Surveys are based on the needs of companies, it provides a great insight into how companies are thinking and what products they are looking to launch. It provides people, especially students, with a fundamental and practical exposure to the world of market research. Understanding the need and implications of the survey questions and how companies are looking to benefit from such information is a great way of learning.

It helps people understand the psychological nuances of what goes into the development of products and services. It also helps people know how companies analyze and "decode" the customer. It is not as simple as it seems, yet understanding it can provide people immense knowledge of how this industry functions. Take for example in a survey you are asked about what types of computer games you play, then they ask you about your life and a few general questions about you. What is the researcher looking for? Well they are looking to find out if playing certain games makes you aggressive or not. Deep, yet quite simple. This information is invaluable to doctors doing behavioral research besides companies making computer games.

Take another example, in a survey panelists are asked for their opinion on certain names, what they like and what they don't. This information is then used by the companies to name their products or at times even the name of their company. What this information can also provide is a window into how people think at the sub-conscious level. That is a very strong information to have, of course it does take a lot of time to collate the information and then understand the trend and the thought behind the responses.

Focus Group Discussions are also a good way of learning, but the learning is better when being an observer. In a Focus Group Discussion people discuss about a topic, the discussion is guided by the moderator to the eventual topic. In a Focus Group Discussion the eventual topic is never disclosed initially. When observing a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) we can understand the thought processes of the target group, which can provide a lot of insight into perception and what shapes it. What makes FGDs better is that it is more detailed, it is subjective and the body language can be observed in a controlled environment. An FGD provides a person an opportunity to learn more and in an in-depth manner when compared to a survey.

It does take some time to understand the results and to interpreted it in the right manner, but when people are able to understand this they would have gained a significant amount of knowledge and understanding of business. In terms of a career this can be very beneficial because the understanding gained can be really helpful in many professional roles, especially those that require understanding the consumer mindset.

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