Thank you!!
Maybe I’m too cynical for my own good, but I can’t help to wonder if this survey has commercial ulterior motives. I haven’t looked at the survey but when some other onions chimed in with their surprise at the sophistication of the questions, I was a bit dubious. (I spent some time in pharma marketing/advertising with lots of money behind market research surveys, and so immediately, my radar gets engaged.)
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He did say he was a marketing major, and this is part of his masters thesis.
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Yeah, I got that part but I meant that I wonder if our dear grad student poster’s survey is being funded by a bigger commercial interest. I was a grad student once so I get the need for money. But I have no interest in helping out big time pasta companies.
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?!?
What massive benefit, to whose detriment, do you think filling out a 10 minute survey would give a pasta company marketing department even if the data were being funneled straight to them?!
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I don’t think the poster explicitly identified their gender anywhere, but I think Giulia is probably a she, not a he…
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@MikeG, I too had doubts about the survey, as does @digga; was why I hesitated. Decided to give the poster the benefit of the doubt. I almost never answer surveys of any kind. My time is worth something, and whomever can typically get their information elsewhere.
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I answered the phones at a major US big box electronics retailer before retiring last year. About once a week I would get a call from a “student in Europe” with a survey asking about cell phones.
I tried to be polite at first but after multiple calls I told them I didn’t have time, which was true.
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I answered the first two innocent pasta questions and then came to this:
“What kind of psychological impact did COVID-19 have on your life “
“What impact did COVID-19 have on your personal or your family’s financial situation?”
I backed out right then and there.
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That’s just plain weird for a supposed “pasta” survey. But that’s simply my opinion.
Shouldnt these be questions HO Mods ask before supporting the survey on several threads? Did the Mods ask?
So I went with benefit of the doubt.
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My but 2020 is making us a paranoid bunch isn’t it?
If you’re totally freaked out by a question asking how this pandemic has affected you, maybe we already know the answer!
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I disagree. It’s a very rational question for an academic look at pasta consumption in a pandemic. Pasta is inexpensive and filling. For those furloughed or whose business is off it is reasonable to expect changes in buying patterns. Long shelf-life leads to stocking up and hording. Inability or unwillingness to cook and without access to restaurants drives people to what they perceive as easy. Check the freezer section of your grocery for frozen pizza and TV dinners. People can’t cook. Psychological and financial precursors to changes in buying and consumption patterns are important. I found the survey very reasonable.
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Done and posted to a FB food group of which I am a member.
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Hello, this is only an accademic project for my master’s thesis and I am just a student (with no job/internship or something like that). I am attending the last year of the Master of Science in Marketing Management at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy (Please look at the link I provided, there’s my university name).
However, I don’t think that US pasta companies need an italian master student that can reach up to 250 answers to collect their data: I imagine that they work with specific market research companies (e.g. Nielsen or IRI) to gain insights towards the market and the customers. In addition they use consumer panels that provide more specific information and answer to much longer surveys. They do not need forums or social media to do that.
With regard to the questions of the survey, the aim is to understand the impact of Covid-19 on pasta purchasing habits. I imagine that there’s a correlation between the increase in pasta purchases and the psychological impact on customer’s life. I’d like to understand why a customer bought more pasta than usual or why is willing to buy more affordable products: the only way is to understand the impact of Covid-19 on his personal life and on his financial situation. So, I will cross-check the questions on pasta purchases with those that are more related to the impact of Covid-19 on customer’s life.
However, I invite you to complete the survey in order to see for yourself all the questions of the survey. You will see that the majority of the questions concerns the pasta purchases.
I am available for further questions, thank you!
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Thank you very much, I appreciate it!
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Are you only surveying the USA or other countries too?
Only the USA, because I am studying the impact of Covid-19 on pasta purchasing habits in the US market
The food industry in America is obviously changing with the times we live in, but I wonder if you have a precovid baseline to compare. I’d also be interested in pasta vs. potatoes vs. rice.
We’re so diverse in so many categories.
Interesting POV…I didn’t really get to see much of the survey because I wasn’t a big pasta eater pre-COVID, and once I said my buying/consumption hadn’t changed, I was done with the survey.
