This week I started doing interviews as an initial step of my market research module. I printed out the interview script as taught in class and walked near my neighborhood and then around the campus to look for some people to interview. The first interviewee was a couple in their middle age. The wife just moved here from Texas and she used a local packing and shipping company there, so they shared with me about their experience with this company and gave important factors and rated the importance respectively. I then interviewed a young man, and a UC professor, whom I met randomly on campus. While they talked a lot about the factors that they were most concerned about and their perceptions of a few companies like FedEx, UPS and DHL, none of them knew my client’s company Navis Pack & Ship, so the perception of ours was all zero, which was kind of ambiguous.
Then during my first project review this week, Drew gave me some suggestions as to how to adjust my interview script in order to make the most out of it, considering most people may not hear my client company name. As a result, I added four pictures representing FLAV (fragile, large, awkward and valuable) items respectively and let the interviewees view them vividly first even though they may not have used any packing and shipping service. The point is anyone might be a potential customer during one’s lifetime and we want to gather their general perception.
This Saturday morning I also went to an auction place with my client Marty. This is an auction for historic vintage British & European Motorcycle Parts business held by Domi Racer Distributors, Inc. Relations with Cincinnati industrial auctioneers work as a source of customers to Navis. Our trip was to preview this auction place and all the FLAV stuff so Marty could offer accurate quotation when people make calls. I met two motorcycle fans there and approached them for interviews when they were about to leave. But to the first question, they picked the answer A, which means they packed and shipped items themselves instead of hiring a professional packing and shipping company. Then they did not need go on with the rest questions and simply drove their trucks away. This was unexpected to me but helped me think more about my interviews. Do I give people priming effect when I show them photos of FLAV? Have I embedded a preference answer already? Am I clear about what a final result will come out of the interview? Gradually I come to understand the word “Ambiguity” here. After all, uncertainty is the reason that leads us forward.
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