Designing a survey is analogous to designing an ad, for many reasons. In advertising, the advertisers want to get a reluctant audience to process their advertising message and then be persuaded by its arguments. In marketing research, the survey researchers want the reluctant respondent to answer their questions. This article draws parallels between the two worlds and shows how lessons learnt from advertising can be well applied to survey design.

I always use the analogy between advertising and marketing research. In advertising, the advertisers want to get a reluctant audience to process their advertising message and then be persuaded by its arguments. In marketing research, the survey researcher wants the reluctant respondent to answer his/her questionshonestly and completely, looking into his/her memory for answers and attitudes that will help the researcher gain information about the respondent. Both deal with the challenge of getting the audience/respondent to appreciate that the advantages of processing the advertisement/responding to the survey are in both parties' interests.

Both require time and effort from their intended target (audience or respondent) that they need to clarify upfront so that the audience will find it worthwhile to spend the time and effort to help the advertiser/market researcher in achieving his/her goals, which in turn, will help the member of the audience in achieving his/her goalswhether those goals are identifying a product that better serves his/her needs, or being a partner in the manufacture or delivery of such a product. Advertising is a great analogy for marketing research. Understanding how to conduct marketing research by using this analogy has great advantage for marketing researchers.

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