Marketing survey results often generate new questions, even as they provide answers about product use, customer preference, and sales potential. Surveys demand time in careful preparation; casual or hurried forethought can readily sabotage data collection. Developing an effective survey is essential when attempting to collect the appropriate information needed to target customers with the correct message, price and promotion. This journal focuses on a tightly controlled customer survey conducted in early 2009 for Yamaha Corporation which is a company that manufactures custom motorcycles. Yamaha agreed to have two MBA students from Hong Kong Baptist University provide research services by creating and conducting a customer survey. The results up-ended the anticipated survey paradigm when, despite notable flaws, the survey actually functioned quite credibly. The unexpected outcome offers both insight and speculation about what diverted failure, and about what we can learn from results gleaned despite flaws.

Before sharing details about Yamaha's survey, we offer some background on current survey research. If we consider current trends in survey methodology and compare them to how Yamaha's example functioned, then we can better grasp what made the Yamaha results rather surprising. At present, debate continues about the best method for conducting marketing research surveys. Endless hours of interpreting paper and pencil results, waiting for mailed replies from more respondents could be coming to an end. The future of marketing research appears to lie in the interpretation of online blogs, chats and various forms of hybrid surveys. Ray Poynter (2009) has predicted that in the future, "Conventional quantitative studies will be increasingly seen as unable to provide valuable insight, and as being poor value for the money. Research communities will become the centrepiece of many companies' insight strategies, answering some questions directly, dictating the needs for some research and tying the various strands together." As Poynter recognizes, with "value for money" dictating trends, survey methods will move away from paper to faster and less costly strategies. Respondents want to be reached where they are most comfortable and where it is most convenient for them. In their recently completed book, Internet, Mail and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, authors Dillman, Smyth and Christian (2009) assert that, with convenience and ease as primary respondent motivators, preferable survey models should incorporate multiple modes. Dillman explains, "When surveyors decide from the beginning that achieving good results requires using multiple modes, questions must be written that achieve the same measurement across modes, and modes must be implemented in ways that support one another and maximize response rates."

These requirements mean that survey methodologies must be competent in multiple survey modes." Thus, to attain higher customer response rates, marketing researchers will need to consider respondent convenience, as well as their own ease in administering and interpreting results. These considerations about ease and convenience make systems like Survey Monkey, an online survey program, a popular and useful tool. The on-line format provides marketing researchers the ability to link surveys to emails, websites, Facebook, chat rooms, and other forms of electronic communication. A databank immediately piles survey results and allows for retrieval and analysis at any time. A multi-mode survey becomes more readily attainable with the help of a computer generated data-collection system such as Survey Monkey.

Consequently, just as the telephone survey became antiquated, the single mode survey appears to be slipping into disuse. Electronic options make multi-mode analysis more attractive. Initially, researchers thought that only a select group of individuals would use the internet and respond to surveys. However, by 2003 with internet access already reaching 60% in Japan. (Ray and Tabor, 2003) the presumption of limited use had to be rethought. As use became a given, the caliber of that use garnered scrutiny. Hair, Busch and Ortinau (2009) share reservations about the effectiveness of online surveys and about who responds to them.

Hair et al. distinguish between two forms of online surveys: email or internet /web based. Email surveys are sent to a mass mailing of email account holders who may choose to opt in or opt out of the survey. Recipient filter systems may hold back survey emails, placing them in a Spam folder. Thus, the sender risks never reaching the intended recipient with an email survey, and the successful transmission depends upon the sender possessing an updated email address bank.

The other option, an internet /web based survey, is placed on websites frequented by prospective respondents. These respondents need to join a club or become a member of an organization to have access to the website displaying the survey. The advantage of internet/web based surveys is that the targeted population has an interest in the site.

Many companies give their respondents immediate access to survey results and offer them the option of commenting on the results online. These comments can give the surveying companies additional information they previously lacked. Since surveys oftentimes fail to target the right questions, by including the option of comments, surveyors can gather insights about respondents even as questions fall short.

A study by Kaplowitz, Hadlock and Levine (2004) suggests that web surveys " can achieve a response rate comparable to a surface mail questionnaire, if the web version is preceded by a surface mail notification." These results indicate web surveys may require greater up-front effort to produce results. Later work by Roster, Rogers et al. (2007) indicates that web surveys are especially attractive to younger, more highly educated respondents.

The opportunity of using an online medium gives the respondent the ability to interact with video and audio clips, thus mimicking a traditional interview (minus the cost). Evans and Mathur (2005) summarize the benefits of web surveys which include speed of gathering information, reach of respondents, lack of statistical data entry and analysis, little or no administrative costs, flexibility in follow-up with respondents and convenience for the respondent.

Marketing researchers are typically quantitative in nature. Yet, recent research appears to be showing that numbers are not necessarily the future of marketing. Marketers will need to heed carefully their customer comments and preferences to avoid spending thousands of dollars on needless research. The evolution of marketing research is being revealed in the classroom. Marketing Research classes of the last decade, for example, that typically produced original research through focus group interviews, in depth interviews, and paper and pencil surveys, will very likely in the current decade convert completely to online research. The results of online projects will reveal larger quantities of information more specific to the situation being researched.

The economic tightening of 2010 is causing all business sectors, ranging from for profit to nonprofit, to examine their expenditures. Marketing research is often one of the first areas to be eliminated during budget crises. With the advent of online research capabilities, firms of all sizes are now able to conduct their own marketing research at a fraction of the former costs. Optimizing an effective online research agenda will effectively result in lower costs and more up-to-date information for firms. Organizations will no longer need to be so reliant upon marketing research firms to conduct most of their research. Marketing graduates may be called upon to conduct online research and will have the ability to effectively interpret the results for immediate use.

Summarizing, then, some key points about current survey research, trends indicate that the paper and pencil survey is declining in use. Marketers know respondents prefer comfort and convenience, while the marketers themselves favor ease of administration and interpretation. Thus mechanisms such the on-line Survey Monkey are becoming favored structures around which to build market research. A growing preference exists for email and website surveys, despite the risk of diverted transmissions with email surveys and the possible need for enhanced contact with web surveys. The economic attractiveness of on-line data collection makes that format a natural choice preference.

Keeping this groundwork in mind, we turn to the story of Yamaha Corporation. Yamaha recently developed her motorcycle manufacturing operational plants from Osaka in Japan to the provinces / cities in the Pearl River Delta and Yantsz River Delta in Mainland China. Yamaha's customers may purchase a modification kit, to convert an existing motorcycle from two wheels to three, or they may invest is a completely new three wheel trike. Currently Yamaha is the world's leading manufacturer of trike conversion kits. As our population grows older, Yamaha expects demand will increase for modified motorcycles that can be handled by older, less physically strong individuals.

With projected changes in consumer demands and recent global and national financial uncertainties, Yamaha's marketers wanted to know more about their current customers. They looked ahead with greater focus at the aging baby-boomer generation and presumed this demographic would offer the company significant growth potential. Specifically, the Trike builder hoped to attract women, who they assumed would favor the stability of a three wheel machine and the greater ease of steering that comes from a stable motorcycle ridden without concern for balancing weight on two wheels.

Adding urgency to Yamaha marketing strategy was a two year alliance with Harley-Davidson Motorcycles first announced in July 2008 (Pitlick, 2008). Yamaha had signed an exclusive supplier agreement with Harley-Davidson to produce a Tri Glide three-wheel motorcycle. Prior to the alliance, Harley-Davidson offered its customers only two-wheel motorcycles. Customers wanting a three-wheel motorcycle with a Harley-Davidson machine had to take their motorcycles to Yamaha or to a competing three-wheel builder and purchase a conversion kit. Yamaha then disassembled the Harley-Davidson motorcycle and removed the stock rear-end, replacing it with the buyer-selected Yamaha's two-wheel rear-end design.

With the Harley-Davidson/Yamaha alliance, Harley-Davidson both acknowledged and addressed the potential growth market for three-wheel motorcycles. Rather than have their customers reconfigure their products through another manufacturer, Harley-Davidson decided to be proactive and to work with Yamaha to build the three-wheel Harley-Davidson Tri Glide line. Through the alliance, Yamaha's former competitor became their partner. Harley-Davidson sent front-end product to Yamaha for the Tri Glide assembly, negating Yamaha's former step of disassembling Harley-Davidson products for conversion. Harley-Davidson customers could select a Tri Glide Ultra Classic (Harley-Davidson, 2009) or a leaner, lighter hot-rod style motorcycle called the Street Glide Trike (Harley-Davidson, 2010). Once assembled, the Harley-Davidson Tri Glide line motorcycles are shipped back to Harley-Davidson for distribution and sales.

Looking to their own customer demographics, Harley-Davidson projected the potential need for motorcycles requiring less muscular engagement. To meet the needs of aging male, as well as female, customers, Harley-Davidson turned with greater interest to three-wheel motorcycles. Yamaha's alliance with Harley-Davidson had a strong two year run, before Harley-Davidson settled union issues at their York, PA plant and decided to manufacture their own three-wheel motorcycle in 2011, negating the need for Yamaha's assembly (Black Hills Pioneer, 2010). The Harley-Davidson marketing strategy for their three-wheel motorcycle, in part, reflected the Yamaha's presumption that three-wheel machines would be especially appealing to women. Harley-Davidson's agreement with Yamaha, in fact, lent confirming legitimacy to Yamaha's sense of its own market potential.

Thus, back in 2008, with Harley-Davidson alliance freshly signed, Yamaha felt a more pressing interest in a definitive marketing survey that would tease out some of the market tastes for customers preferring the three-wheel motorcycles and solidify the company's plan to market more directly to women. Speculating on their sales future, Yamaha market team hoped women around age 55 and older would be among those to target in future ad campaigns.

To confirm this market sense, Yamaha agreed to work with two MBA students, Richard CHAN and Kurt LEONG of Hong Kong Baptist University. The students would provide research services by creating and conducting a customer survey. These students hoped to help Yamaha learn if a sales future rested with women and how best to reach that target market. Conversely, the students intended to use the survey experience to fulfill their practicum requirement in their MBA Program – Marketing Module. Yamaha gave the students a list of all Trike owners, which included over 2000 people. For manageability and cost control, the students randomly selected 500 owners from across the country to participate in the survey. No attempt was made to select only women's names.

Though Yamaha had email contact information on their customer base, the company provided a list of postal addresses because the students chose to broadcast their survey through a traditional, formal letter. Dillman (2009) recommends that a formal mail contact be made as personal as possible. The students followed these guidelines by personalizing all letters to the randomly selected Yamaha trike owners. The students avoided considering a website survey because such a posting would have demanded additional time for completion while customers located Yamaha's web link, either while internet surfing favored sites or after receiving on-line or written instructions. Thus, from the get-go, the students avoided the two most trendy survey methods: email and website.

The formal cover letter accompanying the student-formulated survey questions was dated 7th April 2009, but not readied for mailing until 13th April 2009. The students had agreed to analyze the results and formulate some conclusions by 24th April 2009. Therefore, the Trike owners who received the students' letter had just less than two weeks to consider the survey and respond. Given the time constraints, the students decided participants could complete the survey questionnaire by going online through Survey Monkey or by completing and then mailing the paper copy survey received by mail. While the online option appeared to meet Dillman's test for ease and convenience, the seemingly more burdensome paper option appeared not to be set up for ease of administration and interpretation. The students presumed participants would forego the paper survey and favor the on-line version.

The students were aware of Dillman's (2009) recommendations to provide clear instructions for how to access an online survey. A web-link was provided in the formal cover letter along with directions for how to access the Yamaha website and follow to the Survey Monkey link. Given the method of delivery via letter and multiple modes for response, either on-line or via paper, follow-up with responders or non-responders was not possible. This could have proved to be a problem if a larger response rate was needed or follow up with responders was necessary to clarify issues.

Countermanding traditional survey procedural advice (Dillman, 2005), which advises flat mailings in large manila envelopes with real stamps, the students relied upon regular legal-length envelopes, which forced them to tri-fold their cover letter and paper survey. Additionally, the students utilized the more impersonal and less costly, but faster mailing option of a postage meter. A folded mailing and metered stamp are thought respectively to convey less ease and a greater emotional distance. As the students constructed their cover letter to Trike owners, they also overlooked conventional wisdom about best-practice procedures to enhance returns for paper surveys. Dillman's (2005) key advice includes providing a cover letter signed in blue ink, to indicate the letter is not photocopied, and an envelope with return postage. Neither of these recommendations was followed. A blue ink signature suggestively conveys to the recipient a higher level of interest on the part of the sender, signifying the letter has not been photo copied, but has been signed individually, making the receiver feel more special.

Despite the various procedural faults committed by the students, and despite the tight schedule for respondent participation, to the delight of Yamaha and the pleasure of the students, out of the 500 solicited contacts, 202 Trike owners replied prior to the cut-off date. Another 19 participated after the tabulation date. This surprisingly high number of respondents contrasts with usual textbook wisdom about survey results. As outlined by Dillman (2005), for instance, a traditional mail survey should have resulted in a 10% return rate for Yamaha Trike questionnaire. Instead, the 44% response transformed expectations. One quarter of the responding Yamaha customers favored the on-line option, which yielded 55 survey answers obtained through Survey Monkey. The remaining respondents mailed their surveys, and this method yielded 166 paper surveys. Together, the on-line and paper surveys gathered 221 total responses.

Yamaha's customer preference for the paper survey was a surprising outcome for the students. As millennial students in a technological age, they presumed universal preference for the on-line response. Thinking the paper survey would be less successful and feeling time-constricted in their survey preparation, the students overlooked the conventional wisdom about mailed responses. They structured no assistance to encourage mailing or to ease the process; they enclosed no envelope and provided no postage. Thus, anyone responding by mail to Yamaha's survey had to find and address an envelope and pay for a stamp. Complicating this negative structure, the survey cover letter that suggested the mailing option even mentioned "a return envelope," though none was present. Whereas cost and bother, to find and address an envelope and pay postage, should have dissuaded respondents and reduced results, in this Trike survey case, the normal expectation was unfounded. Despite the inconvenience, 166 Trike owners faithfully participated.

So, what were the dynamics that made this hurriedly constructed, quickly solicited, and untraditionally structured Yamaha Trike survey a worthwhile success? Most significantly, the cover letter encouraged recipients promptly to return the survey so their name could be submitted in a drawing to win $200 worth of cycle clothing. Here the students drew upon Dillman's (2009) recommendation to offer a gift or an incentive as a token of appreciation for completing a survey. No doubt the Yamaha product offer generated more enthusiasm among respondents. When the students proposed that Yamaha use the prospect of winning Yamaha Trike labeled clothes to tweak and secure owner participation, they appealed to the riders' need to stay involved with their Trikes even during times when machines get less use.

The clothing offer was just one part of the attraction for Trike owners. Three-wheel enthusiasts share a passion for riding. Their Trikes are luxury items, valued from $25,000 and up; their involvement with Trikes is not casual or inconsequential. When weather limits the motorcycle season in much of the country, Trike owners look for ways to remain involved with their sport even when conditions wane. Yamaha's Trike Pride Matters Magazine, for example, keeps customers regularly informed about their motorcycles in all seasons. Consequently, when a quarter of the Trike owners received their mailed surveys in late April, the timing coincided with the emerging shoulder of the favored riding months. Owners were thinking about their Trikes. Even if they were not yet riding regularly in milder weather, they could experience vicarious involvement by answering the survey. Their participation also fed into a presumed connection to other owners who were also responding. The pride and pleasure of belonging to a special, limited group motivates here.

This connection to other owners stems from a long-standing loyalty, both to their machines and to riding in general. The survey revealed that 55% of respondents had been riding motorcycles for over twenty years. This longevity demonstrates a significant commitment by Yamaha's owners to motorcycle riding as a sport. Importantly, 78% of respondents had been riding Yamaha Trikes for less than 5 years. Clearly Yamaha is well-positioned to meet the needs and interests of aging motorcyclists who have already established impressive loyalty to the riding lifestyle on two-wheel machines and now plan to keep riding on three wheels. Therefore, as long-time, loyal enthusiasts, the respondents perceived Yamaha survey as making valuable and instructive use of their time and input. Given that nearly 80% of respondents were 55 years and older, presumably many, if not most, of those who answered are either retired or semi-retired. They have available time and respond well to perceived benefits involving their Yamaha machines. Respondents felt motivated by their vested interest in the future of Yamaha Corporation. Trike value depends upon continuing Yamaha's success, and owners surely felt compelled to assist the makers of their motorcycles.

Yamaha customers overwhelmingly favored the paper survey, despite its flaws, rather than the on-line survey; the more trend-directed students had predicted just the reverse. As for the forces at work here, clearly generational differences were a factor. Though current discussion about on-line and web survey potential claims ease and speed as preference factors, the Yamaha's survey recipients saw the paper survey as both easy and preferable. The envelope arrived and was opened, the customer held the survey, and filling it out immediately seemed simple enough. Actually, going on-line for the survey would have required an additional step. With the survey in front of them, customers could just complete it. Recipients may have harbored lingering fears that an electronic registration for the accessories offer was somehow more risky or less certain than a paper sign up. Additionally, the paper survey removed any concerns about name and information transfer through on-line links.

Student involvement most likely contributed, as well, to respondent participation. The cover letter both explains the students' work on the survey and offers a help link via e-mail to a student University address. Recipients of the survey could obviously gather how their responses would help a degree-seeking student to meet a course requirement. While the altruistic element is impossible to gauge precisely, any broadening of reasons to respond will surely attract more participants. Finally, the possibility exists that proclivities based on sex contributed as well. The majority of respondents, 73% in fact, were male. The cover letter which explained the set-up was signed by Haley at the University and Jaime at Yamaha. For reasons of space and efficiency in answering possible questions, only one of the two students signed the letter. The male student's name was excluded. Again, we cannot gauge the subtle psychological impact of women asking and men agreeing to participate. Yet we cannot ignore this dynamic.

Reflecting back to the genesis of the survey, Yamaha sought to confirm a plan to market Trikes for baby-boomer women. The wisdom of this plan remains rather clouded, as the survey did not tease out a significant percentage of women respondents. Results did yield advertising preferences, music styles, and radio favorites, all of which will help Yamaha know better how to target customer listening preferences.

To summarize, Yamaha's student-generated survey worked, despite its structural and procedure shortcomings, because the target population had above average interest in the outcome. Those who responded were not new potential customers, but solid current customers with commitment toward their high-ticket Trike investment. For them the survey represented a confirmation of an enjoyable lifestyle choice.

An analysis of the Yamaha experience confirms that future marketing research garners higher results when surveys stroke respondents where they are. The usual dissuaders of time and inconvenience can be made less consequential when motivators to participate hold greater sway. In fact, even flawed preparation for data collection can fail to discourage eager participants. Was it the loyalty and dedication to a beloved product line or the mere thrill of possibly winning $200 worth of accessories that enticed the Yamaha respondents? The take-away lesson from Yamaha's experience is a cautionary slowdown of the marketing rush to embrace electronic data-collection. Yamaha's customers remained receptive to traditional formats. Understandably, when marketing survey respondents increasingly have greater demands upon their time and more opportunities to offer feedback about chosen products, competing to gain consumer feedback can present a struggle.

While future research will be undoubtedly involve reviews of blogs and chat rooms as well as reliance on on-line and web surveys, the most effective survey method, as Dillman, Smyth and Christian assert, may very well be a data collection process that takes into account several means of both traditional and nontraditional methods. A future research agenda could include determining the effectiveness of various forms of mixed-mode sampling. By combining more than one mode of delivery, researchers can hope to receive a broader range of responses. Yamaha's case teaches us that audience demographics will dictate mode preference, circumventing marketer presumptions. Thus, a mixed-mode survey design, like the one used for Yamaha, can result in increased responses in a timelier fashion at a lower cost.

Dr Paul LAU has been a "Leader Manager" within Hong Kong Police Force since April 1974 and was promoted from a Police Constable when having fulfilled the academic qualification via his evening school studies, performing remarkably well while serving within the Crime Wing, he secured the strong recommendation of promotion following the Extended Interview by its Panel in 1987, serving as a competent, professional and dedicated commanding officer in various Formations.

Being a strong implementer of life-long learning concept, Dr Lau has been conferred jointly DMS by Lingnan University and HKMA in 2002; BBBA by RMIT University "With Distinction" in Australia in 2003; MBA "With Merit" by Hong Kong Baptist University in 2005; MA by Macquarie University in Australia in 2007 and PhD in BA by Bulacan University in Philippines in 2009.

His major research and specialization focus on "Business Administration", covering the spectrum including employee involvement (EI), culture, leadership, corporate culture, strategic management, IT as well as Knowledge Management.

Despite extreme tight daily timetable of his, Dr Lau has tirelessly served as a part-time lecturer for HKMA, delivering his designed programs to students, including (a) Professional Diploma Program on Leadership and Management for Disciplinary Forces and Security Organizations; (b) Advanced Certificate on Criminal Investigation and Forensic Science; (c) Certificate Program on Employee Involvement Leadership and Management; (d) Certificate Program on Public Administration Management and (e) Certificate Program on Psychology - Anti Suicide.

Email: paul.capohki@gmail.com