I think they lied to us. I think they lied to us about survey being one best ways to carry out research.
I know, I know you are already angry and you probably are not interested in what I have to say anymore, but hear me out first.
Personally, there are two reasons why I have concluded that survey might not be as important as we say it is.
The first one is that as humans, we tend to lie to ourselves a lot. Sometimes, this might not be intentional, but we do it regardless.
I read a book that gave an instance, where a brewery company sent out questionnaires to the community in which they were located.
This questionnaires was meant to serve two purposes.
One was to know what the community felt about their product (if it was good enough). And the other was to know which of the beers the community preferred consuming.
The company produced two types of beers. The cheap (which isn’t so good for a consumer’s health) and the expensive one (which is better than the cheap one health wise).
When the survey was over, the results was the complete opposite of what the company expected. Most of the community member had written on their questionnaire that they preferred the expensive beer to the cheap one.
And I can say that they did this because they know that the cheap beer is not good for their health. But because emotions like pride and respect has come into play, they decide to lie to themselves.
Meanwhile, every year, the amount of cheap bear been sold is thrice more than that of the expensive one.
Onward.
The other reason why I have made this unusual conclusion on survey is that, from my recent research, I have learnt that if you want to know the truth about a man, look at his pocket i.e observe what he spends his money on.
If you are trying to introduce your product into a community, try to observe the sales rate of a product similar to yours in that community.
If the sales rate is quite low, it might not a good idea to introduce your product.