Well, in trying to start a company I found I lack quite a bit of business knowledge. So to correct that I'm taking this business course at a local college. One of the things I have to do as project for this course is create a survey to get demographic information. Since I'm interested in electronics and micro-controllers that's what I did my survey on.
I'd really appreciate your help with my assignment so, please take the survey. It's really, really short and quick only 15 questions. No one will call you or email you (I don't even ask that kind of information)
115 total respondents, 10 eliminated as I guess they were just wasting time by putting in silly remarks. That left 105 in the final result, about 1/3 of what I was hoping for. The trends shown began to emerge after about 34-40 responses so I take them as accurate amongst those of us who respond to surveys. The survey was posted on 6 sites. This one, the PICAXE forum, AVRFreaks, an 8051 related site, a PIC related site and a general electronics site.
Question #13's result is humorous (and expected). Engineers love to claim they make entirely logical buying decision. Just like all people, they don't. Having spent a number of years in engineering-related marketing and sales I have learned that specifications are generally used to disqualify the solutions they don't want and to justify the solutions they do want. Sadly, the specifications used rarely have anything to do with the final solution.
Focus groups generally become the next temptation. Knowing your customer is often better than asking them what they want. If Henry Ford had done a focus group on horse-drawn carriages, people would have asked for faster horses.
