Research: Is it helping or hindering you?
Research data can be used to help illuminate and explain for the greater good; or, it can be a hindrance or a way of avoiding decision making. As advertising visionary, David Ogilvy, so eloquently puts it in this quote:
I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.
Much of the concern I have with research is that it appears so definitive, yet upon further inspection really isn’t. Most research is conducted by inquiry; asking qualitative or quantitative questions to participants and then summarizing or tabulating the responses. The challenge here is that people don’t always respond with complete candor. They often shade the truth or even outright lie to make themselves more appealing for unknown reasons.
One form of research is superior – behavior-based research. Words can be contorted, rehashed, denied and so on, but behaviors are behaviors – they are truth.
As marketers we’re always conducting research, whether on the job or not. My favorite research project is one I conduct weekly. It’s called “a trip to the grocery store.” I look at peoples’ shopping carts. It’s incredible what you can learn by looking at a cart. You can determine the shoppers economic situation, whether they have kids, if they are health conscious or health destructive, if they cook, or just reheat processed foods, if they love gossip and read pop culture magazines, if they have obvious habits (smoke, drink sodas, are compulsive cleaners or givers to others with cards, flowers, etc.). It’s all right there. The cart doesn’t lie.
The next time your doctor asks you if you drink alcohol, do you tell her the truth or do you downplay it? We all know the real truth is in the behavior, not in the description. Behavior trumps queries every time. Maybe the bigger question to ask ourselves is, are we always truthful? Are you? We’d love to tabulate your response :).
