Sampling

 It refers to selecting a group of people from a population to gather information on a

particular topic or product.
 Sampling may be defined as the procedure in which a sample is selected from an
individual or a group of people of certain kind for research purpose.
 The information is gathered without surveying every member from it.
 Sampling method is used mainly when it is impossible to surveying the whole
population.
 The sample must be the representation of the population the researcher has gathered
information from.
 A sample refers to a group of people taking part in a market research survey selected
to be representative of the overall target market.

Advantages of sampling

 It results in lower costs – If data were to be collected for the entire population, the
cost will be quite high. A sample is a small proportion of a population. So, the cost
will be lower if data is collected for a sample of population which is a big advantage.
 Less time consuming in sampling – Use of sampling takes less time also. It
consumes less time than census technique. Tabulation, analysis etc., take much less
time in the case of a sample than in the case of a population.
 It saves resources of a company – Organizational problems involved in sampling are
very few. Since sample is of a small size, vast facilities are not required. Sampling is
therefore economical in respect of resources. Study of samples involves less space
and equipment.
 Scope or extent of sampling is high – The investigator is concerned with the
generalization of data. To study a whole population in order to arrive at
generalizations would be impractical.
Some populations are so large that their characteristics could not be measured. Before
the measurement has been completed, the population would have changed. But the
 process of sampling makes it possible to arrive at generalizations by studying the
variables within a relatively small proportion of the population.
 Suitable to companies with limited resources – The resources available within an
organization may be limited. Studying the entire universe is not viable. The
population can be satisfactorily covered through sampling. Where limited resources
exist, use of sampling is an appropriate strategy while conducting marketing research.

Disadvantages of sampling

 Likelihood of biased/inaccurate/misleading results – The serious limitation of the

sampling method is that it involves biased selection and thereby leads us to draw
erroneous conclusions. Bias arises when the method of selection of sample employed
is faulty. Relative small samples properly selected may be much more reliable than
large samples poorly selected.
Sampling method involves biased selection of participants which can lead to errors.
 Inadequate knowledge of sampling – Use of sampling method requires adequate
subject specific knowledge in sampling technique. Sampling involves statistical
analysis and calculation of probable error. When the researcher lacks specialized
knowledge in sampling, he may commit serious mistakes. Consequently, the results of
the study will be misleading.
 It is not suitable in some situations – Deriving a representative sample is difficult,
when the universe is too small or too heterogeneous. In this case, census study is the
only alternative. Moreover, in studies requiring a very high standard of accuracy, the
sampling method may be unsuitable. There will be chances of errors even if samples
are drawn most carefully.
 Difficulties in selecting a representative sample – difficulties in selecting a truly
representative sample produces reliable and accurate results only when they are
representative of the whole group. Selection of a truly representative sample is
difficult when the phenomena under study are of a complex nature. Selecting good
samples is difficult.

Sampling methods
  Two major principles underlie all sample design. The first is the desire to avoid bias
in the selection procedure; the second is to achieve the maximum precision for a given
outlay of resources. Bias in the selection can arise:
1. if the selection of the sample is done by some non-random method i.e. selection is
consciously or unconsciously influenced by human choice
2. if the sampling frame (i.e. list, index, population record) does not adequately
cover the target population)
3. if some sections of the population are impossible to find or refuse to co-operate.

The methods of sampling include the following:

1. Simple random sampling

 Each sample element has known and equal chance (probability) of being selected.
 Each member of the target population has an equal chance of being included in the
sample.
 The approach is advantageous in that everyone has the opportunity to be chosen.
However, it can be quite time consuming because once the names have been selected.
The researcher will have to go and find the people.
 An example of 30 students.
If a sample of 100 is required, then the first 100 numbers on the random number list
are taken and the people who had these numbers allocated to them will form the
sample.

2. Systematic sampling

 In this method, the sample is selected by taking every nth item from the target
population until the desired size of sample is reached.
 For example, suppose a supermarket wants to study the buying habits of its
customers. The sample could be chosen by asking every tenth customer entering the
supermarket until the required sample size had been reached.
 It ensures that the sample is spread across the population
 Can be costly and time-consuming if the sample is not conveniently located
  if there are 100 distributors of a particular product in which we are interested and our
budget allows us to sample say 20 of them then we divide 100 by 20 and get the
sampling fraction 5. Thereafter we go through our sampling frame selecting every 5th
distributor.

3. Stratified sampling

 This draws a sample from a specified sub-group or segment of the population and
uses random sampling to select an appropriate number from each stratum.
 This method recognises that the target population may be made up of many different
groups with many different opinions. These groups are called strata or layers of the
population and for a sample to be accurate it should contain members of all of these
strata – hence the term, stratified sampling.
 By selecting important groups to sample within before beginning data collection, the
researchers can ensure adequate representation of small and minority groups.
 The higher is the degree of heterogeneity, the larger the number of strata will be and
vice versa. For example, if we want to know attitudes of students toward private
tuitions, we divide the total number of respondents (students) of Gujarat State in
various parts or strata such as college students and school students; stratification may
follow level of education such as first year students, second year, third year, post
graduate level, diploma level; it may be on the basis of technical and non-technical
disciplines; may be city-wise or university-wise classification. Stratification takes
place in a several ways. Now, from each of the stratum, a sample of appropriate
number of students is selected. Sample drawn from each of the stratum represents
only that stratum. Final generalization is drawn by combining response of all the
samples drawn from each of the strata.

4. Quota sampling

 This is similar to stratified sampling. By this method, interviewees are selected

according to the different proportions that certain consumer groups make up of the
whole target population. For instance, if it is already known that out of all consumers
of denim jeans:
■ 65% are male
 ■ 35% are female
■ 35% are aged 14–20
■ 35% are aged 21–30
■ 20% are aged 31–40
■ 41 10% are aged over 41
 Then the sample selected would conform to the same proportions. Therefore, if there
were a sample of 200 people, 130 would be male, 70 female, 70 between 14 and 20
years old and so on. The interviewer could then choose the quotas by questioning the
right number of people in the high street. However, the interviewer might be biased in
their selection of people in each quota – preferring to ask only very attractive people,
for example. This makes quota sampling less probability-based than the other
methods and more open to individual bias.

5. Cluster sampling

 When a full sampling frame list is not available or the target population is too
geographically dispersed, then cluster sampling will take a sample from just one or a
few groups – not the whole population. This might be just one town or region and this
will help to reduce costs – but it may not be fully representative of the whole
population.