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Southwest Airlines Community

Market Research 101

Anonymous
Not applicable
Companies pay millions of dollars each year for market research. They do customer surveys to find out the likes and dislikes of the public, and they try to spot trends as well as figure out the next "in" product. I have a less expensive suggestion that is probably a lot more accurate and gives "real time" feedback across a broad section of the public: just ask our Flight Attendants what's hot and what's not. Some of our Flight Attendants work 4-5 days per week flying up to 7 flights per day with as many as 137 Passengers on each flight for an exposure to nearly 4,800 very diverse people. Want to know the most read book? Ask a Flight Attendant; they could have told you how popular The Da Vinci Code was going to be. What is the hot puzzle? Flight Attendants knew it was Sudoku before the rest of us did. What about the latest fashion color or most popular magazine or laptop computer? I know some great people that can answer these questions. I have spent many evenings having dinner with the Men and Women who are in charge of our cabin safety and service, listening to their thoughts about what they have noticed during their flights. My advice to marketing people and manufacturing gurus...forget the focus groups and instead focus on what our Flight Attendants are observing each and every day. I think you would be amazed at what they could tell you.
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