Yesterday I visited the Marketing Week ‘Insight Show’ at London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre. I was underwhelmed. For the most part the market research companies who were exhibiting were pedalling the same old methodologies in the same old ways – all the stuff that doesn’t really work but makes companies feel better. A number of firms were presenting themselves as excellent at helping clients with innovation: I’m not convinced that this is something market research can help with: as Henry Ford said, “If I’d asked people what they wanted they would have said a faster horse.” Or perhaps they would have said they wanted the same horse cheaper. I have no problem with talking to consumers – it’s a very worthwhile thing to do: there’s a small chance that one person might say something that sets an idea off in your head and leads to create something amazing. But the problem with […]
Market Research: Perception Versus Reality
It’s often claimed in market research circles that perception is everything. I suspect this stems from the thought that, provided the customer perceives things as being good then that is what matters, be it customer service, product quality, your brand’s image. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a really stupid way of thinking about consumers. Let me explain… In one sense, perceptions are all that customers have to provide in market research. Life isn’t absolute when you’re living it. For example, I’ve been having some lower back ache (too much time spent writing in a bad chair) and have been treating it with a physiotherapist and lots of exercises. Unlocking my lower back has caused other parts of my back to react and the other night I turned over and stretched at night and managed to pull a muscle higher up my back. Now, at the moment, my […]
Market Research Failures: How Foolish We Are
So here’s the thing. If I convinced you that crossing the road without looking was a wonderful, amazing, liberating, life-transforming experience, and I mean really convinced you so that you believed it, what would happen? You would take your first attempt with extreme nervousness, shaking with fear, but you would probably make it across the road just fine. With your senses heightened you wouldn’t really be using your new-found faith in traversing streets with total disregard for what was passing: no you would heighten your other senses until you were certain it was safe and then over you would go. Of course, after a while, if I’d done a really good job and kept reinforcing the message, you would start to foster the genuine belief that you didn’t need to look to cross the road. After all, you’ve now got my enthusiastic message – and I’d tell you about how […]
Democracy Mudered by an Opinion Poll
Once upon a time there was a country. They were having a very difficult time indeed. Some greedy goblins had got out of control and now everyone in the land was troubled. The money that the greedy goblins had taken had somehow disappeared, some said they had taken money that never existed, and now everyone was having to repay it whether it ever existed or not. Everyone except the goblins that is, who had somehow found a way to get more money for themselves – but that’s another story. Anyway, the country had a democratic process of sorts, of which it was most proud. And in the midst of the “difficult time” it replaced one leader with another one, who thought things should be done a little differently. This was done through something called “voting”, where those who wanted to shape what the country did explained their ideas and then […]
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