Did you know that, a lot of (most of the) successful production houses run customer / consumer surveys before they finalize a script of a film! (There may be 5 to 10 story line ups to select the final version)

Did you know that, much before the film is released, a survey is run among a group of people to find out the weak points or the loopholes of the film! And it is very common that they altered the whole course of the film just because the audience did not like it.

Think about the music industry. Before releasing the first album of a new artist, a group of people (target listeners) listen to it. And believe it or not, the fate of the singer depends on the response from that group. The survey gets more importance than the critics.

And did you know how much money Apple spent in consumer surveys just to understand the requirements of the younger generation? They have spent millions of dollars just to understand the need before they even started to develop iPod. (Just a figure: Apple’s 2008 ad budget was $486 million; page 62)

These are all big stories. If you have friends in any survey house, just talk to them for a few minutes to know which product surveys that have done in last few months. You will definitely come across some names or product range that you have never imagined could be up for survey.

And more interestingly, companies pay the respondents for participating in the survey. They select people from their target consumer group and pay them for taking up the survey.

Google or any other big advertising companies track your online behavior to serve you the most appropriate ads. And these survey companies ask you about yourself first to find out if you belong to their target group or not and then they pay you for the surveys.

Most of the survey companies have their own database of people for different product categories. And a lot of people enroll their names in those companies to get a chance to participate in the surveys and earn some extra money and sometimes an opportunity to use a brand new product at the cost of providing feedback. Some big mobile companies use their own staff to test new models.

The end note is that, “survey” is multi-trillion dollar industry and you are a part of it.

BTW, how do you find out what your target audience needs?