Qualitative and quantitative research is not a guarantee of marketing or product success. Marketers also need to have some common sense when conducting market research because people say things in research they don’t actually intend to do.
Market Research
According to Fast Company [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]the number one reason for failure a new product has no clear or compelling relevance to people’s lives[/inlinetweet]. Companies often refuse to acknowledge a new product or service idea serves no strongly identified customer need, and they try to retrofit their marketing to compensate. I would also argue that the number 1 reason is that[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””] marketers rely too much on market research and that too many people within the organization are afraid to say “this is a dumb idea”.[/inlinetweet]
In the hard sciences, research is reasonably reliable because it measures things. In the soft (social) sciences, research is often not about measuring things, but about asking questions. In other words, rather than watching to see if you’re cheating on your wife, they ask you if you are. Then they treat your answer as a fact rather than just the bullshit it is.
Only a quarter of all respondents, in a survey, globally are satisfied with their experience participating in research, indicating researchers lack of prioritizing the respondent experience shows through to respondents.
All over the Internet you’re sure to find free reports, charts and graphs along with online media organizations trying to sell you research reports. While some of these reports aren’t bad too many have holes big enough to drive a truck through.