Sun, Surveys, and.. Soliciting?

So today was a different kind of day at the office... mostly because we weren't there. Most of us went to the Bombay restaurant to meet up with the management. Kris and I, though, had the task of passing out surveys to gain some insight as to what people look for in restaurants, their willingness to try indian food (which is what Bombay has), etc. It was an interesting experience - some were more than willing to complete the survey, and others were more than willing to.. well, not complete the survey. Overall, though, we received a good response from the many surveys we "flung" at people.

For me, the key for getting someone to fill out a survey was to mention the magic number of how there are only "four" questions, and bam, they did it. The word "survey" seemed to scare people off at first, so I assured them that there are only four questions that would only waste 30 seconds of their life. Also, I did get some people thinking I was soliciting around their store, which is obviously not what we were doing. It wasn't a waste entirely for some people, though, as Kris actually ended up promoting EMG in the process. Apparently, UPS was interested in doing business with us to help promote them. After about two hours, we came back with most of the surveys completed, a UPS business card, and a free vanilla latte I received from the kind management at Starbucks.
(Note to self: ALWAYS distribute surveys at Starbucks)

Guess it just goes to show you never know exactly what will happen when you roam the streets of Mariemont.

This whole process also goes to show how many people still need to get acclimated with this india-dish called tandoori chicken - most people on the survey said they did not know about it, while most said they did know about curry. This was not a big surprise, as I would have answered the exact same way. It will be neat to compile all of the data together and to make some more observations about peoples' likes/dislikes and general preferences. Bombay will be especially pleased with the response we got from the surveys - knowing consumers' preferences/wants is definitely key to implenting an effective marketing strategy.

I think the big observation from going through the surveys is how a lot of people actually KNEW about Bombay City Restaurant (or more people than we thought would know about it). Since most already seem to know about it, our job is to now get these people to come in and simply TRY the food.

Sure, we hear of these weird-sounding foods once in a while. But how will we know if we actually like it or not until we try it? You won't. Experiential marketing at its best.