Most people have been asked to participate in a survey or questionnaire at some point in their lives. The question was probably in the form of a scale that the research team set in the questionnaire. Scales help researchers by giving respondents a way to convey their thoughts and feelings in a subjective and measurable way. Survey or questionnaire is a tool that allows the researcher to capture the thoughts and feelings of the respondent. Each scale has different characteristics, depending on the responses to be measured. Nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio are four scales typically used in questionnaires. Nominal scale If a questionnaire consists of a question with a "this or that" response type, it is probably based on a nominal scale. A nominal scale is used to assign items that are “mutually exclusive (and) labeled categories” without creating “necessary relationships between the categories” (Aaker, Kumar, & Day, 2007, p. 288). An example of a nominal scale can be as simple as a yes/no or masculine/feminine response. Researchers could use this scale as a simple count or create percentages such as 55% of respondents are men. The mode is used to find the central tendency of a nominal scale because the researcher would like to know the response that had the highest frequency (Aaker , Kumar, & Day, 2007). The mode answers whether people answer more yes or no to the questionnaire. In a questionnaire for a refrigeration company the researcher would like to know if the person answering the question is an installer. If the respondent answered yes, it would distort how other responses would be analyzed for research. The response would also tell the researcher what percentage of the respondents were installers and whether the questionnaire was selected...... middle of paper ...... are useful for classifying items in the form of preference and can use the mode or median for central tendency. Interval scales such as the Likert scale are great for indexing attitudes toward objects and use the mean for central tendency. Ratio scales are specialized interval scales that show magnitude because they are based on a zero point. Ratio scales are useful for things like age and income. A questionnaire that combines all four scales listed can provide researchers with useful data to interpret and analyze for their marketing project. Works Cited Aaker, D. A., Kumar, V., & Day, G. S. (2007). Market Research (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Interval scale. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.uoguelph.ca/htm/MJResearch/ResearchProcess/IntervalScale.htmRatio scale. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.uoguelph.ca/htm/MJResearch/ResearchProcess/RatioScale.htm