Friday, October 19, 2007

A 10-day Assignment for You

A comment on my last posting rang very true. The person said that everyone is waiting for someone else to "drive the bus." Okay, just consider me your bus driver on this short trip.

Those in marketing and advertising use focus groups prior to the launch of a new product to test market reaction to that product. That's what I am asking you to do. All it will take is a bit of talking on your part.

Over the next 10 days you are sure to see or speak with at least 10 people. Your job is to ask those people, if single, if they would sign a pledge that someone else prepared stating that they would only take shidduchim "One at a Time." If those people are married, would they also sign a pledge prepared by someone else stating that they will take shidduchim for their children only "One at a Time." If they are young marrieds without children in shidduchim, ask them if they would have signed when they were single and if they would sign when their children get older. If they say no, ask why. You can't launch a product if you don't know both the positive and negative reactions to that product.

If you are being really ambitious, and hey, it's only a couple of extra words, ask these people if they, too, would ask 10 more people whom they are talking to anyway and let you know, yes or no. If only 10 of you were to do this, we would, at least in theory, get the responses of 1000 people. Yup, 1000. And all you have to do is ask a question or two.

After 10 days, please come back to this blog and report some numbers--how many yes, how many no. If there is a really good reason, other than "I don't sign anything," report the answer.

There is no real paperwork to fill out, it won't cost you money, and since I am asking you to do it, and you can say that to someone else, you aren't the one who will get any funny looks.

And I promise that I will be far from mad if you happen to only ask 7 people--everything counts. And if you should happen to want to, ask more then 10 people that you see.

This is how activism starts out: with a few purposeful words. Talk enough and maybe some action will be forthcoming. It works for rumors; why not for positive action? Get the grapevine working!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you think something like this will really produce any useful information? I'll try it but what if everyone says no?

ProfK said...

justlooking,

One, unless you try you have no idea whether or not you will get any useful information. You do, however, know that if you don't ask you won't get any. Saying something may or may not work is not a legitimate excuse for not trying it.

Two, so what if everyone does say no? And all the other people come back with the same "no" answers? That also tells us something. Perhaps the product we are hoping to "sell" doesn't appeal to our target audience. Perhaps we need to "repackage" the product. Or just plain it may be a good idea whose "time" has not yet come.

Ask first, analyze later.

Anonymous said...

I started this out last night and it's kind of funny the kinds of answers I was getting. The four people all really said yes but yes if someone else would already of said yes. No one wants to be the first one. So is that a yes or a no?

ProfK said...

anonymous,
What that is is a perfect example of why Klal needs to change the way it "does business." Everyone is perfectly willing to join a large bandwagon, but no one wants to "stand out" or be seen as among the first. The problem is, if we always wait for someone else to go first, no one goes at all.

Anonymous said...

I took your advice and just started asking people and most were pretty normal and gave me an answer. but one person wanted to know if there was a takana about this and who issued it so I said it came from a blog and they asked what a blog was. So I said it was from the internet and they said that they thought the internet was treif. So I stopped asking this person. This is not so simply easy as you thought if you had to ask people like this.

Anonymous said...

I never kept any lists for my son because I'm the kind who makes a list and then spends hours trying to find it. I often wonder if I am the only one who doesn't do this so I'll ask around.

Anonymous said...

I'll ask. Post another post in 10 days so we don't have to go looking for this one. And if you post a reminder in between for people who didn't catch this post (because your blog moves pretty quickly!) I bet it won't hurt.

ProfK said...

bad4shidduchim,
Thanks for the advice. I'll post a reminder in a few days and a new posting to gather the results.

Yeah, I realize I'm moving rather quickly, but that orange "Post" button just seems to reach out and grab me. Before I know it my finger is reaching out and...I guess I better work on gratification postponement.