44 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS and presentation, the test product is at a disadvantage in such a comparison. By including a leading marketed product in the test some indication of relative merits can be obtained and the test will show up any major ad- vantages or disadvantages of the test products. The possible answer from a test should be considered at this stage to check that some use can be made of the results in fulfilling the objects of the test. QUESTIONNAIRES Obviously questionnaires are a very important part of consumer testing since one only gets answers to the questions one asks. All questions are loaded because they ask people to think and to put their thoughts into words. Normally we do not analyse in any detail our reasons for preferring one product to another. The art in drawing up questions is to devise those which do not make one answer more appealing to the panelist than another, which are clearly understood by all panelists and which give panelists the opportunity to express their feelings adequately. Three types of question can be asked: two way questions, multiple choice questions and free answer questions. Two-way questions are ones having a yes... no .... type of answer. e.g. "During the test did you use any other hair product?" Yes ..... No ..... This sort of question is the easiest to analyse but unless the issue is really clear cut into the two possible answers, it can be hard to answer without qualification. If panelists are asked which of two products they prefer, some of them will not have any preference, and this should be allowed for. Multiple choice questions give a pre-selected choice of answers and panelists have to select one of them. They can be very useful when all the possible answers are known in advance. They also serve to give an indication of the degree of feeling as well as the direction, if used as follows:- "Please indicate your rating of the product by ticking one of the following:- I liked it very much ...... I liked it moderately ...... I liked it slightly ...... I neither liked nor disliked it ..... I disliked it slightly ...... I disliked it moderately ...... I disliked it very much ...... "

THE ROLE OF CONSUMER STUDIES IN RESEARCH 45 Care is needed in analysing this type of question. In order to obtain one number representing the rating of the product by the panel, a weighting system can be used. For example "I liked it very much" could be given a weighting of 3, "I liked it moderately" a weighting of 2 and so on down to "I disliked it very much" with a weighting of -3. The total obtained in this way is divided by the number of panelists to give a mean score. This weighting system, from +3 down to --3 means that a product which was neither liked or disliked would havre a suitable neutral mean score of 0, one that was liked would have a positive mean score and one that was disliked would have a negative mean score. However, this weighting makes assump- tions about the relative value of the answers and also assumes that the answers cover the range of possible answers in equidistant steps. This is not necessarily true. Free answer questions are very useful for obtaining opinions where all the alternatives are not known in advance or when stating them might prompt the answers. Having asked whether or not panelists have a prefe- rence between two products, those who express a preference can be asked their reasons in a free answer question. The answers indicate the aspects of the product which the panelist considers important and this is useful in preliminary tests. Once the important aspects are clear it is possible to ask prompted attribute questions. These are easier to analyse than free answer questions which are very difficult to analyse. This is because two panelists may use different words but intend them to describe the same effect while two other panelists may use the same words but intend them to mean something different. Therefore great care is necessary in interpreting free answers. When there is doubt about whether two expressions mean the same thing, both can be listed. When the same expressions are used to mean different things this is sometimes apparent from the general context of the questionnaires but can be missed. Questionnaires may either be completed by judges, when they are used in preliminary tests, by an interviewer after she has interviewed the panelist or by the panelist herself. For early subjective panel tests when little is known of the type of response expected and extensive use is made of free answer questions or when a very long questionnaire is involved it is probably better to use an interviewer. She can probe for information without prompting answers and she can retain interest through a long questionnaire. Where a simple, short questionnaire can adequately cover the information required, it may be sent to panelists to complete themselves. Since the questionnaire is so important it is often worth testing it out