No self-respecting marketing executive can live without market research. Market research offers purposeful information to make plans, policies, programmes and procedures for any marketing activity. The market research industry is as old as the communications industry and, many would argue, more important than the mainstream communications industry. Yet there are pitfalls, and things that can’t be foretold. Here are seven things MR can rarely tell.
#1 Reflect reality
Market research is a post facto measurement of what had happened. The common belief is that research data reflects the current reality and hence can be used as a basis for predicting future. If that was the case then well researched brands would have never failed
#2 Predict the future
Research means placing human beings together in one place ask them their opinions and forming that as the basis for predicting the future. This is like saying that if you watch a lion in zoo, you will learn all about lions. The human zoo is no different from an animal zoo, and is rarely the right basis for prediction.
#3 Is never free of bias
Any form of research suffers from investigator bias and statistical errors. Research too is a classic case of stimulus response. The answers depend on what you ask, and that define the findings. Can research ever be free of bias?
#4 Right answers depend on the right questions
The new Coke is the stuff that is now a case study. While the new formulation tested well, scored on blind tastes and passed every test the research industry threw at it, it failed when launched. The consumer was not asked the most obvious question; will the formulation change the brand they love? Do they want the brand to change? The result was a massacre in the market.
#5 No guarantee of success
Testing a new commercial for predicting its success in market is a common practice. It is easy to score a commercial on emotional appeal, on message comprehension, on ability to create perception. Yet more commercials fail then succeed. We all know that, yet we are slaves to practice.
#6 Does not replace experience and gut
We need to remember that research is a tool, and not the decision. A marketer’s gut, experience, market reality are far more important than any amount of research data. Yet the tendency is to live more by research data and less by collective experience.
#7 Quality matters
We all know this.
Right?
Yet an average marketer rarely spends time on figuring out who will administer the stimulus for research. Will an average field executive be up to scratch? Will the average investigator strike the right balance of objectivity and expertise? Most researches are spoilt by simple overlooking of this crucial aspect. Next time, pay attention to field investigators.
As a simple test try this, ban MR for a while, live by what you know as a marketer, trust your experience, trust your market feel, trust the hours you have spent in the field. Take the decisions that need to be taken, and use research almost as the last step to check gross negative. You just might speed up the process, learn a great deal more from mistakes, and possibly be more successful.
Experience always triumphs over data.
Naresh Gupta is Head – Brand Strategy, iYogi Technical Services