Marketing Research can the Present it doesn’t predict the Future Essay

Marketing Research can the Present it doesn’t predict the FutureIntroductionMarketers are often guilty of too much researching especially drawing conclusions from market research based on questionnaires. More often than not these researches are used to justify a decision making rather than finding new consumer insight to foster innovations.The major critic of this approach is that number of times even consumers don’t know what they want.Learning from the success of iPod and iPhoneClassic example is the success of iPod, before it number of mp3 players had failed and so is the case after it. What made it successful is its emphasis on what customer wants but can’t tell a marketer in any survey – a simplistic design and easy navigation. Before iPod so many players tried to integrate music player with phone and try to provide as many options as possible to consumers which often left them confused.

(Bacon, 2003)Strategic Innovation is delivering an innovative or simplistic feature that has high relevance for the consumer.Contrasting to iPod, iPhone teased the consumer with different features which were not superior to the existing products. iPhone provided consumer new experience rather than additional features, an approach so vividly applied by the competitors. iPhone has an inferior music player, camera and various other features to its competitors but the interacting touch feature help it win over them. When a marketers interact with customer they will tell what additional features they want in the phone but not many will tell that the phone now is a fashion accessory life watches rather than a purely utility gadget.

(Mintzberg, 1987)How Southwest did itMost companies before Southwest took for granted that customer want better in plane services – food, drinks and comfort. But what really customer wanted was a an opportunity to travel faster. Southwest did it by offering no frills service that suited with the new emerging segment of economy travelers who are ready to sacrifice add on services for an opportunity to travel faster. (Gittell, 2002)Creative people have to think inside the skin and understand what the product can be rather than how it is perceived by the consumer at present. Today one can have a 2 megapixel camera, music player loaded phone for $100, still iPhone can garner $200; it is the reward Apple is reaping for understanding what customer inherently want rather than what they are telling the marketing research companies.

ReferencesBacon, Terry R.(2003) Winning Behavior : What the Smartest, Most Successful Companies Do Differently.Saranac Lake, NY, USA: AMACOM, 2007.

p 274.Mintzberg,H.(1987), “Five Ps for strategy”, California Management Review,Vol.30 No.1, pp.11-24.Gittell, Jody Hoffer (2002).

Southwest Airlines Way : The Power of Relationships for Superior Performance. Blacklick, OH, USA: McGraw-Hill Trade, 2002. p 120.