Two consumers were considering buying a lawn-mower. Bill's wife suggested brand B, and after shopping for a good price, Bill bought brand B at a discount store. Jake, however, consulted Consumer Reports, and found repair trouble reported with brands A, C, D, F, and H, and unwanted features in brands M, E, and G. Therefore, he decided on brand B as well. Jake can respond accurately to the question of why he did not buy brand M. Bill cannot because he had no reason for not buying brand M, and may not even have been aware of the product. Both, however, can easily explain why they bought brand B.
Meanwhile, at Markmix Co., the owner pondered over the low sales record for heavily promoted brand M and decided to conduct a survey to find out why his product was not being bought. However, if this question were asked directly in a survey, a problem of focus would appear. Company M's focus is on the product, but the consumer's is not. In Bill's case, the reason for not buying brand M does not concern brand M, or brands A, C, D, E, F, G, and H, for that matter. There was no decision to buy brand M, only a positive reason to buy brand B.
Design a questionnaire (10 questions) that will open doors to the reasons for not buying Markmix Co.'s brand. Consider carefully the process described in Figure 12-1.