Chamblee54

PG saw a notice on Facebook. “I am attempting to help out someone who is very dear to me and they need 150 people to take this survey: http://nyustern.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_2nrHnDrbfj71IJm PG used to take surveys door to door, and likes to visit the world of market research from time to time. If nothing else, it will provide text to put between some pictures, from The Library of Congress .
When you click on the link, you see the Objective. “This survey is being conducted by NYU Stern MBA students to collect information about brand-awareness, perceptions and preferences around luxury vehicles. In addition, we will also ask your thoughts on one particular luxury brand. If you’re interested in cars, we’re interested in you. We’d like to understand more about your needs, what you want in a car, what excites you – what drives you.”
The next paragraph is Benefits. “This survey should take no more than fifteen minutes of your time and will help us create better vehicles and service experiences for you. There is no compensation to participants, however, the research team will donate $1 to the Wounded Warrior Project charity (www.woundedwarriorproject.org) for each completed response. ” PG had a dodgy experience with the Wounded Warrior Project charity a few years ago, and is skeptical about any benefits.
The rest of the first page is boilerplate about confidentiality. It is reassuring to PG that NYU is not selling information about his luxury car buying habits. It would be a very short report.
Page two is where the data starts to dribble. There are two multiple choice questions… “Which category of vehicle have you owned or leased? On average, how often do you purchase or lease a new vehicle?” The third question is where things get weird. “How soon are you looking to purchase or lease a new luxury vehicle?” PG is a pointA-to-pointB type of car owner. Luxury, by modern standards, is something that he cannot afford.
In many surveys, they have qualifying questions at the start. You don’t want to waste your time on people who are not in your target market. When PG answered the first question, and did not indicate that he ever owned, or wanted to own, a luxury vehicle, the survey should have terminated. The presence of PG in this project is going to corrupt the data.
Of course, the smart MBA students don’t have a qualifying question, and PG takes the rest of the study. When asked to type in “What features are most important to you in a luxury vehicle? Please enter as many items as you wish.”, PG answers brakes. On page two, where you agree of disagree with a series of statements about “Before purchasing a luxury vehicle it is important to know…”, the answers were marked “neither agree nor disagree”. (One of the statements was “Which vehicle athletes, musicians & entertainers drive”.)
At the bottom of page three, we find out who is sponsoring the study. “What do you associate with the Lincoln brand? What thoughts immediately come to mind?” (Please type your response in the box below.) John Kennedy was shot while riding in a Lincoln Ford. Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford’s theater.
Before long we get to the demographics. When asked “What is your gender?”, PG checked “Prefer not to respond”. When you hit the >> button, you get to see a video for the Lincoln 2012 MKZ Hybrid. Nobody said thank you.