Basic Marketing Research 8th Edition by Tom Brown,Tracy Suter,Gilbert Churchill

Exercise 14

The Hi-Style Company is a chain of beauty salons in San Diego, California. During the past five years, the company has seen a sharp increase in the number of shops it operates and in the company's gross sales and net profit margin. The owner plans to offer free hair analysis and consultation, a service for which competing salons charge a substantial price. In order to offset the increase in operating expenses, the owner plans to raise the rates on other services by 5 percent. Prior to introducing this new service and increasing rates, the owner wants to do a survey using her customers as a sample and employing the method of quota sampling. Your assistance is required in planning the study.
a. On what variables will you suggest the quotas be based Why List the variables with their respective levels.
b. The owner has kept close track of the demographic characteristics of her customers over a five-year period and decides that these would be most relevant in identifying the sample elements to be used.
Based on these three quota variables, indicate the characteristics of a sample of 200 subjects.
c. Discuss the possible sources of bias with the sampling method.