Marketers use wording such as “was $100, now $80” to indicate a price promotion. The promotion is typically compared to the retailer’s previous price or to a competitor’s price. A study in the Journal of Consumer Research investigated whether betweenstore comparisons result in greater perceptions of value by consumers than within-store comparisons. Suppose 50 consumers were randomly selected from all consumers in a designated market area to participate in the study. The researchers randomly assigned 25 consumers to read a within-store price promotion advertisement (“was $100, now $80”) and 25 consumers to read a between-store price promotion (“$100 there, $80 here”). The consumers then gave their opinion on the value of the discount offer on a 10-point scale (where 1 = lowest value and 10 = highest value). The value opinions of the two groups of consumers were compared. 

a. Identify the data-collection method. 

b. Are the sample data representative of the target population?