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Rule One – What your gut tells you may not be right
During the 2000 election, the now-infamous butterfly ballot may
have played an important role in the outcome of the election. Its
design supposedly eased the problem of having too many candidates
for a limited amount of space. But, chaos resulted, and it might
have been avoided with some preliminary market research. Qualitative
research, such as a focus group, would have certainly revealed the
problem with this ballot design. The person in charge, however,
was convinced that she knew what she was doing, and no “outside”
help was required.
A retailer, who crossed our path many years ago, summarily dismissed
the need for research with the comment, “We have our own formula
for knowing where to place our stores.” This formula, based
entirely on traffic counts, resulted in stores closing almost as
quickly as they were opened. Research would have demonstrated that
chosen sites were surrounded by strong competition and inconveniently
located to the target market.
Rule Two – Don’t be afraid to ask hard questions
No business likes to hear that the public’s perception of
them is negative. Yet, until a company is willing to hear the truth,
positive change cannot occur. A client once asked us to conduct
research to determine why one of their facilities was performing
at a much lower level than other facilities in the company. Research
determined that events occurring years before still colored the
impression consumers had of the facility. Knowing this enabled the
company to redirect services and launch an aggressive marketing
plan that helped to change the public’s opinion.
Rule Three – Know what you need to know
We ask the following question at every meeting with a new client:
“What are the three or four things you must get out of this
research?” If the answer is, “I’m not sure,”
it tells us that preliminary work must be done before the project
can get underway. No research project will succeed unless it is
based on solid goals and objectives. On the other hand, if objectives
are clearly defined, we know we're in an excellent position to craft
a research project that will culminate in actionable results. ‡
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