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What Is A Dipstick Survey? Why Is It Called So?
Posted By: mugildata* on 6/30/2004 4:06 AM (CST) 50 Points
I frequently come to hear about dipstick survey. but actually want to what a dipsick survey is? Where it is normally used. Is it a convenient sampling technique or any probability is attahced?

Posted by: The Consultant ™* Member Response
6/30/2004 7:43 AM (CST)
Hi mugildata,
A dipstick survey is the same as an exploratory survey. It is called a dipstick because "dipstick" by definition means "a measuring rod that is dipped into a container to indicate the depth of liquid in it" and an exploratory research is also conducted to measure the scope or depth of a problem.

Here is some detailed info on exploratory research:

As the term suggests, exploratory research is often conducted because a problem has not been clearly defined as yet, or its real scope is as yet unclear. It allows the researcher to familiarize him/herself with the problem or concept to be studied, and perhaps generate hypotheses (definition of hypothesis) to be tested. It is the initial research, before more conclusive research (definition of conclusive research) is undertaken. Exploratory research helps determine the best research design, data collection method and selection of subjects, and sometimes it even concludes that the problem does not exist!

Another common reason for conducting exploratory research is to test concepts before they are put in the marketplace, always a very costly endeavour. In concept testing, consumers are provided either with a written concept or a prototype for a new, revised or repositioned product, service or strategy.

Exploratory research can be quite informal, relying on secondary research such as reviewing available literature and/or data, or qualitative (definition of qualitative research) approaches such as informal discussions with consumers, employees, management or competitors, and more formal approaches through in-depth interviews, focus groups, projective methods, case studies or pilot studies.

The results of exploratory research are not usually useful for decision-making by themselves, but they can provide significant insight into a given situation. Although the results of qualitative research can give some indication as to the "why", "how" and "when" something occurs, it cannot tell us "how often" or "how many". In other words, the results can neither be generalized; they are not representative of the whole population being studied.

It is moslty done through convenient sampling rather than probability as it is to provide a base for further research.

I hope this helps.
 
Posted by: golddd2* Member Response
6/30/2004 8:36 PM (CST)
As a minor note, this term isn't widely used in Australia as a 'dipstick' also means the equivalent of 'fool' or 'schmuck'.
 
Posted by: Jett* Member Response
7/1/2004 5:02 PM (CST)
Hmmmmm. The Consultant's answer looks remarkably identical to this article:

http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/ResearchProcess/ExploratoryResearch.htm
 
Posted by: telemoxie Member Response
7/2/2004 6:33 PM (CST)
hmmmm...

Maybe a dipstick survey is something like this:

Why are you posting this question on MarketingProfs rather than doing your own Google search?

1 - Don't know how
2 - Too lazy
3 - Don't get enough emails at work
4 - Afraid to learn new things
5 - Just testing out the forum
 
Posted by: telemoxie Accepted Answer
7/3/2004 4:47 PM (CST)
Sorry - I tried my own Google and Altavista search, and I appologise, it's not easy as I had thought it would be to find a definition for this.

I have always thought of a dipstick survey as a quick survey, where you are much more interested in a general feel than in statistical probabilities.

There seem to be lots of results from "dipstick surveys on the web, but not too many definitions. Here's one you might find helpful:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/dipstick.asp

I found a pretty good list of on-line dictionaries & language sources - but none of the online dictionaries I checked had an entry for dipstick surveys...
http://pw1.netcom.com/~rlederer/rllink.htm
 
Posted by: The Consultant ™* Member Response
7/11/2004 4:52 AM (CST)
I have given my views to the question in the start. The info about exploratory research is from this webpage:

http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/ResearchProcess/ExploratoryResearch.htm

 
Posted by: Val (Moderator)* Moderator Response
7/18/2004 3:52 PM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question, since its more than 2 weeks old. We do this to make sure members' contributions are rewarded in a timely manner and to improve the visibility of newer questions. Thanks, so much, for participating!

Val (Moderator)
 


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