Search, research, re-research

If you have enrolled in any Marketing 101 course before, I’m sure you can chant the 4Ps ‘Product, Price, Place, Promotion’ and you think you know 50% of the Marketing world. Good for you. It also explains why half the money you spend on advertising is wasted, you just don’t know which half.

The real underlying problem here, as often as it is: we don’t know what we don’t know. When you are designing a product (or service), setting a price, choosing a channel, and advertising it, without actually knowing what is your (potential) customer needs, likes, or wants, you are just assuming; and remember: When you are assuming, you are making an ASS of U and ME (pun not by me).

Let’s take 4Ps as half of everything in Marketing that you need to know for now. I will tell you the other half, and after this you can tell people you are a Master in Marketing. Ready? It is ‘Search, Research, Re-research’.

I’m talking about Market Research here. Marketing is not just copywriting in the state of half-drunkenness like what you see in Mad Men, although that is inarguably the more fun part. You may make a mad copy, but if it is not well-researched, you will still lose half of your money, then your full-time Marketing job.

Search

The first, and probably the most important part of any market research is to tap into your exact target market segment. Hint: go beyond demographics segmentation. That is Marketing 101 stuff, enough of that already. I have anointed you as a Master of Marketing remember? Target people based on their buying habits (are they established company who have thorough procurement procedures?), media habits (are they yuppies who access social media after office hours?), personal philosophy (do they recycle?).


Once you know who they are, get exactly that group of people into your Market Research project. If you don’t have this group of people, you are wasting 100% of your Market Research budget.

Research

Market Research is not about asking a set of standard questions to a group of people who are looking for incentives at the end of the survey or focus group. It’s a scientific process. Get into the details. Drill deep. Unearth some nuggets of hidden needs.

If you failed to get into people’s heads, you have failed your Market Research, and wasted 100% of your Market Research money.

Re-research

Now you know what to do. Good. Do it again. Again. Test. Test again. Validate. Market Research is not a one-off process. Market is changing, so are your customer, and so your product, offer, and communication should be adapted accordingly. What to change? The answer is waiting in your Market Re-research.


Some objections to Market Research include “lack of of resources”, “lack of competencies”, “lack of time”. Yeah. We are lived in the world of scarcity (That is Economics 101 for you). As a Marketer, you are supposed to spot opportunities in everything. In the land of abundance, there is no need for Marketing. So regardless of what your company is lacking (or the abundance in excuses), you still need to do your research. Think outside the box, but do it right.