Commercial research
When talking about commercial research, I remembered an old article that shocked me a lot of Oren Harari, one of the minions of Tom Peters and professor at the University of San Francisco.
Unfortunately I do not remember the title, do not keep the article.
My notes refer to doubts about whether commercial research is always essential, whether listening to the customer is always unavoidable.
In many cases, separates the research directors and employees of the real customers and their needs. It replaces the actual contact with individuals or corporate clients as a substitute for listening based on making a surface contact with a small group of people, more or less representative. Thus, it falsely assumes the investigation and resulting report as a substitute for a real and direct relationship with the client.
There are reports, but one remains in ignorance. Listening is replaced by the customer directly substitute.
If you run a bank sends to your managers twenty days a year to randomly selected offices, if the marketing head of an insurance company, put on managers to meet and manage customer claims in the face to face. If you’re selling beer, look at the bars as your people consume. This is my moral. I’m not saying to replace the classic research. I mean that compliments!
Research is one of the weapons at its disposal an effective marketing professional. But do not let the numbers replace entrepreneurship based on direct contact with the market. If the numbers of research, yet well made, were sufficient to make business decisions, the software will replace the leadership and input-output systems kill forever the visionary intuition.
If the CRM and business research were the only source of inspiration, we run the risk of being targeted by the market and did not guide the market, giving up completely on innovation as it is known that seldom changes and market acceptance innovations willingly, though in practice, I have an enormous curiosity to know who had said the first survey:
- A bank entirely online
- On an online search service couples
- And many others who are important successes.
I do not want to think that disdain the importance of research and data. I say we must put into place and value in the just measure.
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