Market Research vs. Gut Instinct
Gut Instinct Is Not Good Enough
Our friend Jeffrey Henning, CMO at Affinnova, was recently featured in an Inc. Magazine article entitled Why You’re Doing Customer Research All Wrong.
Divergence between gut and reality
Jeffrey talks about some of the reasons why companies attempt to circumvent the market research process. Because they are limited in the number of ideas they can test with traditional focus groups or market surveys, they know they have to limit their brainstorms and invariably base the ones to test on their gut instinct. Unfortunately, these gut instincts are often wrong for a number of reasons –
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Timing – they trust what they’ve learned from their own interactions with customers. Yet, market conditions continue to change and what once was, may no longer be.
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Personal preferences – some substitute their own preferences for an average customer and assume them to be the same when in fact they could be miles apart.
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And, what we’ve often seen - an unwillingness to spend the money or a lack of appreciation for the market research process – “we already have the answers and know what to do”.
The stakes are particularly high in B2C
Jeffrey mentions two interesting examples where the appropriate market research consulting provided valuable insight and avoidance of potentially expensive mistakes on the part of the brand managers.
Philip found a similar story in a New York Times Magazine article - How Companies Learn Your Secrets - about the Proctor and Gamble brand Febreze. The marketers had assumed that their prospects were smokers and pet owners looking to solve a bad odor problem, when in fact those same prospects had become habituated to the odor and didn’t think they had a problem. When they went out and talked to homeowners they learned that there was great potential in positioning the product as a reward to a house well cleaned. Who knew?
And one that hits close to home for us as a strategic marketing team. We engaged with a services company that was founded by a group of tech-savvy twenty-somethings who believed that their demographic was just like them, and were ramping up significant marketing spend against new media plays like BzzzAgent.
We immediately initiated some primary market research. Through this process, it became apparent that the demographic was 45-60 year olds with far more disposable income to spend on the service. The best medium to reach this target? Drive time radio.
Don't assume!
Market research has an image of being complicated, expensive and taking a long time. Not necessarily true. With today’s social media capabilities and some smart up front planning about how to ask the right questions, a little money spent on research can avoid costly mistakes in the long run.