Market Research – A Statistic Is You!
I was recently cold called by a market research company to participate in, funnily enough, some market research on a thirty minute (incl. ads) sitcom that they (whoever ‘they’ are) are considering developing. Being the little media nerd I am, I was incredibly interested in what the process entails and how it works out. In short, I said yes.
Now, I’m not going to go into any specific details regarding who is doing the study (it’s a commercial property, natch), what the show was, or what specific products I was asked to give my opinion about. I’m more interested in the process itself. I’ve always been the kind of person who likes to contribute opinions and whatnot when asked for them for research; I think it’s important to contribute to the furtherance of knowledge and the growth of understanding. In the past, I’ve done this through mainly academic means: participating in studies and filling out questionaires or just sitting down for a coffee with people and having conversations about their works. (I think I’ve been quoted in a thesis on Milan Kundera. *buffs nails and is generally awesome*) But, I’ve never been asked to participate in something which may have lasting impact in the now.
Of course, the now-ness of it all meant that the only opinions I gave that really counted were about the advertising content. Yay, now. -_-
The Package.
I was sent a package by the company conducting the survey containing a form letter (unless I changed my name to ‘Participant’ without telling me, which is entirely possible), a DVD, three envelopes– labelled ‘Please Open Before You View The Tape’, ‘Please Open After You View The Tape’ and ‘Please do NOT OPEN‘ (cementing their grammar skills as l33t)–and a $10 gift card. The letter outlined the process, informed me that the DVD was single use only and would self destruct in five seconds would not work a second time, and some questions I should keep in mind while viewing the program. It also said that I should ‘view the show however and whereever you usually watch TV at home. No need to be a TV critic, don’t take notes, we just want to know what you feel about this show.‘
So, I opened the first envelope just before watching it. It included ‘Prize Entry Form #1′ and a booklet. The booklet contained pictures of various products sorted into type and numbered off. The instructions asked that I go through each of the products and list which ones I would like to receive as a prize. Now, presumably, each product was included as a method of finding out which products people would like to use. Duh. But, seriously, in terms of prize content it was pretty lame. I had some seriously amazing and worthwhile choices, yo. Shampoo, conditioner, facial moisturisers, breakfast cereal, lollies, toilet cleaner. Woohoo, sign me up! I participated in SRS RSRCH and I won toilet cleaner! The possibilities were endless and not at all difficult to go out and procure myself were I to suddenly want [Random Item]. No, really.
At any rate, I filled out the form, hemmed and hawed over X-type moisturiser over Q-type moisturiser, considered the possibilities of allergic reaction with F-type laundry powder or liquid, and seriously considered the fibre content of cereal C over cereal Y. (Well, no, I didn’t. I thought ‘which is least likely to make me barf’) and then, at 9:00 last night, I put the DVD in and sat down to watch it.