{"id":7200,"date":"2013-05-13T06:41:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T13:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/?p=7200"},"modified":"2013-05-13T06:41:11","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T13:41:11","slug":"decision-making-with-online-surveys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/decision-making-with-online-surveys\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 3 Dumbest Decisions and How They Could Have Been Avoided with Online Survey Tools"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t noticed,\u00a0throughout\u00a0the month of May, we are focusing on decision making and how to use online surveys to make better decisions. \u00a0This hasn’t been a new idea here at QuestionPro — it’s what we’ve been focused on all along. \u00a0In fact, if you take a look at all of our features, you’ll see that all we want you to be able to do is make good, profitable decisions and … here comes the shameless plug.. we want you to use QuestionPro to do it.\"bad<\/p>\n

But we’ve noticed that some of you have been a little slow to action, so we thought we’d have some fun with some of the stupidest business decisions — ever– and how we could have solved them using our QuestionPro tools. \u00a0A word of warning — QuestionPro didn’t exist at the time many of these decisions were made, but so what! \u00a0It’s fun. \u00a0So play along.<\/p>\n

Turning down the Beatles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the Beatles<\/a> appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 they were turned down by a record label because “Groups are out; four-piece groups with guitars particularly are finished.”<\/p>\n

Back in the day, decisions (especially those about music) were gut reactions. \u00a0These days we’ve seen lots of successful pop bands and boy bands become icons simply because of good market research. \u00a0Remember the Monkees<\/a>?<\/p>\n

You can say that human likes and dislikes are a mystery, but today’s marketers use highly sophisticated research tools and methods to craft entertainment offers that are guaranteed to make money.<\/p>\n

So how would you use an online survey tool<\/a> to do something like that?<\/p>\n

You could run a series of creatively crafted polls to ask your audience simple questions about which kinds of musical tastes they have. \u00a0You can even ask them what they like or dislike about specific musical styles or bands. \u00a0You’d have to do a bunch of these, and you’d have to do a lot of testing, but over time, you’d come up with a sort of specification list of the general kind of sound your audience would appreciate and purchase.<\/p>\n

Kodak ignores the digital camera<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why isn’t Kodak the premier provider of digital cameras? \u00a0They had developed the technology in 1975 and were early pioneers<\/a> in many ways, but basically ignored the trend and ultimately missed out on the opportunity.<\/p>\n

So how could they have used today’s survey technology to make better decisions?<\/p>\n

I can’t believe they didn’t have a market research department tracking customer purchases of films and cameras. \u00a0We see these kinds of surveys all the time;<\/span><\/p>\n