Comparative scales used to measure attitude towards beverages taken during breakfast.
The five types of beverages selected are: Coffee, Tea, Milk, Fruit Juice and Soda.
Paired Comparison
The paired comparisons include the following. Milk or coffee, Milk or Tea, Milk or fruit juice, Milk or Soda, Coffee or Tea, Coffee or Fruit Juice, Coffee or soda, Tea or fruit juice, Tea or soda, Fruit juice or Soda. Most respondents prefer coffee or tea given the fact that the morning is normally cold and only a beverage served cold would warm them up.
The biggest challenge here is inconsistency and slow decision making. The respondents preferences are linked with the beverages they do not need thus giving them a challenge of choice.
Rank order
The beverages are ranked in the order of their preference as Coffee, Tea, Milk, Fruit Juice, and finally Soda in a descending order. The most preferred is given rank 1 and the least given rank 5. i.e. Coffee (1), Tea (2), Milk (3), Fruit juice (4), soda (5).
Here, 3 respondents are for coffee, 2 are for tea and only 1 is for Milk. Fruit juice and Soda are not thus used for breakfast. This method of scaling is adequate since decision making is fast as the respondents already have a preferable single choice that outdoes the other choices.
Constant sum
The respondent’s choices are made on the preference of the beverage. Coffee is taken by 3 people, Tea by 2 people, Milk by 1person, Fruit Juice and soda is taken by none. This gives the coffee the constant sum value of 5, Tea has a sum value of 3 and Milk has 2. The challenge here is the awarding of the scaling numbers to the beverage given no number can adequately describe the preference.
