Marketing Research – The Sexy Side of Marketing

Can we talk? Marketing research is not sexy among the young and inexperienced marketing professionals. These novices want the glory, but not the hard work that research and analysis entails. And for that, they often miss its importance in achieving marketing and sales success. They have no idea what they are missing -- for a promotional campaign to work long term, it must be marketing research based period! Anything less and you might as well point your finger to the wind!

In the short run, one may get lucky not using objective measurement, but long term, one better have germane, reliable data before allocating significant resources to costly marketing tactics considered for implementation. Consider sadly the company that introduced a product or service which during the first six months sales went through the roof; but then growth began to slow and eventually decreased because of market potential saturation limits. A simple estimation of market size and penetration potential could have prevented this debacle. This seems a rather simple illustration, that 20/20 hindsight would never allow such a mistake to happen. Remember that Fortune 500 company that made a similar error in the early 1990s by overestimating demand for a new product that they introduced. New Coke, Anyone? Embarrassment everyone!

My point -- Whether it's primary or secondary research, quantitative or qualitative analysis, some sort of "reality check" is needed to ensure that decisions are based on real data not wishful "group think" guesswork! Only through a comprehensive and objective analysis of the data-- sometimes by a third party--that informed decisions can be made.

Yes, marketing research critically assists the marketing decision-making process and makes the difference in any marketing plan. And when utilized intelligently "research" will always have marketing in mind!

This is Dr. John Tantillo, the marketing doctor thanking you for stopping by and inviting you to make marketing your business priority.

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Dr. John Tantillo is a behaviorally trained applied research psychologist who is internationally recognized for his expertise at diagnosing the real factors that impact target markets. His basic principles of using psychology as a catalyst to effective marketing-find out what people want and deliver it to them.