Why You Should Never Trust a Survey
I’ll bet I can find survey data to support any arguement I want to make. Is McCain going to be the next President of the United States of America? Yep. Does eating chocolate during pregnancy reduce the chance of complications? The Mirror says yes. Has Peanut Butter been shown to satisfy hunger up to five times longer than some high-carbohydrate snacks like rice cakes? Kraft seems to think so. Do Australian men feel more happy surfing the Internet than having sex? According to the Courier Mail they do.
It’s a shame that marketers have to rely on surveys to justify what they do. Everyone knows that by the time survey respondents get to question 20 they don’t give a toss. Google wasn’t started because of a survey. Columbus didn’t discover the new world because nine out of ten respondents strongly agreed.
Never trust a survey.
Bruce Nelson
October 6th, 2008 at 11:58 am
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Correct, and Nirvana didn’t set out to turn the music world upside down after the results of a 1800 phone poll (read Australian Idol).
And yes, you can find data in a survey to support any argument you want, but research and their findings are also great cannon fodder for the world of public relations.
As a PR practitioner (and cynic), every time I read or hear the words, “An independent survey released today says…” I’m always looking beyond the so called remarkable stat to find out who actually commissioned the work.
One of the more recent interesting ones was a story that ran about how many billions of dollars Australian women spend on handbags each year. In our fashion conscious world this information made interesting copy and did the rounds of tabloids, breakfast TV and fashion mags. But who funded the research? Panadol. Because its one of the items a woman is likely to fit in her handbag. So much for a bex and a good lay down.
So I agree, never trust a survey as its backers may have other motives, but as for ammunition to craft a good media release to fire off to unsuspecting news editors, they’re gold.
Just ask ol’ Eddie Bernays, he started commissioning research for this very purpose in the 1920s.
Matt Granfield
October 6th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
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“Unsuspecting” news editors, or “lazy” news editors?
Jye Smith
October 7th, 2008 at 8:15 am
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Brilliant post.