Marketing Research

For the past five years, Extreme Exposure Rock Climbing Center has enjoyed a monopoly. Located in Sacramento, California, Extreme Exposure is the dream of Kyle Anderson, a former extreme sports participant who had to “retire” due to repeated injuries resulting from this activity. Kyle has worked hard to make Extreme Exposure the best rock-climbing facility in the northwestern United States. Kyle’s rock-climbing center has over 6,500 square feet of simulated rock walls to climb with about 100 different routes up to a maximum of 50 vertical feet.

Extreme Exposure’s design permits the four major climbing types: top-roping, where the climber climbs up with a rope anchored at the top; lead-climbing, where the climber tows the rope that he or she fixes to clips in the wall while ascending; bouldering, where the climber has no rope but stays near the ground; and rappelling, where the person descends quickly by sliding down a rope.

Climbers can buy daily or monthly passes or annual memberships. Rental cost for shoes and harnesses is inexpensive, and helmets are available free of charge as all climbers must wear protective helmets. In addition to individual and group climbing classes, Extreme Exposure has several group programs, including birthday parties, a kids’ summer camp, and corporate team-building classes.

Kyle notices a newspaper article about another rock-climbing center called The Krag, which will be built in Sacramento in the next six months. He notes the following items about The Krag that are different from Extreme Exposure:

(1) The Krag will have climbs up to a maximum of 60 vertical feet

(2) it will have a climber certification program

(3) there will be day trips to outdoor rock-climbing areas

(4) there will be group overnight and extended-stay rock-climbing trips to the Canadian Rockies

(5) The Krag’s annual membership fee will be about 20% lower than Extreme Exposure’s fee

Kyle chats with Dianne, one of his Extreme Exposure members who is in marketing, during a break in one of her climbing visits. Dianne summarizes what she believes Kyle needs to find out about his current members.

For each of Dianne’s questions below, write out a sample descriptive questionnaire question that would get the data.

For each question, identify the type of measure (nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio).

If it is an interval, identify the type of interval scale (Likert, Semantic Difference, Stapel).

1. What is the age of Extreme Exposure’s members?

2. How satisfied are members with Extreme Exposure’s climbing facilities?

3. How interested are its members in day trips to outdoor rock-climbing areas?

4. Do members think the fee charged by Extreme Exposure is too high or too low?

5. What do members value most: higher climbs, lower prices, trips to outdoor rock climbing areas, or climbing certificate programs?