Insights Industry News

December 22, 2011

Market Research and Misplaced Bravado

Too many researchers believe the value of market research is self-evident. That kind of thinking is dangerously misleading.

TRC Market

by TRC Market

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Market researchers are fighting each day for a seat at the decision-making table. More and more “research professionals” are being bypassed by smart people with access to good tools, a hotly-debated topic within our community and perhaps a harbinger of what’s to come in terms of when and how client- and vendor-side researchers get to contribute advice and ideas.

And yet too many researchers believe the value of market research is self-evident, and that the challenge facing our industry is really more of an obstacle caused by “everyone else.” I see this train of thought emerge frequently on Twitter, or within any number of blogs and MRX-related posts.  It typically gets expressed along these lines:

Netflix screwed up. McDonald’s screwed up. Coca-Cola screwed up (multiple times). If only they had done research!  A (name any large dollar amount) disaster that could have been averted with a $100,000 investment in listening to the customer. Silly companies.

Folks, it’s hard to get better without humility.

Not every organization embraces traditional or formal market research. But you’d be hard-pressed to find successful ones who don’t recognize the need for good information. In the short run it’s comfortably distracting to romance the notion that market researchers get pushed to the sidelines while people in other departments make bad decisions. In the longer term, however, that’s dangerously misleading.

Here’s why.

1)      They probably did do research. Perhaps it just wasn’t very good research. Maybe it was even done by some of the very people who spend time complaining about how companies don’t do enough research.

What are you doing to connect back your data and insights with how things actually pan out?

2)      Most decisions will be made with a combination of formal information and “gut feel.” In part that’s the way it’s always been, but it’s also a consequence of past investments in traditional research that proved ineffective. Behavioral economists continue to demonstrate how traditional Q&A often can’t tell the whole story. New approaches to qualitative and quantitative investigation continue to emerge.

Are you questioning the methodologies you use?

Are you providing your clients with enough context for when and how to apply customer feedback?

3)      In the end research can’t fix everything, and it can’t predict or prevent every disaster. Sometimes research won’t be done. Other times research will be done but it will miss the mark.

Are you geared towards delivering projects to stakeholders?

Are you prepared to walk alongside others as they develop new products and launch new initiatives, being part of the learning and correcting process along the way?

I’m a career-long researcher and a strong believer in our profession. I know there’s a vital role for traditional and emerging studies, and that there will always be value in businesses listening to the consumer.

When I hear colleagues lament the failure of others to recognize the value of market research, however, I can’t help but reflect upon the social psychological notion of illusory superiority – the tendency of people to overestimate their abilities relative to those of others. Clients and vendors; researchers and non-researchers; we’re all engaged in the bigger picture game of helping companies succeed. None of us hold a monopoly on that area of expertise.

(originally published on the TRC Research blog. Follow Mike on twitter at @MRSosnowski)

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behavioral economics

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