Consumer surveys -- Ever see results?

[kork13]

So over the last year or so, I've started doing some online consumer surveys, earning a bit of pocket money & so forth for my thoughts. But I ran across an article today that struck me as familiar, stating that Pepsi will be replacing aspartame in its products with sucralose (one artificial sweetener for another), due to "consumers ditching diet cola because of aspartame" and that the company is "making the move based on consumer surveys ...". The headline caught my eye, because I remembered participating in one survey asking about diet sodas, in which I stated in no uncertain terms that I never drink diet sodas because the aspartame makes me feel sick (I don't drink sodas very much at all anyway, but that's beside the point...haha). Looking back, something tells me that particular survey may have come from PepsiCo.... So I guess it was just a bit surprising for me to realize that my statements (and associated comments/ratings throughout that particular survey) may very well have influenced this decision on the part of Pepsi. Sometimes maybe the voice of the little guy isn't quite so little?

I know there are a number of others around here that participate in similar consumer surveys -- just curious if you ever notice what appears to be a direct result from your responses to such surveys. Any particular examples that come to mind?

[disneysteve]

I do a ton of surveys. Most are medical in nature but some are consumer surveys from Pinecone and others. I have definitely seen products I've been surveyed about turn up in the market later. For example, I did a product trial for a spice blend that was later launched. I've seen it in the supermarket. I did another trial a few months ago for a potential new product that hasn't been launched yet but I keep looking for it because it was actually very good and something that I would definitely buy once it hits stores.

Most of the medical surveys are post-market studies but some are pre-market. I did a one-on-one interview a few weeks ago. They showed me a mock up of the detail piece that would be shown to doctors and asked me to evaluate it and tweak it. That will turn up when the sales reps start coming in to promote the product.

They definitely don't spend all of that money just to ignore the survey results. They use that data for sure.

[CashUp Sammy]

It can be even more fun when you sample something that never makes it to market.

I once sampled some fantastic "Cheeseburger Crisps" from a company that had obviously taken time to create the recipe and what not. There were amazing, but they never saw the light of day on the supermarket shelf.

Not sure why, because they were fantastic.

Would like to get on a market research list for chocolate though!