From MP3 Players to Grapefruit Honey Tea: Brands That Thrived With Online Surveys

Market research plays a critical role in a company’s marketing efforts.
There are many different marketing methods available, but no matter the approach, a clear objective is needed before developing a strategy. In today’s rapidly changing market, relying on intuition alone is risky—collecting data is essential. That’s why the formula “data = strategy” holds true, and why many companies dedicate significant resources to data collection.

Market research can take many forms—surveys, focus groups, interviews, or in-depth studies—depending on the nature of the business. Recently, however, online surveys have gained popularity for their ability to gather a large number of consumer opinions quickly and at relatively lower cost.

How Should Online Surveys Be Used?

Online surveys, unlike some other methods, can collect opinions from various demographic groups, offering highly targeted feedback. This helps businesses better understand market trends and obtain actionable data for everything from product modifications based on consumer preferences to changes in marketing direction.

For instance, you can use customer satisfaction surveys to make product improvements, or segmentation surveys to identify diverse customer groups and provide personalized services. New brands can conduct preference surveys in the product development stage, gaining valuable insights and boosting their odds of a successful market launch.

But do well-known companies also gain substantial benefits from online surveys? Let’s explore how some of them used surveys to overcome crises or achieve a fresh leap forward.

Turning Consumer Thoughts into Reality: Apple

Apple has long been at the forefront of innovation and trends, commanding over 20% of the global smartphone market. Back in the 2000s, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs famously claimed that Apple didn’t rely on market research and instead focused on creating innovative products. Yet behind the scenes, Apple has always run an in-house research team to better understand consumer needs through relentless market investigation.

In the early 2000s, consumers primarily listened to music on MP3 players, and smartphones were barely on anyone’s radar. By conducting online community outreach and customer satisfaction surveys, Apple was able to anticipate future market needs. This led to the hugely successful launch of the iPod. Building on the same survey-driven insights, Apple soon grasped the changing smartphone market, culminating in the release of the very first commercially successful smartphone, the iPhone.

Through consumer demographic and psychographic research, Apple gained significant insights—insights that led them, for example, to gradually increase the screen size of certain models and revisit the previously angular design style. All these moves demonstrate how Apple uses market research and consumer preference surveys to align product decisions with what customers want.

“Welcome to Your Own Starbucks”: Starbucks

“Siren Order,” “e-Receipt,” and “Grapefruit Honey Black Tea”—if you frequent Starbucks, you’re probably familiar with these. But how did they come about?

Starbucks is the world’s largest coffee chain and has become a global powerhouse. Part of Starbucks’ success formula is market research, which they use extensively as they adapt to local markets. They track cultural trends, collect customer feedback, perform social media research, and more. One place where Starbucks has turned consumer input into a robust strategy is South Korea.

When Starbucks first arrived in Korea around 30 years ago, opening its first store near Ewha Womans University, consumers found Starbucks relatively expensive compared to local coffee prices. Facing these challenges, Starbucks decided to focus on improving customer satisfaction as part of its localization strategy. They launched the “My Starbucks Idea” platform to gather and analyze customer feedback via surveys. Within just a year, they reached over a million customer submissions—proving the success of their localization strategy. Out of this emerged features like Siren Order, cup holder availability, e-Receipts, and Grapefruit Honey Black Tea.

Thanks to this feedback-to-action pipeline, Starbucks significantly enhanced customer satisfaction, becoming a go-to case study for successful survey-based marketing strategies.

No More Cluttered Feeds: Twitter

Known today as “X,” Twitter was once the iconic blue-bird social media platform. Launched in the 2000s, Twitter started off quite differently than it appears today. Users could share brief text posts and follow others to stay updated. So how did Twitter become a major social platform alongside Facebook, which was more focused on photo and video sharing?

Before launching Twitter, cofounder Evan Williams recognized that entering a market already dominated by Facebook was risky. Rather than trying to outcompete Facebook directly, he decided to develop a platform based on what people truly wanted from social media. He ran a satisfaction survey of Facebook users to find out what they liked and disliked. Although the results confirmed that users generally liked sharing photos and videos, many also found the busy interface overwhelming. Consequently, Twitter streamlined its display and limited character counts to keep feeds clean and simple.

By researching user attitudes and behaviors in a saturated market, Twitter successfully carved out a niche, illustrating why it’s so vital to understand and address competitor shortfalls via surveys.

In Conclusion: Make Surveys Work for You

Market research conducted at the right time and in the right way can significantly influence a company’s direction and success. Thus, choosing the right tool for your survey is crucial. While the content and structure of the questions matter, so do the logic flow and analytical capabilities behind them.

Not only does the survey need to look good to respondents; it must be convenient for the creator to manage data without confusion. That’s why Walla provides a “visual logic map,” letting you see the entire survey at a glance. With a clear overview of your question flow, it becomes easier to build precise conditional questions and gather more detailed data.

Simply looking at numerical responses isn’t enough for meaningful interpretation. You need to consider the context and flow of the data—along with dropout rates and time spent on each field. Walla meets these needs by offering both per-question data and analytics to uncover hidden patterns and insights in responses. It also offers GPT-based analysis and AI-powered open-ended response analysis, so you can meticulously explore data that might otherwise be overlooked.

From companies that launch game-changing products, to those that forge new markets, and even those that break into saturated industries—surveys have long influenced the success and strategic choices of many businesses. With the rise of online surveys, this marketing technique has become even more widely accessible.

If you’re looking for a turning point in your company’s growth, why not conduct your next survey with Walla?