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Archive for January 31st, 2011

Online Surveys – A Cheap Way To Have A Successful Product Launch

A product launch can easily cost a company millions of dollars. Obviously the manufacturer thinks that the product is a good idea but what does the marketplace think?

What exactly are the odds of a product being successful in the marketplace? Before you invest millions of dollars wouldn’t you want to have some idea? One way that companies have developed to help predict the success or failure of a product is to get their potential customers to take online surveys. And more advertisers every day are taking advantage of this relatively low cost of doing market research that can prevent them making huge marketing and production mistakes.

Online surveys give companies immediate feedback on their ideas products and services. Surveys help them to answer the question regarding the level of demand for their idea or product. Surveys also enable them to tweak their offer many times if necessary until they are either comfortable that their idea is worth going forward with or is one that should be dropped. And often times it lets them do this at a fraction of the cost it would have taken to produce the product and market it.

Online surveys have one other advantage. It lets companies build up an email list of potential customers who have expressed an interest in what they have to offer.

From the user’s standpoint paid online surveys give them a chance to make a little money. If they are also interested in the product that they are evaluating as they should be it let’s them keep up on the latest innovations on that product. For example if you are a Linux guru and love working with it you might be the perfect candidate for a company about to promote a new Linux software add on. And it’s even sweeter for you if the company is willing to pay you for your opinions.

The typical marketing survey form will ask a potential buyer a series of questions such as: What do they like about the product? What do they dislike? If they like it the survey will likely as if they would be willing to pay for such a product and if so how much. If they dislike the product a good survey will dig deeper to get answers as to what specifically they do not like. If enough people express similar reservations about the product this gives the company a chance to modify the product before it goes to market.

A survey may also ask about their buying patterns. For example how often do they buy a new car upgrade their software or buy pasta? It helps the company gauge the size of their potential market. A company may have a product that they believe only appeals to men. If their survey reveals that it has an equal appeal to women as well they have potentially doubled their market size. And of course it works in reverse as well. They may think they have a product that both men and women will enjoy and sadly find that only men are interested in it.

Paid online surveys are a win/win for the company and user. If you’re a user the key thing is to get on the right notification lists so you’ll be aware of the online surveys that are available.

About the writer:  Eric Bayne is writer and researcher for http://www.retirementplanhelper.com . To learn more about making money with paid survey sites as well as other ways retired workers can make money please visit his website.