Men Who Like Cats: A Quick Lesson On How To Mess Up Your Market Research

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Verified Man Who Likes Cats…

Purrrr, Professor Purrrr… How much do I like cats? I commissioned this artwork featuring me and my moggy minions.

They got me — at least, their targeted ad did — as I am indeed a proud philofelist. (Not news to those who know me.)

So when this SurveyWorld ad seeking “Men Who Like Cats” appeared in my Instagram feed, I responded like a feral tabby to 200-proof catnip. I clicked through to their website and… immediately left. Here’s why…

Hello, Disconnect!

When a marketer’s ads and other promotional media don’t match the destination store or website, that’s a brand disconnect. The customer feels confused.

Worse, when a marketer promises one thing and delivers another, that’s a marketing disconnect. The customer feels deceived.

That was the case with SurveyWorld. After clicking the ad for “Men Who Like Cats,” I landed here:

Coffee or tea? Wait, what?

You’ll notice what’s missing: CATS!

Nothing on the page describes — or even links to — the advertised research study. Did they expect me to invest my time into trying to find it?

Ha! I bounced by hitting the back button (which, by the way, is bad for SEO).

Whither The Research?

Did this marketing research company not research its own marketing?

After creating a study and all the media to support and promote it, marketers have to test it with target customers (not employees or friends or family). That’s basic user-experience research.

Had they done so, SurveyWorld might have discovered that most busy people like myself won’t do time-burning studies. And as a market research company, they should have known that’s the case with most online surveys…

Enter The Self-Selection Bias

A common research mistake is letting your survey pool consist of random volunteers. In many cases, only people with the strongest feelings — love or hate — respond, so you’re only hearing from the extremes, not the silent majority.

In addition, a cumbersome survey process with small rewards will mostly attract people who have more time than money. If that’s your target market, fine. But if your target includes, say, executives, you’ll have to keep looking.

The “Men Who Like Cats” survey likely received underemployed respondents, and the resulting findings could lead a client to underprice and under-quality their products.

Key Takeaways

If your target market includes more than just people with spare time and moderate income, follow these steps:

1. Create awareness through a wider array of outlets. Instagram is fine, but diversify your audience through other options. SurveyWorld could have run ads in a business newsletter, or tried direct marketing through a veterinary chain.
2. Ensure marketing consistency and relevance. Make your design and writing consistent across all media, and your destination site/store show what you promised.
3. Screen and weigh. You likely won’t recruit a perfect representation of your target market, but you can adjust the results. For example, you might know that executives comprise 10% of your target market but only 5% of your respondents. You can either try to recruit more execs, or simply double the weight of the executive responses you do receive.
4. Make the rewards worth their while. Even if you can’t afford to adequately compensate everyone, you can offer the chance to win something bigger, like a VIP trip to Le Miaousée: The Montreal Cat Museum (hint, hint).
5. Test everything before you run with it. If you’re a market research company, that’s mandatory.

Your survey audiences are as finicky and independent as cats. If you want their attention and participation, you have to earn it.