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Product knowledge of fabric sales personnel: a comparison of three measurement methods
Author(s) -
RUCKER MARGARET H.,
BURTIS EILEEN K.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
journal of consumer studies and home economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.775
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1470-6431
pISSN - 0309-3891
DOI - 10.1111/j.1470-6431.1985.tb00441.x
Subject(s) - projective test , product (mathematics) , test (biology) , psychology , estimation , marketing , applied psychology , computer science , business , mathematics , engineering , paleontology , geometry , systems engineering , psychoanalysis , biology
This study was designed to compare responses of fabric sales personnel to three types of product knowledge measures. These measures were: (1) written test items on a questionnaire; (2) oral items administered by a researcher posing as a consumer; and (3) projective items that require estimation of other clerks' knowledge. Fifty‐four clerks participated in the consumer interviews and 100 completed a questionnaire containing the written test and projective items. Forty clerks completed all three measures. In contrast to some of the findings regarding the measurement of attitudes, estimation of other people's knowledge was not found to be a useful indicator of the estimator's own knowledge. Furthermore, the consumer interview and written test methods were found to produce similar, but not completely interchangeable, results. A major implication of these findings is that one should consider the objectives of the measurement process in selecting a method for measuring product knowledge.