With my first marketing research class, I fell in love with the discipline. Naturally curious about people, I could study their behavior, and be paid for it. A definite win-win.
Research techniques can be quantitative or qualitative and there are devotees of both. Those who prefer quantitative want to be able to say, “x% feel this way” or “y% are likely to purchase that new product.”
For practitioners waving the qualitative banner, observation is better. Mystery shopping, ethnography or simply watching consumers as they interact with their surroundings tends to reduce “self reported” data errors of focus groups and interviews, including the unconscious motivation of respondents to tell the interviewer what they think he or she wants to hear.
What I think about the relative merits of each is best related through a “story” I heard. I don’t know who told it first so can’t give credit where it is due. It goes something like this..
“It was October and the Indians on a remote reservation asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since the chief had always lived in modern society before returning to the reservation, he hadn’t been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn’t tell what the winter was going to be like…
He got an idea. He called the National Weather Service and asked, ‘Is the coming winter going to be cold?’ ‘It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,’ the meteorologist responded. So the chief told his people to collect a lot of firewood.
A week later, the chief called the NWS again. ‘Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?’ ‘Yes,’ the man replied, “it’s going to be a very cold winter.’ The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.
Two weeks later, the chief called the NWS again. ‘Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?’ ‘Absolutely,’ the main replied. ‘It’s looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters ever.’
‘How can you be so sure?’ the chief asked.
The weatherman replied, ‘The Indians are collecting firewood like crazy.’
Bottom line. Don’t assume you know “why” just by observing. Unless you want a big pile of firewood, you need to ask some questions.
