This past weekend, we bought a 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. While Pabst was part of my college years, back then I was more likely to reach for Cincinnati brewed Hudepohl or Schoenling. Nonetheless, I have not bought Pabst in many years. Honestly, I didn’t even know it was still available. We are more of a Pinot Noir or Syrah household these days. When we do buy beer for our friends, it is usually something like Pilsner Urquell or Peroni. But this weekend we bought Pabst Blue Ribbon. Because we are not a big beer consuming household, this may qualify Pabst as the brand of beer receiving the largest proportion of my beer purchases for the year.
Any of you who follow my blog regularly know that I tell these stores with a hook back into market research. This story has an especially important hook. When conducting a brand health tracker, you usually ask questions such as favorite brand, brand last bought and brand bought most often. If I had been interviewed, no offense to Pabst, but you would have been surprised that someone of my socio-economic status was buying Pabst – and even more so if you discovered it is the brand I bought the most.
The hook is that when doing a brand health tracker, we always recommend asking a critical “why” question to brand bought last or bought most often. Because this requires an open-ended question, it adds cost that some feel is not warranted.
Now I must tell you why I bought a 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon. We are big fans of beer can chicken. It is absolutely the best way to cook a whole chicken on the grill. Between now and this winter, we will probably cook a dozen beer can chickens. We have learned that it has to be beer, not coke, not lemonade, not wine. And we have learned that the quality of the beer does not matter. So we decided we should buy the cheapest beer possible. Pabst Blue Ribbon happened to be that beer last weekend.
If you have many respondents like me in your survey, and you don’t ask why, you could have distorted, misleading survey results.
I’d be interested to hear of other such situations where survey results are not what you think they are. And if you want the recipe for a killer beer can chicken, drop us a note.
Any of you who follow my blog regularly know that I tell these stores with a hook back into market research. This story has an especially important hook. When conducting a brand health tracker, you usually ask questions such as favorite brand, brand last bought and brand bought most often. If I had been interviewed, no offense to Pabst, but you would have been surprised that someone of my socio-economic status was buying Pabst – and even more so if you discovered it is the brand I bought the most.
The hook is that when doing a brand health tracker, we always recommend asking a critical “why” question to brand bought last or bought most often. Because this requires an open-ended question, it adds cost that some feel is not warranted.
Now I must tell you why I bought a 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon. We are big fans of beer can chicken. It is absolutely the best way to cook a whole chicken on the grill. Between now and this winter, we will probably cook a dozen beer can chickens. We have learned that it has to be beer, not coke, not lemonade, not wine. And we have learned that the quality of the beer does not matter. So we decided we should buy the cheapest beer possible. Pabst Blue Ribbon happened to be that beer last weekend.
If you have many respondents like me in your survey, and you don’t ask why, you could have distorted, misleading survey results.
I’d be interested to hear of other such situations where survey results are not what you think they are. And if you want the recipe for a killer beer can chicken, drop us a note.
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