A supermarket interested in determining its image would not be likely to get either an enthusiastic or an accurate response to the strategy of dropping a questionnaire in the customerÆs grocery bag before putting in the groceries. Customers are not likely to see the questionnaire, so it could be thrown out with the empty bag, and furthermore, they might not be motivated to fill out and return the questionnaire once they are home. A better idea might be to simply do a careful review of the types of products sold at the store. If it does a huge business in beer and potato chips, it clearly does not have an elite image. If it sells a lot of imported, luxury, or specialty items, it is probably regarded as a high-end store.
Stationing employees in the parking lot to ask customers their zip codes after they have parked their cards is not only a waste of time but would clearly be annoying and invasive to the customer. A better strategy would be to issue customer loyalty cards and require customers to present the cards in order to qualify for discounts and special privileges. When the customers used their cards, their zip codes would be tracked in the system. Customers who declined to accept loyalty cards could be tracked via the address on their personal checks. Only customers who did not use a card or a personal check would be untrackable using this system, and in those cases, cashiers could ask for their zip codes at the register.
Rather than ask people to pay a $2 charge and make a phone call on their own time to rate a movie, the studio would do better to ask them on their way out of the theater, or at least provide a 1-800 number for the phone call. Alternatively, they could offer a discount off a return ticket to see how many people would be willing to see the movie again with, say, a $1.00 discount; people ôvote with their feet,ö it is said.
Secondary data are sometimes preferable to primary data because t
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