“New” Research? It Pays to Talk to Consumers
This just in (reported yesterday in a MediaPost article by Wayne Friedman):
"NEW PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS RESEARCH, RELEASED at
the National Association of Television Program Executives meeting here,
urges marketers to strike up conversations with young consumers about
products. Otherwise, consumers will form their own–sometimes
negative–opinions."
***
And we needed a big name research firm to tell us this?
Remember, the should-be-obvious wisdom of this research doesn’t apply only to teens, but to every market: strike up conversations with your consumers sooner rather than later. (What good is it to develop a product you think will be a huuuge hit, and then run it by consumers at the last minute before an already-scheduled launch?)
Before nodding off to sleep last night, I read a great quote in a novel with an advice columnist protagonist. I paraphrase the words of the author Jacquelyn Mitchard here as a great truth for marketers considering the "big" steps of conversations with consumers:
Who can resist the sheer power of being asked and believed?
No one, man or woman. Give that power to your customers.
January 18th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Another reason not to use focus groups! I mean what a waste of money!
You are right Andrea, it is obvious wisdom. Clearly, using a social media framework allows for small scale, targeted and deep ongoing research to take place in a way that rewards all participants. It will be exciting to see how we begin to analyse the results of these new efforts.