The Truth About Marketing Surveys

Meir Ezra
May 8
2 min read

Most people, when they hear "surveying," immediately think of a list of boring questions.

You know the type: "Answer these 3 questions," or those long, tedious forms where you rate things from 1 to 10, check boxes, or choose from multiple choice answers.

But what do we really mean when we talk about surveys in marketing?

There are all types of surveys.

But the kind that work, the kind that actually uncover gold for your business – do not have multiple answers. They don’t ask yes/no questions.

Marketing surveys are not about statistics or surface-level preferences.

Marketing surveys are designed to uncover specific phrases and their emotional connection to bring about a specific result.

It’s a completely different technology.

It’s about extracting the right information from a person without asking them directly.

For example, let’s say you want to find out how much someone is willing to pay for your product. A typical survey might ask:

"How much would you pay for this product? $50, $20, $30?"

But that’s the wrong approach.

Instead, I might ask:

"What do you feel is a product that matches our product in terms of value?"

They tell me "a Rolex" or "a Mercedes" or something else.

And what happens in that moment?

I know how much a Rolex or Mercedes costs – so I get the value of my product in their eyes without directly asking for a number.
I now understand how to position my product: I’m the "Rolex of Cheese" or the "Mercedes of skincare."

The value is known.

The positioning is clear.

And the emotional agreement is already there.

This method lets me uncover what they like, what they love, what they hate, what moves them, and what makes them angry. Anything that gives me an emotional response is gold.

I can even ask something simple like: