We get it so wrong don’t we? We develop ideas and look to see if they’ll work by intricately studying people’s actions and reactions. We poll them. We survey them. We sample them. We question them exhaustively. Whereas, what we should be doing, according to Dr. Art Markman, is studying our customers’ habits and developing products and services that fit with how people want to behave.
Analytics have changed not just what marketers measure but how brands now appraise success.
What is it, exactly, that brand marketers want to do? Maybe this question only makes sense to marketing researchers like me because to many researchers it seems that, increasingly, marketers want us to do their jobs. I’m not being critical. I’m just wondering what the role of brand marketers will become if, or more likely when, researchers step up to the biggest strategic roles that marketers fill today.
For some time now I have been exploring the role of meaning in marketing. I think being perceived as meaningfully different is the origin of a brand being able to command a price premium.
Neuroscientists, designers and authors all seem agreed on one thing: market research is pretty much useless. They all agree that new insights are required but, unfortunately for their credibility, they all offer a different means to that end. But why has market research become such a popular whipping boy?
