Market Research vs. Testing: Or Why Ugly Often Sells

By Steffen Pelz, ViaMetric Principal

In the world of B2C marketing there is a lot of talk of research. Marketing professionals spend large portions of their budget and much of their time trying to gauge what the “public” is responding to at any given moment. Market research, as it is often called, continues to be linked to marketing accountability. The belief being that when more thorough research is conducted, those in marketing will be more accountable for their decisions:

“Research Renewal: Research will become the next frontier in the accountability equation.” (From 10 ways marketing will be transformed in 2007)

Research is an important part of the business. It’s one of those touches of science needed in the art of marketing that we’re fond of talking about. However, the research most businesses conduct isn’t scientific at all. Why? They’re using their research to determine what people like instead of what works. For instance, a sizeable research group is presented with a new version of an old soda. The old soda is pretty much the most popular drink of its kind ever to grace supermarket shelves, but hey, trying something new never hurt anybody, right? So, the new group is presented with the new soda and the majority of them like it. “Sure, we’d buy this,” they say. This type of research is conducted in various test markets with positive results all around. Then, the new version of the soda is released and…nobody wants it. They’re not buying it as they said they would. In fact, people are freaking out and demanding the old version return to the shelves.

It’s a scenario that’s common among products and services of all kinds. What people like can change on a whim. What they say they like in a controlled environment doesn’t necessarily translate to what they respond to when they’re spending their own money. This type of research has proven to be costly for a range of companies in a range of industries, and based on its subjective nature, many have stopped even calling it research:

“What we call qualitative research is also equally useful, when it is used appropriately. But when we use it appropriately I’m not sure that it deserves the name research either. Qualitative research works best in our business as ‘food for thought’ and as a powerful source for creating insight. Qualitative research, doesn’t tell us what is going on, at best it gives us some ideas about what might be happening. And it does this in a way that may help to trigger a new way to define or crack a problem in the planner’s mind but is laughable as a means for making critical business decisions.” (From adliterate)

Much of the market research that’s going on in offices all over the world isn’t unnecessary. However, it isn’t a replacement for true measurement. If you have two ideas that might work, instead of trying to intuit which one will work better, test them both over a period of time, and measure the results. At the end of the day, ugly often sells. You might just find that what everybody liked during the “research phase” isn’t generating the same real-world traction as what wasn’t liked.

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