Structured question in market research

A structured question is a closed question used in surveys to illicit fast and precise answers while reducing the amount of thinking the participant does. These types of questions will also reduce the workload on the researcher as the answers will be simple and easy to analyse. When numerous structured questions are put together, they can reveal a large amount of information in a short space of time, while still allowing for an in-depth survey.

There are many different forms of a structured question, however, some are more common than others. A single response with ordinal categories is a type of structured question that asks the participant to select the range that they fall into; for example: ‘please select the category that includes your annual income’. A scaled question is used alongside answers such as ‘agree’ and ‘disagree’ or a simple number scale to allow an easy way to express an opinion. A multiple response question is also a common form of structured question and is used when the researcher wants a selection of answers, such as: ‘Which of these countries have you been to?’.

Structured questions can also be used alongside unstructured questions (open questions) to illicit a little bit more information from a respondent, or to create contingency questions (one response leads to a new, specific question). For example, the structured question could be ‘Have you ever owned an android phone?’. If the answer is ‘yes’ then the researcher can proceed to ask their opinion about it, using unstructured questions.

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