A market researcher might use multistage cluster sampling to select a sample of consumers from all cities with a population over 10,000 by following these steps:
- First Stage (Primary Clusters): The researcher would start by listing all cities with populations greater than 10,000. From this list, a random sample of cities is selected. These cities represent the primary clusters.
- Second Stage (Secondary Clusters): Within each selected city, the researcher would divide the city into smaller units such as city blocks (common clusters used in marketing research). Then, a random sample of these city blocks would be selected.
- Final Stage: From each selected city block, the researcher would randomly select households or individual consumers to participate in the study.
This multistage approach allows the researcher to manage the sampling process efficiently, reducing cost and complexity while still obtaining a representative sample of consumers across multiple cities.
