

Who should be given the Hall test?

Not all customers know that a recruiter and interviewer usually different people... But combination is also practiced. The division is explained by different functions and by the fact that different skills are required. As a rule, the interviewer has more qualifications, a higher paid person, he should be able to win over the respondent better. For a recruiter, it is important to simply invite a person to the room, where the interviewer will work with him further.

Provide your recruiters with badges with the name of the company, or even better - with contact numbers. This will help reduce the number of situations when you want to complain about disgusting recruitment, but it is not clear to whom. In this case, the research companies themselves will be more interested in maintaining their reputation. In addition, the presence of such badges facilitates recruitment.

Make the actions of your employees almost automatic. Practice different conversation scenarios with recruiters. Work with the interviewers the scenario and sequence of actions in the interview - where to go, how to turn, which brands to open in which order. A well-developed hall test team resembles an operating conveyor belt or a modernist ballet staged by a modern choreographer.

For Home test

With the Home test, there is no one to visually control the interviewers. The most common control is in progress, the same as for other apartment visits. We cannot check how he interviews the respondent, how well he asks him questions, in the same sequence.

A great temptation for the interviewer is the opportunity to reduce their labor costs, leaving all the samples for testing at one time, or to finish writing the second / third test questionnaire in the same way as the first one.

Therefore, if possible, control the number and duration of the visit.

As a preventive measure, so that the interviewers do not carry all the samples at once - do not give them all at once, let them come again and take a second sample. Because if they leave all the samples at once, then the respondent, as a rule, does not follow the sequence of the sample, experiments with packaging, with mixing. That is, you will not get good results.

Finally, general rule for all interviewers: The interviewer must belong to the same social group as the respondent.

Recruitment for Hall tests.

What should be the recruitment for Home tests? At this point, the customer has made most of the claims. It should be affordable and easy to do. Don't overwhelm the interviewer with things they can't do anyway. He will not be able to determine by appearance what social stratum a person belongs to. Give interviewers a few criteria. The greater the number of criteria, the smaller the group, the more difficult it is to recruit respondents and, the more often recruiters begin to lie. The standard set is gender / age / active consumption.

Give small age quotas. This is due to the uneven distribution of the respondents' ages within the age quotas. For example, if the age is from 25 to 30 years old, then the number of 25-year-olds in the ratio of 30-year-olds is 3: 1. That is, the distribution is shifting towards younger ages. And so on all age groups... Therefore, instead of one quota of 26-45 years, it is better to give four smaller ones, the distribution of ages in this case will be more even.

And finally, tight control over recruitment. Send mysterious visitors who are trying to infiltrate the Hall tests, give people voice recorders so that they can record their recruitment process. The stronger your control, the more “pure” respondents will come to you for the Hall test.

Or stop recruiting on the streets altogether. When is it possible?

This is a "double" recruitment. Then, when the recruiter who works on the street leads people, focusing only on external indicators- appearance, age, gender. At the same time, his payment does not depend on how much later actually passed to the test. Further, a supervisor works in the room, who, in fact, selects the right people for research. If necessary, he selects for more difficult issues - the frequency of consumption the desired product, social status, income level. The supervisor's salary should not in any way depend on how many people come, but only on the time he worked. Disadvantages: the need to exceed the number of those initially recruited by several times, an increase in the cost of the survey and the required area by one and a half to two times. Some researchers believe that such a double recruit is incorrect in relation to respondents - first they call, and then they send, in addition, this is a significant increase in the cost of the survey in relation to gifts

Or telephone recruiting - this is applicable in those organizations that have a CATI system. Telephone recruitment does not greatly increase, somewhere two or three times, it increases the cost of recruiting, but it does not affect the total cost of research as much as it is sometimes feared. Also, in this case, the value of gifts rises in order to encourage respondents to go to the venue of the Hall test. Telephone recruitment allows us to ensure a very good quality of those who come to the Hall test.

Test materials.

It is very important what to compare with what. When there is a Monadic test, it is clear that you are not comparing with anything, but Monadic tests are not very popular with us, but mostly comparative tests. At the same time, the task is very often: “Our company has developed three product samples - choose the best one”. Or, "our advertising agency produced four videos, which one we choose. From my point of view, we, of course, can focus on this task, but at the same time we run the risk that when the product is released to the market and is compared with what is actually on the market, it will crash. Because we have not received any data on comparison with what is actually on the market. Therefore, from my point of view, at least the main competitor should be included in the list of tested materials.

Realistically assess the capabilities of your respondent. I was told such a case when they tested low-alcohol cocktails in the amount of 5 pieces and one respondent tried all five tastes. In this case, the phenomenon of the influence of order, about which Askhat spoke, was manifested - there is simply nowhere else.

If tastes and smells are tested for products, then it is highly undesirable to test more than two samples. It is just that a person ceases to distinguish and perceive further. For packages, it is permissible to test up to 3–4 samples, it is rather difficult for the respondent to perceive more.

Rotation. It would seem a completely elementary thing, but we are faced with the fact that they forget about it. If two flavors are compared, then it is imperative that half of the tested samples "A" should be tried first, as well as half of the samples "B".

Interrupt the taste. Be sure to layer neutral flavors between food samples. Usually it is drinking or soda water and white bread. They are fairly neutral in taste and can somehow smooth out the impression of the product.

The number of materials tested. Be sure to stock up. I had cases when 400 samples were tested and exactly 400 samples were brought to us by the customer. As a result, we did not collect the sample, because the respondent breaks something on the tests, tries a lot or does not try and ask to “repeat” and so on.

Finally, pay attention to the quality of the tested material and the shelf life. Expiry dates, it’s not funny to say, very often affect the test results. I was told a case when the so-called "live yogurt" was sent from abroad, but due to difficulties at customs, the yogurt stood at the border for 1.5 months. And it had to be tested! You can easily imagine what the result was.

Comparability.

When testing materials, it is very important to ensure that they are comparable. The packaging must be unmarked. It should be marked with numbers and should not contain any indication of the manufacturer, name, etc. As an example, I brought dishwashing detergent and cigarettes. True, the inscription that "smoking is dangerous to health" is still preserved. To carry out the test, either small, impersonal packages are prepared in advance, or a batch is purchased in a local trading network and the labels are peeled off / masked - in this case, the shape of the packaging itself is also important. Even if you have pasted over the name of the product, it is not at all a fact that the consumer does not recognize it by the packaging. In my practice, there was a case when it was required to test a toothpaste, the customer bought the toothpaste of the main competitor, squeezed it out of the tube and packed it into packages without identification marks.

All tested products in each group must be manufactured in the same plant and from the same production batch. Samples from different batches can significantly affect the test results, since we do not yet, for many products, have a stable quality.

A certain, the same temperature and consistency, at the time of comparison, is also a very important thing. The Hall test room is not always equipped with a refrigerator. Even in 95% of cases they are not equipped. Typically, the product is chilled in the refrigerators of the research organization, and during the test is placed in pans of water in order to maintain the desired temperature.

And finally, if you are testing packaging, then it must be of the same quality as the packaging on the market. That is, imagine if you are making an imitation of a purchase and in front of you is a shelf on which there is a black-and-white packaging or packaging on which standard parameters are not applied. Our consumer, by the way, before making a choice, loves to touch and twist everything in his hands. Try to make packages as similar as possible to those on the market. This is the only way that buying testing can have real results.

Finally, technical support Hall of tests. These are screens, bedspreads that allow dividing a room into zones, blocking out from consumers' attention those tested products that do not need to be seen yet. Disposable dishes, 20% more than the amount required for the test. The tested product must be individually wrapped. If the customer delivers a package designed for large use, then you will have to transfer the product to individual packages before the test. The consumer reacts very badly when they try to give him a try with a spoon from the dishes from where, already before him, 50 people tried.

Price.

Finally, the question that interests the customer the most is cost. Let's see what components are included in the cost of tests.

Rent of premises - from 50 to 110 dollars, depending on the location.

Gifts are not very expensive, from $ 3 to $ 10. This is usually what the customer produces. At the same time, we all understand that donating the customer's products is, to a certain extent, a violation of the ESOMAR convention, but, nevertheless, both the customer and the researcher are happy to do it.

Pay for interviewers, recruiters and technical assistants. Here the calculation is simple, that is, a person who works on Hall tests should earn from 20 to 30 dollars a day. Supervisor and observer pay - from $ 20 and more.

Thus, on average, the cost of a hall test. for a customer from 10 to 20 dollars, depending on the complexity of the recruitment, on the size of the questionnaire. The spectrum of opinions on the cost of hall tests varies from emotional “less than 15 costs a good hall test cannot cost” to skeptical “For 10 we will even interview a kangaroo in Australia”.

For the Home test, this cost for the customer is from 12 to 25 dollars.

I want to point out right away that most of the statements that are made here are related to FMCG. These are the most commonly tested products. For B2B, things are completely different, there are completely different laws.

How quickly can you get the result?

Hall test and Home test - a single term for preparing questionnaires and processing results. Hall test field can be quite short. Sometimes 2-3 days is enough. There are times when the recruitment is easy and the questionnaire is small, then it is not difficult to interview 400 people a day. But, as a rule, the average rate is about 100 people per day. But such a good flow happens in the early days, until light quotas are selected. After that, the rest of the unfortunate 50 people have to drag out for three more days. For Home tests, the timing of the field itself is very long. The more visits, the longer the Home test. In addition, it is necessary to give the respondent the opportunity to use this product, to evaluate it. Therefore, the minimum period for the Home test is about 3 weeks.

http://www.v-ratio.ru/

" No comments yet

Description of the polling method with central location(hall test)

The ability to ask reasonable questions is already an important and necessary sign of intelligence and discernment.

I. Kant

This type of survey is most often used to test advertising materials, product packaging, product taste (hall test) or other consumer properties. Method based by questioning respondents about their perception of the properties and attributes of a product, service, name, packaging, etc. Interviews are usually conducted in a rented facility with free access. Respondents can be recruited both on the street just before the interview, and in advance.
During the hall testing, respondents for sample the object of testing is provided, and then it is proposed to fill out a special questionnaire consisting of standardized questions, or answer orally to the interviewer's questions. The hall test method is an integral part of the field of product research.

An example of a study performed by the hall test method

Laundry Detergent Fragrance Testing

Fragrance Testing_Y_G_B_2010.ppt

Hall test method capabilities

A variation of the hall test is the "blink test". The main difference between the blink test is that respondents are not told the name of the product they are testing. This is done in order to exclude the influence of the brand image on the research results, if it is necessary to solve the problems of testing.

Hall test advantages

The main advantages: the ability to conduct fairly long (up to 45 minutes) interviews, the ability to actively use visual materials (samples of competing products, cards, posters, product packaging, the product itself), control of the work of interviewers,low price for research using the hall test method, the possibility quantify quality indicators, excellent results in combination with focus group method.

Other benefits:

• the ability to present and evaluate not only visual information, but also auditory (auditory), olfactory, tactile, gustatory, as well as their combinations

Hall test can also be performed using CAWI technology (computer-assisted web interview) when the respondent's answers are entered into a computer, the data is transmitted to the customer on-line.

CAWI advantages:

• demonstration of non-existent packages for dough without the need to create them (3d-modeling)
• centralized data collection (it is possible to conduct a test simultaneously in several places / cities with simultaneous data collection on one server)
• paperless technology
• improving the quality of interviewers' work
• collection and analysis of information in real time

Hall test limitations

The main disadvantages of the hall test method: the possibility of recruiting respondents depends on the location of the room in which the survey is conducted and the difficulty of recruiting selected categories respondents (motorists, actively working, children, etc.).

Other restrictions.

• Hall tests are rarely used to study hard-to-reach / narrow target groups. In this case, it is necessary to conduct a thorough preliminary recruitment.
• When testing a product, it is not always realistic to create a testing situation close to the real conditions of product consumption - from opening the package and storing the product at home, to the actual conditions of its use. However, product selection situations / purchase situation simulation can be reproduced in a hall test as realistically as possible.
• The hall test is not recommended for testing personal hygiene items.

The main varieties of the hall test method

• "open" testing
• blink test;
• evaluation testing (one item or sample)
• comparative testing (several variants of competing products or samples of the tested product)

Hall test geography

Moscow and Moscow region- by our own qualified specialists.

Other cities of the Russian Federation and CIS countries- with the help of regional partners with whom our company has been cooperating for over 10 years. At the same time, you can be absolutely sure that the data will be collected, processed and presented according to uniform standards, regardless of the region of the study. The customer can be provided with an audio-visual presence in almost all study cities via the Internet.

Hall test

Hall test - special method marketing research, which involves testing individual characteristics of goods.

Hall-test is a research method, during which a rather large group of people (up to 100-400 people) tests in a special room certain commodity and / or its elements (packaging, advertising video, etc.), and then answers questions (fills out a questionnaire) regarding this product.

Hall test is a special method of marketing research that involves testing individual characteristics of goods (and / or advertising materials) in a closed room. Hall test allows you to obtain unique information about consumer behavior and the assessment of consumer properties of a product for different tested characteristics. http://www.md-marketing.ru/articles/html/article23386.html

When conducting a hall test, representatives of the target audience are interviewed using a previously prepared structured questionnaire. Most often, a hall test is carried out near crowded places (for example: city markets or crowded streets) where equipped rooms for conducting research ("hall") are installed or in the office of a company that conducts hall tests. In the first room, each respondent belonging to the target group, in the absence of unauthorized persons, is asked to choose the option they like best from the proposed test subjects and explain the reason for their choice. Test items can be products, packaging, advertising materials, etc. In the second room, respondents are asked to fill out a special questionnaire consisting of standardized questions or answer orally to the questions asked by the interviewer, which allows to determine the selection criteria, frequency and volume of consumption of brands of the product group to which the test items belong or are advertised.

In the hall test method, the following types of testing are distinguished:

"blind" (no product brand) and "open" testing;

evaluative (one product) and comparative (several similar products).

Hall tests are designed to solve the following problems:

studying the attitude of consumers to goods, brands, manufacturers;

search for unoccupied niches and development of a new product;

assessment of the compliance of an existing product with market requirements;

to assess the consumer properties of a product for various tested characteristics in order to improve them;

to obtain information on consumer behavior (selection criteria, frequency and volume of consumption of brands of the studied product group are determined).

determination of the most significant properties of the product for the consumer when it is positioned on the market

determination of directions for improvement of goods

testing options for individual properties of the product (for example, drink recipes)

testing variants of names and images of the trademark

testing options for packaging goods

selection of the most effective advertising messages in terms of impact on the consumer (slogans, advertising images, audio and video clips, etc.)

comparison of goods with competing goods, substitute goods

Advantages

The advantage of the technique is the ability to present and evaluate not only visual information, but also auditory (auditory), olfactory, tactile, gustatory, as well as their combinations.

the ability to obtain special information about the characteristics of the respondents' perception of the test object, which cannot be detected by other methods

relatively low cost of applying the method

the possibility of conducting research on sufficiently large samples (relying on quantitative parameters)

disadvantages

it is not always possible to disseminate data to the entire general population of consumers

limiting the size of the questionnaire and the nature of the questions asked

the complexity of the organization of testing.

Hall tests are used when it is necessary to test with the help of existing or potential consumers new product, its packaging or name during its development, compare various product options with each other or with competing products, test the advertising appeal during development advertising campaign... A distinctive feature of the hall test is the direct contact of the respondent with the test object (for example, a taste test).

A kind of hall test is a blind-test. The main difference between a blind test is that respondents are not told the name of the product they are testing. This is done in order to exclude the influence of the trademark on the research results, if it is necessary to solve the problems of testing. http://www.md-marketing.ru/articles/html/article23386.html

The object of research can be: individual characteristics of the product (taste, design, material, etc.), packaging, trademark(name and logo), advertising, etc.

Stages of work:

Preliminary formulation of the problem and setting of tasks (conversation with the customer).

Preparation of a technical proposal for a hall test.

Development of a program for conducting a hall test (determination of the target group of the study, location of the study, quantitative parameters of the study, questionnaires, etc.).

Preparation of the necessary materials for testing.

Preparing the room for the hall test.

Hall test.

Processing of data obtained during the hall test.

Preparing of report.

Presentation of the report to the customer and, if necessary, discussion of the results.

Representativeness. To conduct a study using this method, a directed sample is usually used, that is, existing and potential consumers who meet the specified characteristics are involved in the study. This ensures the qualitative representativeness of the sample, but does not allow drawing conclusions on its basis about any quantitative parameters of the general population.

Sample size. The sample size may vary depending on the objectives of the study, but usually it is at least 100-150 trials.

In the case of prolonged studies (studies conducted over several repetitive stages), the number of observations per stage may be less than with one-time studies.