Survey Secrets: How Asking The Right Questions Transforms Brand Decisions

Let us imagine this: You're working with a brand that has spent years and decades building animage, a reputation based on quality, exclusivity, and being able to address customer needs with thehighest possible detail, and now, the brand wants you to collect insights for their product upcominglaunch (let’s say a high-end accessory for example). Naturally, you think performing marketingresearch is necessary to test the idea, and a survey is the most straightforward way to get theinformation you need, but wait, here's the catch: what is the difference between a good survey and abad one? Well, it could mean the difference between a product that becomes a customer’s favoriteand one that fails and may even impact your brand equity.

SURVEY 101

At first, a survey could seem like a simple tool; but we have to remember not all surveys should becreated equal. A poorly designed survey risks not only wasting valuable time and resources but alsotaking the brand towards the wrong path. Let me share with you why it is important to make a top-notch survey and why its quality means everything.

VEET - A SUCCESSFUL CASE STUDYSURVEY 101

it was 2020, and Veet's management for Latin America wanted to understand what consumers valued most in hair removal products and could help them differentiate against new competitors entering the market with lower prices. While working on this, me and my team could've just asked broad questions like, "Do you like Veet?" or "Would you recommend our products?" to know if the brand should worry about these newcomers, but these types of questions only give surface-level answers, no real insights, that are needed to make meaningful improvements.

Consequently, our vision was to aim for product qualities: "How would you rate our product scent?" and "How smooth does your skin feel after using it?. These questions revealed which product features were truly making an impact and if they were relevant for the customer at all. The results? We found that, while effectiveness was a must, customers cared the most about pleasant scent and smooth texture. So we implemented a subtle but essential insight for our brand messaging.

Note: This is an example of how we guided our brand message. See the feather she is holding to transmit “softness’".

WELL...IS A BAD SURVEY BETTER THAN NO SURVEY?

Imagine you did launch the product we discussed first, based on feedback from a survey full ofleading questions, where you asked for example: "Don't you think our product is the best on themarket?" you won't capture the truth. If we're only asking questions designed to confirm what wewant to hear, we're not collecting insights; we are collecting our ego, and more importantly, we arenot executing our job as Marketing professionals. So the question can answer itself, absolutely not!

WHY SHOULD WE CARE TO CONDUCT PROPER RESEARCH?

As marketers and, at our core, professionals with ethical principles, we cannot allow our companiesto make decisions based on misleading information. Sometimes, the result is not the one you want tohear, but it is your responsibility to share it trustfully anyway. As researchers, we must providevaluable content that helps us take the right path. Like I always tell my team, we should always bethinking in terms of the consequences of our actions, clearly knowing what is at stake and how ouractions can affect our brand. That is all for today, but finally, I want to leave you with this thought foryour practice moving forward: “Ask the right questions, you're not just collecting data, you'rebuilding a foundation for smarter, customer-centered decisions. You should always do yourresearch in pursuit of the truth and, above all, respect your findings”.

Note: Retrieved from Hubspot on November 6, 2024. From Survey Design: 13 Best Practices to Maximize Your Results

Ready for more? Don’t miss my last article about: The Forgotten Research: Qualitative Insights from Zacateca’s Success