Clover Youth: Market Survey

Clover Youth was initiated by the high school graduates, who are dedicated to creating a more loving community through youth leadership. It is located in Guangzhou city.


On a sunny afternoon in May, students from Qincao Youth Service Center visited Sun Yat-sen University. For some students, it is their first time visiting a university. They were amazed by the environment of the campus and asked a ton of questions to the university students leading the tour. 

Our tour guides then led us in an activity they called, "Market Survey". We talked about their entrepreneurial inspirations and discussed some of our innovations. MinXian our facilitator for the activity, asked us a few questions: how would your products be accepted by the market? The maximum profit must be based on understanding the market and customers, so how does one understand the market and customers? During their thinking and discussion, Ming Xian raised the theme of the activity—market survey. With an easy but vivid way, he explained why and how we have to do market survey.  Each group launched debates and came up with outlines.

With the outlines, the next step was field survey. Within 50 minutes, each group tried their best to collect as much samples for the date as possible in the campus. At first, the junior students hesitated to speak to the strangers though they had rehearsed their parts. The staff and senior students tried hard to help them to stop the passers and interview them. They hope each child could participate in the survey, experience and grow in the process.

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After a while, the students overcame strain and fear by practicing, watching and attempting. They came up to the interviewees and requested for an interview decently. They started their interview with easy talk. They recorded answers seriously. After interviewing a number of people walking by, the students began to come up with some useful results. During the process, they revised their question outline, so that they could better serve for their survey goals. Facing various interviewees, they concluded relevant questioning skills, which improved efficiency and quality of the survey. 

50 minutes of survey went quickly. When they came back to the camp, they organized their records. Some students even analyzed date as percentage for the questionnaires, acting as if they were in a real business. After short break and discussion, each group presented their achievements. Later, Min Xian gave some remarks which affirmed the credibility and comprehensiveness of the survey questions. Their results from independent survey were highly appreciated. The children were confused on what kind of trade they should do before the survey. Now they had the answers: a coffee house would be profitable in the corner of the campus; dos and don’ts to run a gift shop, and so on. It was a great experience for everyone. 

Sometimes the best kind of learning can happen outside of a classroom. 

Original Article Written by Xiang Wang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang