Kantar details techniques for writing open-ended survey questions that avoid weak answers

August 22, 2026 · kantar.com

Kantar's research team has published a guide to designing open-ended survey questions, built around four practical techniques. The first is sequencing: ask a simple closed-ended question, such as whether a bank provides an ideal customer experience, before the open-ended follow-up on what the bank could do better. The second is personal framing, replacing a question like 'Why do you like this brand?' with 'If a friend asked what you thought about this brand, what would you tell them?' The third is signaling expected length through a stated word count or a visual word counter. The fourth is adding a light constraint, such as asking respondents to describe an advertisement in three words. Kantar pairs the guidance with a free eBook, 'What Does Good Survey Design Look Like?'

Brand tracking and ad testing surveys feed decisions on creative direction and media allocation, and thin verbatims leave those decisions resting on guesswork about why a score moved. Teams commissioning or reviewing consumer research can apply Kantar's sequencing directly: check that a survey warms respondents up before requesting written feedback, and confirm that open-ended prompts carry enough framing to produce usable answers. Questionnaires designed this way cut the gap between fielding a survey and being able to explain the numbers to a client.