I’m not sure if this cartoon is funny. Maybe I’m just not cynical enough (ha! my friends are laughing already!) But I can’t think of any managers or clients for whom I’ve worked that are like the pointy-haired boss in this episode. I have never been asked to provide tons of data that look so boring it will be ignored. On the contrary, most for whom I have worked worry about getting mountains of meaningless data because too often that is what research suppliers deliver.
What do managers and clients want—even those who are less-than-enthusiastic about market research because it has too often failed them in the past? Here’s my experience of what they want: (more…)
If you have never done the hard work of interviewing your customers (or potential customers) by phone for surveys or in-depth interviews, you should. It will give you deeper insights into your critical business questions than any expert analyses about buyer behavior, marketing trends, or business best practices.
