I made the easiest money of my life last week.
A friend called me two weeks ago to invite to participate in a focus group she was hosting at her apartment. She had to get 7-8 of her friends to call the market research company and they would choose 5 of those to go to her place for two hours to discuss alcohol. My friend said she didn't know what exactly it was for, but the participants had to be screened by the market research people; she told me exactly what I had to say to qualify.
I felt terrible after I called because I had to lie about almost everything. I had to say I was older than I am, make more money than I do, go to the bar more often than I do, drink more than I do, and drink mostly cocktails, especially appletinis, which I had never even tasted. But I got in! I felt so bad about it that I went out and bought liquor to make appletinis because I was so afraid I would be asked something that I didn't know. What an over achiever I am!
I had to do "homework" before the focus group met. I had to print a picture of my liquor storage area and respond to questions like, "what is your favorite drink to have at the bar and what do you love about it?" I've had a house guest for the last month (hence my lighter-than-usual blogging) so we made cocktails every night so I'd have something to say that wasn't a total lie.
It turns out that I did represent the intended demographic pretty well even though I had to fib to qualify. Although they didn't come out and tell us their purpose, I'm sure the researchers were for a company that makes fruity liqueurs that you're all familiar with. The focus group started with my friend making cocktails for everyone (I had a chocolatini which I had never had before despite telling the phone screener it was one of my favorite things to order at the bar) while a man and woman from the market research company asked us questions. They mostly had us talk about our drinking and shopping habits and asked us questions to get us to elaborate. They wanted to know things like how we find out about new drinks, how we know how to make drinks, when we have different drinks, etc. We brought up how we drink differently now than we did in college and they wanted to know a whole lot about that. The most interesting part was when they got out a bottle of watermelon schnapps and asked us how we would redesign the product/package to better market it to people like us. The package is really stupid, so we had a lot to say. They liked that and had us do two more. I'm pretty sure the point of it all was for the company to learn how to better market its fruity liqueur line to older people (35-year-olds instead of college kids).
In the end, I got $20 for cab fare (much more than the cab cost) and $175 dollars for participating. How cool is that? I hope I'm in the database now so I'll get called to do more focus groups!
About Me
- EcoGeoFemme
- I am a 6th year PhD student in the earth/life sciences. While I love science as a vocation and intellectual pursuit, I get frustrated with what it means to have a job as a scientist, especially as a woman. I am freaked out by my impending two-body problem and being a scientist with children someday. I am an advocate of lowering what we expect one person to do together with really working while at work so that 40-45 hours of it is sufficient. Enough is as good as a feast!
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11 comments:
Ha! Too funny. I'm glad you made some money.
This reminds me of a time when I was getting harassed by a telephone survey group that was collecting information on media usage in the household. They called me no less than 20 times, always after 10pm, and I asked off the list no less than 4 times, but they always kept calling! Finally, I agreed to take the survey, but I lied about everything- NO, we do not have a TV; NO, we do not have phones; NO, I absolutely do not have access to the internet. GRRR!
Chocolatinis are nice but I prefer chocolate cake shots. Mmmmmm....
That is so fun!
That doesn't sound like work to me! Awesome.
That is good money. I always see ads around my campus for $10 to participate in surveys. $200 is great! plus you got some free drinks.
I disagree with candid engineer, I like to participate in phone surveys because I have friends who have to do this for their dissertation research. I like being a number in a manuscript :)
Sounds like a fun evening, even though I can't stand sweet drinks. I once had a shot of apple sours that left an aftertaste in my mouth for a couple of days. It survived endless tooth brushing, coffee, and even a curry. I'm the same way with diet sodas, maybe it's an aspartame thing.
That sounds like a lot of fun! I love chocolatinis!
Wow, that's really cool! You know what's sad? The most money I ever made per hour was the summer after my freshman year in college....
Arduous, I love chocolate cake shots too! Not sure they taste that much like chocolate cake, but they smell remarkably like one!
Brilliant way of making money! Although it must be hard on the liver after a while if that would be the only source of income....
dude, i need to get paid to drink... though not to drink watermelon schnapps. that sounds pretty gross.
I've participated in a few focus groups and always liked it. It's really fun to see the 'test' products in their final form several months later!
The most interesting focus group I ever participated in was in the fall of my senior year of high school. I was in the database from about age 10, so I'd get calls every few months to see if I qualified for something. Usually I didn't because I didn't watch enough TV. Anyways, this one my senior year was something about colleges. That's all I really knew going in.
There were about a dozen college-bound high school seniors. We were asked to look at and comment on some of the brochures from different colleges. Then we all went around the table and mentioned our first and second choice colleges (everyone was just starting the application process). I was the last person in the group to list my two schools, and mine were "Prestigious U" and "Small Friendly College." I was a bit surprised when the focus group leader didn't say "Small Friendly what?" like most people. It turns out they were *from* Small Friendly College, because SFC was redesigning their brochures.
While I was a student at SFC they came out with their new brochures, and I was happy to see some of the changes we'd suggested were incorporated. In particular, I told them that I loved the huge picture of the campus green space, so I'm glad they included that.
P.S. EGF, it's really funny that you did your 'homework' for this one. I would've too though if I'd had to lie to get in :-)
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