Editor's note: "War Stories" is a regular feature in which Art Shulman, president of Shulman Research, Van Nuys, Calif., presents humorous stories of life in the research trenches.
Roxan Dinwoodie of Via Nova Consulting reports doing some qualitative research by phone. One of the qualifying questions was whether potential respondents would be willing to give "frank, thoughtful answers." One of the interviewers reported that a respondent replied to this question in all seriousness, "Who is Frank?"
Joel Lieberman of General Motors Service Parts Division reports about a focus group several years ago on automotive parts. At one point the moderator described the difference between oil filters and air filters because one of the participants in the meeting was confused. When the moderator indicated that the concept "was not rocket science," one woman stood up and indicated defiantly that, in fact, her husband was a rocket scientist.
Rich Lapin reports that his home was one of many affected by a tornado that struck Georgia in mid-April. One vendor specializing in water damage responded promptly and effectively to his needs, but after he sent in payment, the company followed up with a brief phone survey to check customer awareness on its full range of services besides water damage.
It then sent a letter which stated, in part, "...it is our goal at [company name] to make every effort to make your disaster as pleasurable as possible."
John Taylor reports using, in the late '70s, quarters as incentives in mail surveys. When a large number of quarters was needed for a survey, Taylor would arrange with his company's local New York City bank to have shiny new ones ready for pick up by a mailroom employee.
On one occasion Taylor gave the head of the mailroom an envelope with the bank's name on it containing instructions for picking up the quarters. Thinking it was a deposit, the mailroom head gave it to the newest employee, who had just started that day.
The new employee picked up $1,200 worth of quarters at the bank, and was never seen again.
Peter Thorwarth of BMA, a mystery shopping and price auditing service, relates that a few months back, a shopper from San Francisco called and apologetically said she wouldn't be able to mystery shop her assigned store after all. She then proceeded to fax BMA all 23 pages - each one blank - of her survey. Thorwarth figures that the woman felt by faxing the survey in she'd somehow formally discharged the responsibility for the assignment and had achieved "closure."
A researcher preferring anonymity tells about conducting one-on-one interviews on a new self-service kiosk product, with a prototype on display at the facility. One respondent, when asked what advertising vehicles he felt should be used to make consumers aware of the new product, paused for a moment, appeared confused, and then asked, "You mean like buses?"
Kevin Reilly of KCR/CREATIVE reports conducting a focus group with five-year-olds and explaining a five-point rating scale utilizing the familiar face of Snoopy from the "Peanuts" comic strip. On this scale, the emotive expressions on Snoopy's face ran from "elated" to "sad." In order to test kids' understanding of the rating scale, Reilly first gave them a few throwaway questions, usually extremes on the emotional spectrum. First, he asked them to, "Point to the face that tells me how much you like boiled broccoli." Understandably, the responses were mostly negative all around.
Then, to check the high end of the scale, he asked kids to, "Point to the face that tells me how you'd feel if every day were Christmas." As expected, responses were very enthusiastic - except for one boy who offered a more neutral rating. When asked why, his response was quite matter-of-fact: "It wouldn't really be a big deal to me ... I'm Jewish."