What is wrong with market research?

Nothing, if you recognize that market research is a toolset that must be used very carefully and with full awareness of your role and responsibilities as product development professional. The basic problem with traditional market research is that in some cases it is misused. Said another way, customer intimacy (Voice of the Customer) cannot be delegated to a third party. More and more, marketing professionals, engineers and executives need to be in intimate conversation with their customers.

What do you mean, misuse of market research?

As with any toolset, it can be used the wrong way or for the wrong reason. Here are four regrettably common examples:

The passive approach

One contributing factor to misusing market research is that it tends to be seen as passive. Generally, when the results of market research are presented there is a surge of energy and excitement. But then everyone goes back to doing much the same as they were. Remember the last time you attended the presentation of the results of a market research study? After the “nudging” and “winking” has subsided, there’s little commitment to action, let alone a documented action plan. There is much good market research that ends up in a filing cabinet or a hard drive, never again to be seen by human eyes. Every piece of market research should cause much dialogue, soul-searching and, most of all, action planning in your organization.

The corporate ritual

Corporate pressures can drive executives to use market research to simply “do something.” In some cases it becomes a corporate ritual, with no particular outcome. It’s an easy way to show action, but with little result. As someone put it, “It’s just to keep the GM out of our hair.”

Denial is not a river in Egypt

Before any research is done, there must be a commitment to accept ideas that may be contrary to the “folklore” that exists in your organization. You must make a commitment to be open-minded – the recognition that maybe, just maybe, there’s another reality that makes more sense; i.e., how your customers perceive their world.

Using the wrong tool for the right job

Sometimes, due to high workloads and over-commitment, marketing professionals see market research as a substitute for clearly understanding their customers. While market research is an indispensable tool, and much needed in developing a solid understanding of your market, it is no substitute for the proverbial face-to-face dialogue with your customers. Furthermore, by delegating this privilege, marketing professionals miss the energy that is generated when talking directly to a customer – a third party should not steal this prerogative. There are several mature and solid methods for understanding customer requirements, such as VOC (Voice of the Customer) and Concept Engineering, but they all require marketing and engineering professionals to spend time interacting with customers.

Solutions

• Every market research study should include a documented and measurable action plan – lest you waste your time. Before any research, agree with your team that an action plan will be developed, documented and acted upon. Assign clear roles and responsibilities.

The action plans should be developed immediately after the results of the research are presented, during a three to four-hour session solely focused on action.

We suggest that you think in terms of two meetings, one where the market research firm presents the results (two hours), and then a subsequent one to develop the action plan (four hours).

• Develop a binding agreement with your team and peers to be open-minded and receptive to alternative views of reality before any market research is undertaken – especially if the possible alternative views are those of your customers.

This may be best accomplished by retaining an external facilitator who can be more objective and who possesses the skills to lead the team to consensus. Lacking an external facilitator, an internal one might suffice.

• There’s no replacement for face-to-face contact with your customers. It is the best form of market research and a privilege that must not be delegated to just anyone.
• Make customer focus a true value for your organization, beyond the platitudes and clichés. While most of us profess to be customer-focused, how many of us actually walk the proverbial talk? How many hours did you spend in dialogue with your customers in the last 30 days?
• Develop and document a plan to understand your customers and market. Market research is not an isolated, single event. Rather, it should be part of a combination of efforts to understand the requirements and the dynamics of your market. Map all your market research and customer interaction activities on a calendar and proceed to implement this plan.
• Engage your engineering and technical organization in any customer interaction activity, such as customer interviews. Marketing alone cannot profile customer requirements optimally; it takes the “stereo vision” of engineering and marketing to achieve the goal.

What if You Want to Go Deep inside the Minds of Your Customers?

If what you’re seeking is something deeper – something that gives you a deep understanding of how your target audience thinks, or why a project succeeded or failed and how to improve your business strategy, or to understand the deep emotions that drive your customer to purchase or not – then you need to make a commitment to an ongoing dialogue with your customers.

It is clear that emotional forces are key drivers in the purchase of your product. The way your customers perceive your company and products is also driven by emotion. Therefore, doesn’t it make sense to also understand your customers at the emotional level?

You can also partner with a new breed of consultants who take market research to new levels.

The new breed of research consultancy is made up of experts in psychology, technology, business and even anthropology. They equip you to talk to your customers in an effective fashion, and even partner with you to interact with them. But always ensure that all due diligence is done before, during and after the dialogue with your customers. Use only highly trained and qualified professionals. And treat the dialogue with your customers as if it represents the future of your business – which it does. Consultants use tools like neurolinguistics, strategic alignment and language processing. All of it is designed to extract every drop of usable insight from your customers, and put it to good use in growing your business.

In conclusion, market research is clearly part of the toolbox of marketing, but it is not the only tool in that box. The field of customer intimacy, commonly referred to as Voice of the Customer (VOC), is the responsibility of marketing and engineering professionals, and should not be delegated to third parties.

Explore posts in the same categories: Business Communication, Clean Execution in Product Development, Product Development Leadership

Tags: market research, marketing, VOC, voice of the customer

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.