Can You Answer These Questions?

In Measure What Matters, Katie Paine claims that a company must be able to answer 10 questions before they are able to measure data. The 10 questions are as follows:

1. What are your objectives?
2. Who are your program's target audience?
3. What is important to your audience?
4. What motivates them to buy your product?
5. What are your key messages?
6. Who influences your audience?
7. How do you distribute your product or service?
8. What are you going to do with the information that you research?
9. What other departments or areas will be affected?
10. What other measurement programs are currently underway?

I truly believe that you have to know these rules before you can measure an objective or goal. I am currently taking a marketing research course and these are similar to the rules we must follow. I feel the most important is rule one. You need to at least know your objective. If you don't know your objective you cannot advance any further in your research. I really like these rules and feel I should follow these when I am doing my research for my class. I am currently working with Information Technology on ways to improve communication of events to students through technology. I really feel we need to narrow in on our key targets and key messages so we can effectively measure what we're surveying. So, I say use these tips wisely and your research will be successful.