University Market Research

[Sam__]

I'm conducting market research as a part of my final project for my degree. My project is to develop a solar panel positioning system. I was wondering if a few of you might be willing to answer ten short multiple choice questions with regards to solar power. I would be very appreciative to anyone who does take the sub 1 minute it will take to fill out.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6WTLVC8

Thank you in advance.

[AndyC_772]

Your survey comes across as very biased to me. I feel as though I'm being sold a product based on my own perceived inability to carry out even the most basic quantitative cost/benefit analysis.

The answer to Q6 is obviously always going to be "yes", but from this point onwards, the essential information someone would need would be how much energy a solar installation might reasonably supply. A realistic long-term average, with caveats fully disclosed.

Am I interested in having solar panels? Possibly, depending on how much energy they might generate. And would I like them to generate "up to" 30% more than some undefined figure? Maybe, bearing in mind that "up to" is marketing b.s. for "less than", and often includes zero. It's actually quite an insulting technique to try and use outside of a washing powder commercial.

So, how much would I be prepared to invest in a system, where I've no idea what the return on investment might be? And in particular, a system which might be "up to" some amount more effective than that other unknown figure?

No, but not because I have anything against solar power, I have something against being sold technical products on the basis of "significantly", "up to", and other vague, wishy-washy statements.

[Sam__]

Thanks for the feedback

Some very good points to note. I will mention them when I analyse the results.

[tszaboo]

I'm heating with electricity, I have a fixed monthly utility cost for my rented apartment, which I never want to own. Solar panels? Yeah right.

[Tinkerer]

I agree with the above on the questions. Neutral statements are always needed in polls. Saying something like, 'did you know this is becoming more prevalent' is a bit leading. What should be asked in its place is 'What is your opinion on this' and list 'Its becoming more prevalent, its becoming less prevalent, no opinion' etc etc. This leaves the person to make up their own mind. This is just an example though.

[Bored@Work]

The question is, is this survey really needed for the degree project?

If yes, it should be done much more professional to avoid to get in trouble with a teacher / professor grading the project who happens to know how surveys are supposed to be done. The social science and the marketing studies people usually get taught how to do surveys by the book, yet they still fail to assemble and perform reasonable surveys. So it is not easy.

If the survey isn't needed for the degree project I would quickly drop it and pretend it never happened. If the survey is supposed to support some technical decisions or requirements I would suggest to look elsewhere for good reasons. The key word here is "good". Even teachers / professors not really knowing how to do good surveys smell a rat if they see a student's DIY survey, because you are surely not the first one trying to justify decisions with a survey. That trick is in fact rather old now.

[Psi]

You will get corrupted results for Q7 onwards because
- Not everyone owns a house
- If they already have solar panels the questions don't really apply

People start to 'make things up' or pick randomly when no option is valid to them.

[Sam__]

The question is, is this survey really needed for the degree project?

If yes, it should be done much more professional to avoid to get in trouble with a teacher / professor grading the project who happens to know how surveys are supposed to be done. The social science and the marketing studies people usually get taught how to do surveys by the book, yet they still fail to assemble and perform reasonable surveys. So it is not easy.

If the survey isn't needed for the degree project I would quickly drop it and pretend it never happened. If the survey is supposed to support some technical decisions or requirements I would suggest to look elsewhere for good reasons. The key word here is "good". Even teachers / professors not really knowing how to do good surveys smell a rat if they see a student's DIY survey, because you are surely not the first one trying to justify decisions with a survey. That trick is in fact rather old now.

Yes and No.

This was just a very quickly thrown together questionnaire, as you have all been able to tell. For a module unrelated to my project but the survey has to be about the project. We get marks if we do a survey and interpret the results. So as long as I say that all the questions were biased and what I would change for next time, it's all good. There is no decision justification in the survey, it's purely a standalone piece of data gathering.

I hope this makes it clearer.

Also thank you all again for your great feedback, this will make writing the report much easier.

[sleemanj]

This survey makes me think of door-to-door salesmen: "hey friend would YOU like to save xx% on your [insert expense here]", what am I going to say, no?

Just yesterday I had some hawker for a "charity" at the door, "[blah blah blah fast talking to create the pressure] so you would agree that continuing research into heart disease prevention is a good thing".... "yeah lady sorry I'm real busy, give me your leaflet and I'll look later".  They didn't even have a leaflet.

So accordingly, in this survey, questions 6, 7, 8 are invalid.  Question 3 is totally leading, you have asserted that the item is becoming more prevalent, then asking about it, classic manipulation to get people thinking the way you want.  Question 10 is a bit silly for a worldwide audience.

[AndyC_772]

This was just a very quickly thrown together questionnaire, as you have all been able to tell. For a module unrelated to my project but the survey has to be about the project. We get marks if we do a survey and interpret the results. So as long as I say that all the questions were biased and what I would change for next time, it's all good. There is no decision justification in the survey, it's purely a standalone piece of data gathering.

A poor job is something to be held up in front of the class as an example to others - rather like the videos we are shown of bridges collapsing. Not something to be awarded high marks.

Following this up with a report which explains why the results are worthless is like building a bridge and then producing a report which explains why it'll collapse in high winds.

We are engineers, you and I. We are the people who DO understand basic arithmetic, who CAN perform a rational analysis of products we are offered, and who absolutely SHOULD be teaching others how to do the same. Because if we won't do it, who will?

Go back and start again. Some better questions might be:

- Have you ever worked out how much you might be able to save on your electricity bill by installing solar panels?
(Gathers information about someone's prospective level of interest, without leading them either way)

- Do you have the authority to make the decision as to whether solar panels could be installed where you live?
(Critically important commercial information; if someone rents their property or is subject to planning restrictions, the question of installing solar panels is academic no matter how good they are)

- Would you be interested in a system which, on average, improves the output of a solar installation by 10%, if that system increased the cost of the installation by 15%?
(Honest and quantitative - allows someone to make an informed judgment based on real figures and their own preferences for cost vs benefits of using renewable energy)

[mrflibble]

No, but not because I have anything against solar power, I have something against being sold technical products on the basis of "significantly", "up to", and other vague, wishy-washy statements.

Available this year: Politician 2.0. Up to 100% truthful.

Always good to have a hard upper limit on something. Of course it's even better to just have the whole distribution. Mmmh, 0.5% truthful median value. Well darn it, there goes that plan.

[Sam__]

If only I had the time to do it again, but sadly much other work to do.

I have however learned a lot about how you write a survey from all this feedback. So if I ever need to do one in the future, it will be significantly better.