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It always amuses me when so-called consumer research comes back to tell us that people would like their lives to be different in some fundamental way. They’d like us to have a more “natural lifestyle”, they wish we weren't so dependent on big brands, or they resent global businesses.
This is a bit like a squirrel saying he resents having to go up trees to collect nuts and would rather they were just available on the ground because, if he's really honest, that whole leaping about in the trees business is scary not fun.
Mr Squirrel has overlooked a number of important things when replying to the survey about nut distribution:
- He’s in the habit of
running up trees to fetch his nuts; even if
they were placed on the ground he would
probably head up the tree as a matter of
course anyway.
- He's a somewhat jumpy
character, quite nervous of larger
creatures around him. As a result he
would find the prospect of all the nuts
being on the ground extraordinarily
stressful; he's actually happier than he
thinks up in the trees where ground
dwelling predators can't get to him.
- With the nuts available
on the ground more creatures can get to
them. Now everyone is looking to get
nuts on the ground and he's going to have
to bury his quite a lot deeper so they
aren't discovered by everybody else.
He hadn't realised he didn't like digging
quite this much.
- Mrs Squirrel has told him that the nuts she collected from the ground haven't kept as well over the winter. On balance, it seems worth the trouble of getting the fresh ones from higher up in the trees.
Okay, so I've used a fairly silly example to make my point, and I'm no expert on squirrels so I apologise for any factual errors in the squirrel (or nut) department.
But the issues are exactly the same when it comes to asking consumers what they want. People are so bad at predicting how they will behave in the future that the chances of getting accurate information when asking them what they want are effectively zero.
Inevitably sometimes what research says they
want will be borne out. But it's worth
remembering that that is only an argument for
the validity of the research process if it is
true every
time.
When it comes down to it there are few
alternatives to getting the product in front of
people and seeing how they react. And
even then it is easy to misread their reaction
or to inadvertently trigger an inaccurate
response if you aren't aware of all the ways in
which consumer behaviour can be influenced
indirectly.
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Looking into the Future with Your Consumers
Given the costs involved in developing new products it makes sense to get what insights you can from your customers. Mind you, flawed information is really far worse than no information at all.
There are a number of ways of investigating consumer response that, whilst not risk free, are much more accurate than standard research techniques.
If you have a specific project you wish to discuss or if you have any questions on consumer behaviour: philip@philipgraves.net
© 2008 Philip Graves Consumer Behaviour Resource. All rights reserved.