Contents

S. No.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Particulars
Introduction Defining the population Sampling Sample Design Sample Size Characteristics of a good sample Sampling Design Process Types of Sampling Probability Sampling Non-probability Sampling Conclusion Bibliography

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1 1 1-2 2 3 3 4-5 6 6-12 12-15 16 17

Introduction

Market research involves the collection of data to obtain insight and knowledge into the needs and wants of customers and the structure and dynamics of a market. In nearly all cases, it would be very costly and time-consuming to collect data from the entire population of a market. Accordingly, in market research, extensive use is made of sampling from which, through careful design and analysis, Marketers can draw information about the market.

Defining the Population

The first step in good sample design is to ensure that the specification of the target population is as clear and complete as possible to ensure that all elements within the population are represented. The target population is sampled using a sampling frame. Often the units in the population can be identified by existing information; for example, pay-rolls, company lists, government registers etc. A sampling frame could also be geographical; for example postcodes have become a well-used means of selecting a sample.

Sampling
Sampling involves selecting individual units to measure from a larger population. The population refers to the set of individual units which the research question seeks to find out about. A procedure or plan drawn up before any data is collected to obtain a sample from a given population. Also known as sampling plan; survey design. In statistics and survey methodology, sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a population to estimate characteristics of the whole population.

Researchers rarely survey the entire population because the cost of a census is too high. The three main advantages of sampling are that the cost is lower, data collection is faster,

and since the data set is smaller it is possible to ensure homogeneity and to improve the accuracy and quality of the data. Since it is generally impossible to study an entire population (every individual in a country, all college students, every geographic area, etc.), researchers typically rely on sampling to acquire a section of the population to perform an experiment or observational study. It is important that the group selected be representative of the population, and not biased in a systematic manner.

Sample Design
Sample design covers the method of selection, the sample structure and plans for analyzing and interpreting the results. Sample designs can vary from simple to complex and depend on the type of information required and the way the sample is selected. Sample design affects the size of the sample and the way in which analysis is carried out. In simple terms the more precision the market researcher requires, the more complex will be the design and the larger the sample size. The sample design may make use of the characteristics of the overall market population, but it does not have to be proportionally representative. It may be necessary to draw a larger sample than would be expected from some parts of the population; for example, to select more from a minority grouping to ensure that sufficient data is obtained for analysis on such groups. Many sample designs are built around the concept of random selection. This permits justifiable inference from the sample to the population, at quantified levels of precision. Random selection also helps guard against sample bias in a way that selecting by judgment or convenience cannot.

Sample Size

For any sample design deciding upon the appropriate sample size will depend on several key factors: (1) No estimate taken from a sample is expected to be exact: Any assumptions about the overall population based on the results of a sample will have an attached margin of error. (2) To lower the margin of error usually requires a larger sample size: The amount of variability in the population (i.e. the range of values or opinions) will also affect accuracy and therefore the size of sample. (3) The confidence level is the likelihood that the results obtained from the sample lie within a required precision: The higher the confidence level that is the more certain you wish to be that the results are not atypical. Statisticians often use a 95 per cent confidence level to provide strong conclusions. (4) Population size does not normally affect sample size: In fact the larger the population sizes the lower the proportion of that population that needs to be sampled to be representative. It is only when the proposed sample size is more than 5 per cent of the population that the population size becomes part of the formulae to calculate the sample size.

Characteristics of a good sample design

1. Representativeness. 2. Adequacy. 3. Unbiasness. 4. No substitution. 5. High precision. 6. Responsiveness. 7. Minimum cost & time. 8. Flexible. 9. Future scope.

Sampling Design Process

Sampling design process can be summarized in sax steps, as shown below:

1) Defining the population:

The first step is more critical step

wherein a researcher has to give an operational definition for the relevant population. Population is the most common form implies the total number of individuals in the area of study from whom the information is being sought but depending on nature of the study. The population can be any events, workplaces, etc.

2) Defining the sampling unit: The sampling unit is the person,

place or object about which or from which the information is required for research e.g. in case of study on brand preference of college students in jeans wear every college going student is a sampling unit.

3)

Selecting the sampling frame: Also referred to as Source List. It is a

comprehensive listing of all the members of a population e.g. a telephone directory is a good sampling frame, as association directory e.g. NASSCOM will have a listing of all the firms in a industry. If the sampling frame is not available, then the researcher needs to prepare the list. It may be possible that source list does not cover all the elements of population.

4)

Selecting the sampling technique: The researcher must decide on the

type of sample i.e. probability or non-probability based sampling techniques. The decision as regard to the technique to be used ins affected by the objectives of study, the level accuracy desired, time & cost etc.

5)

Determining the sample size: The million dollar question that faces

researcher is what size is needed? A misconception is that a large sample size is a more

representative sample. A sample size is considered optimum if it fulfills the requirements of efficiency, representativeness, reliability and flexibility. Number of subjective factors like nature of population, nature of respondents, time and funds available, and sampling technique used etc. influence the decision on sample size.

6)

Execution of sampling process: The last step involves working out the

details of drawing a sample. Procedures for selecting each unit must be worked out. In case of non-response, the procedure to be adopted for filling the vacant unit should be stated clearly.

Types of Sampling
There are a number of different methods that might be used to create a sample; they generally can be grouped into one of two categories: probability samples or nonprobability samples. These are discussed following: 6

(A) Probability Samples

The idea behind this type is random selection. More specifically, each sample from the population of interest has a known probability of selection under a given sampling scheme. There are five categories of probability samples described below.

1. SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING

Simple random sampling is the easiest form of probability sampling. All the researcher needs to do is assure that all the members of the population are included in the list and then randomly select the desired number of subjects. There are a lot of methods to do this. It can be as mechanical as picking strips of paper with names written on it from a hat while the researcher is blindfolded or it can be as easy as using a computer software to do the random selection for you. The most widely known type of a random sample is the simple random sample (SRS). This is characterized by the fact that the probability of selection is the same for every case in the population. Simple random sampling is a method of selecting n units from a population of size N such that every possible sample of size has equal chance of being drawn. An example may make this easier to understand. Imagine you want to carry out a survey of 100 voters in a small town with a population of 1,000 eligible voters. With a town this size, there are "old-fashioned" ways to draw a sample. For example, we could write the names of all voters on a piece of paper, put all pieces of paper into a box and draw 100 tickets at random. You shake the box, draw a piece of paper and set it aside, shake again, draw another, set it aside, etc. until we had 100 slips of paper. These 100 form our sample. And this sample would be drawn through a simple random sampling procedure at each draw, every name in the box had the same probability of being chosen. In real-world social research, designs that employ simple random sampling are difficult to come by. We can imagine some situations where it might be possible - you want to interview a sample of doctors in a hospital about work conditions. So you get a list of all the physicians that work in the hospital, write their names on a piece of paper, put those pieces of paper in the box, shake and draw. But in most real-world instances it is

impossible to list everything on a piece of paper and put it in a box, then randomly draw numbers until desired sample size is reached.

2. Stratified Random Sampling

In this form of sampling, the population is first divided into two or more mutually exclusive segments based on some categories of variables of interest in the research. It is designed to organize the population into homogenous subsets before sampling, then drawing a random sample within each subset. With stratified random sampling the population of N units is divided into subpopulations of units respectively. These subpopulations, called strata, are non-overlapping and together they comprise the whole of the population. When these have been determined, a sample is drawn from each, with a separate draw for each of the different strata. The sample sizes within the strata are denoted by respectively. If a SRS is taken within each stratum, then the whole sampling procedure is described as stratified random sampling. The primary benefit of this method is to ensure that cases from smaller strata of the population are included in sufficient numbers to allow comparison. An example makes it easier to understand. Say that you're interested in how job satisfaction varies by race among a group of employees at a firm. To explore this issue, we need to create a sample of the employees of the firm. However, the employee population at this particular firm is predominantly white, as the following chart illustrates:

If we were to take a simple random sample of employees, there's a good chance that we would end up with very small numbers of Blacks, Asians, and Latinos. That could be disastrous for our research, since we might end up with too few cases for comparison in one or more of the smaller groups. Rather than taking a simple random sample from the firm's population at large, in a stratified sampling design, we ensure that appropriate numbers of elements are drawn from each racial group in proportion to the percentage of the population as a whole. Say we want a sample of 1000 employees - we would stratify the sample by race (group of White employees, group of African American employees, etc.), then randomly draw out 750 employees from the White group, 90 from the African American, 100 from the Asian, and 60 from the Latino. This yields a sample that is proportionately representative of the firm as a whole. Stratification is a common technique. There are many reasons for this, such as: 1. If data of known precision are wanted for certain subpopulations, than each of these should be treated as a population in its own right. 2. Administrative convenience may dictate the use of stratification, for example, if an agency administering a survey may have regional offices, which can supervise the survey for a part of the population. 3. Sampling problems may be inherent with certain sub populations, such as people living in institutions (e.g. hotels, hospitals, prisons). 4. Stratification may improve the estimates of characteristics of the whole population. It may be possible to divide a heterogeneous population into sub-populations, each of which is internally homogenous. If these strata are homogenous, i.e., the measurements vary little from one unit to another; a precise estimate of any stratum mean can be obtained from a small sample in that stratum. The estimate can then be combined into a precise estimate for the whole population. 5. There is also a statistical advantage in the method, as a stratified random sample nearly always results in a smaller variance for the estimated mean or other population parameters of interest.

3. Systematic Sampling

This method of sampling is at first glance very different from SRS. In practice, it is a variant of simple random sampling that involves some listing of elements - every nth element of list is then drawn for inclusion in the sample. Say you have a list of 10,000 people and you want a sample of 1,000. Creating such a sample includes three steps: 1. Divide number of cases in the population by the desired sample size. In this example, dividing 10,000 by 1,000 gives a value of 10. 2. Select a random number between one and the value attained in Step 1. In this example, we choose a number between 1 and 10 - say we pick 7. 3. Starting with case number chosen in Step 2, take every tenth record (7, 17, 27, etc.). More generally, suppose that the N units in the population are ranked 1 to N in some order (e.g., alphabetic). To select a sample of n units, we take a unit at random, from the 1st k units and take every k-th unit thereafter. The advantages of systematic sampling method over simple random sampling include: 1. It is easier to draw a sample and often easier to execute without mistakes. This is a particular advantage when the drawing is done in the field. 2. Intuitively, you might think that systematic sampling might be more precise than SRS. In effect it stratifies the population into n strata, consisting of the 1st k units, the 2nd k units, and so on. Thus, we might expect the systematic sample to be as precise as a stratified random sample with one unit per stratum.

4. Cluster Sampling
In some instances the sampling unit consists of a group or cluster of smaller units that we call elements or subunits (these are the units of analysis for your study). There are two main reasons for the widespread application of cluster sampling. Although the first intention may be to use the elements as sampling units, it is found in many surveys that no reliable list of elements in the population is available and that it would be prohibitively expensive to construct such a list. In many countries there are no complete and updated lists of the people, the houses or the farms in any large geographical region.

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Even when a list of individual houses is available, economic considerations may point to the choice of a larger cluster unit. For a given size of sample, a small unit usually gives more precise results than a large unit. For example a SRS of 600 houses covers a town more evenly than 20 city blocks containing an average of 30 houses apiece. But greater field costs are incurred in locating 600 houses and in traveling between them than in covering 20 city blocks. When cost is balanced against precision, the larger unit may prove superior. Important things about cluster sampling: 1. Most large scale surveys are done using cluster sampling; 11

2. Clustering may be combined with stratification, typically by clustering within strata; 3. In general, for a given sample size n cluster samples are less accurate than the other types of sampling in the sense that the parameters you estimate will have greater variability than an SRS, stratified random or systematic sample.

5. Multi-Stage Sampling
The four methods we've covered so far -- simple, stratified, and systematic and cluster -are the simplest random sampling strategies. In most real applied social research, we would use sampling methods that are considerably more complex than these simple variations. The most important principle here is that we can combine the simple methods described earlier in a variety of useful ways that help us address our sampling needs in the most efficient and effective manner possible. When we combine sampling methods, we call this multi-stage sampling. For example, consider the idea of sampling New York State residents for face-to-face interviews. Clearly we would want to do some type of cluster sampling as the first stage of the process. We might sample townships or census tracts throughout the state. But in cluster sampling we would then go on to measure everyone in the clusters we select. Even if we are sampling census tracts we may not be able to measure everyone who is in the census tract. So, we might set up a stratified sampling process within the clusters. In this case, we would have a two-stage sampling process with stratified samples within cluster samples. Or, consider the problem of sampling students in grade schools. We might begin with a national sample of school districts stratified by economics and educational level. Within selected districts, we might do a simple random sample of schools. Within schools, we might do a simple random sample of classes or grades. And, within classes, we might even do a simple random sample of students. In this case, we have three or four stages in the sampling process and we use both stratified and simple random sampling. By combining different sampling methods we are able to achieve a rich variety of probabilistic sampling methods that can be used in a wide range of social research contexts.

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(B) Non-probability Sampling

Social research is often conducted in situations where a researcher cannot select the kinds of probability samples used in large-scale social surveys. For example, say you wanted to study homelessness - there is no list of homeless individuals nor are you likely to create such a list. However, you need to get some kind of a sample of respondents in order to conduct your research. To gather such a sample, you would likely use some form of nonprobability sampling. To reiterate, the primary difference between probability methods of sampling and nonprobability methods is that in the latter you do not know the likelihood that any element of a population will be selected for study. There are six primary types of non-probability sampling methods:

1. Availability Sampling
Availability sampling is a method of choosing subjects who are available or easy to find. This method is also sometimes referred to as haphazard, accidental, or convenience sampling. The primary advantage of the method is that it is very easy to carry out, relative to other methods. A researcher can merely stand out on his/her favorite street corner or in his/her favorite tavern and hand out surveys. One place this used to show up often is in university courses. Years ago, researchers often would conduct surveys of students in their large lecture courses. For example, all students taking introductory sociology courses would have been given a survey and compelled to fill it out. There are some advantages to this design - it is easy to do, particularly with a captive audience, and in some schools you can attain a large number of interviews through this method. The primary problem with availability sampling is that you can never be certain what population the participants in the study represent. The population is unknown, the method for selecting cases is haphazard, and the cases studied probably don't represent any population you could come up with. However, there are some situations in which this kind of design has advantages - for example, survey designers often want to have some people respond to their survey before it is given out in the "real" research setting as a way of making certain the questions make sense to respondents. For this purpose, availability sampling is not a bad way to get a

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group to take a survey, though in this case researchers care less about the specific responses given than whether the instrument is confusing or makes people feel bad.

2. Quota Sampling
Quota sampling is designed to overcome the most obvious flaw of availability sampling. Rather than taking just anyone, you set quotas to ensure that the sample you get represents certain characteristics in proportion to their prevalence in the population. Note that for this method, you have to know something about the characteristics of the population ahead of time. Say you want to make sure you have a sample proportional to the population in terms of gender - you have to know what percentage of the population is male and female, then collect sample until yours matches. Marketing studies are particularly fond of this form of research design. The primary problem with this form of sampling is that even when we know that a quota sample is representative of the particular characteristics for which quotas have been set, we have no way of knowing if sample is representative in terms of any other characteristics. If we set quotas for gender and age, we are likely to attain a sample with good representativeness on age and gender, but one that may not be very representative in terms of income and education or other factors.

Moreover, because researchers can set quotas for only a small fraction of the characteristics relevant to a study quota sampling is really not much better than availability sampling. To reiterate, you must know the characteristics of the entire population to set quotas; otherwise there's not much point to setting up quotas. Finally, interviewers often introduce bias when allowed to self-select respondents, which is usually the case in this form of research. In choosing males 18-25, interviewers are more likely to choose those that are better-dressed, seem more approachable or less threatening. That may be understandable from a practical point of view, but it introduces bias into research findings.

3. Snowball Sampling
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Snowball sampling is a method in which a researcher identifies one member of some population of interest, speaks to him/her, then asks that person to identify others in the population that the researcher might speak to. This person is then asked to refer the researcher to yet another person, and so on. Snowball sampling is very good for cases where members of a special population are difficult to locate. For example, several studies of Mexican migrants in Los Angeles have used snowball sampling to get respondents. The method also has an interesting application to group membership - if you want to look at pattern of recruitment to a community organization over time, you might begin by interviewing fairly recent recruits, asking them who introduced them to the group. Then interview the people named, asking them who recruited them to the group. The method creates a sample with questionable representativeness. A researcher is not sure who is in the sample. In effect snowball sampling often leads the researcher into a realm he/she knows little about. It can be difficult to determine how a sample compares to a larger population. Also, there's an issue of who respondents refer you to - friends refer to friends, less likely to refer to ones they don't like, fear, etc.

4. CONVENIENCE SAMPLING
Convenience sampling is probably the most common of all sampling techniques. With convenience sampling, the samples are selected because they are accessible to the researcher. Subjects are chosen simply because they are easy to recruit. This technique is considered easiest, cheapest and least time consuming.

5. CONSECUTIVE SAMPLING
Consecutive sampling is very similar to convenience sampling except that it seeks to include ALL accessible subjects as part of the sample. This non-probability sampling technique can be considered as the best of all non-probability samples because it includes

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all subjects that are available that makes the sample a better representation of the entire population.

6. JUDGMENTAL SAMPLING
Judgmental sampling is more commonly known as purposive sampling. In this type of sampling, subjects are chosen to be part of the sample with a specific purpose in mind. With judgmental sampling, the researcher believes that some subjects are more fit for the research compared to other individuals. This is the reason why they are purposively chosen as subjects.

WHEN TO USE NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING

This type of sampling can be used when demonstrating that a particular trait exists in the population. It can also be used when the researcher aims to do a qualitative, pilot or exploratory study. It can be used when randomization is impossible like when the population is almost limitless. It can be used when the research does not aim to generate results that will be used to create generalizations pertaining to the entire population. It is also useful when the researcher has limited budget, time and workforce.

Conclusion
A parameter is a numerical property of a population, which is a collection of units. A sample is a collection of units from a population; the number of units in the sample is called the sample size. A statistic is a number computed from a sample. Statistics typically are used to estimate parameters; such statistics are called estimators. Depending on circumstances, collecting data about a sample of units instead of an entire population of units can be the only way, the most economical way, or the most accurate way to estimate the value of a population parameter. A sample survey is a sample of opinions or other properties of people that relies on the individuals in the sample to provide the data, for example, through interviews or by filling out a questionnaire. Sample surveys tend to

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suffer to various extents from no response bias, which is caused by systematic differences in the variables studied between the individuals who participate willingly in the survey and those who elect not to participate. If the no response rate, the fraction of people who refuse to participate, is large, the no response bias can be large, and the results of the survey should not be trusted. Even people who participate willingly in a survey might not answer questions about sensitive subjects truthfully. There are methods, such as randomized response, that encourage truthful reporting by guaranteeing anonymity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
www.google.com www.ask.com

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