In our marketing class during fall semester we had a big marketing project where we had to select a company or product, then interview several customers in the "love group" to get an in-depth view of the customers' core values and how the product satisfied those values. One member of our team was a big fan of Mastercraft Boats, so we decided to use them for our project. But there was only one Mastercraft dealer in the area (about 45 minutes away), and it was very difficult to fit an appointment into his busy schedule, and he seemed reluctant to give us any customer information. After several attempts we began to worry that even if we did get customer info from him, it would be an uphill battle to get the wealthy boat owners to commit to an hour of time to interview with us.
As we met together one day I commented to the group that it seemed like we were kind of in a dead end, and suggested that we start looking at other companies. But we only had a few days before we had to report on our progress, and we were supposed to have a couple interviews done already. We kicked around a few ideas--pianos, bikes, restaurants, etc.--then assigned different team members to investigate the different options.
Over that weekend I interviewed managers of The Awful Waffle and Brick Oven Restaurant. We discovered that the owner of Brick Oven was a friend of our professor. I sent him an email (through the professor) telling him about our project and asking if he would be willing to give us gift cards and/or T-shirts that we could give to interviewees as incentives for them to give us their insights. He agreed, and sounded very excited about the project. The gift-cards made it easier for us to get interviewees faster so that we were still able to get the project completed by the deadline.
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