Gathering Information
and Measuring
Market Demand^115Of course, these findings could suffer from a variety of errors, and management may
want to study the issues further. (See Table 1.5 and the Marketing Insight box, “Mar-
keting Researchers Challenge Conventional Marketing Wisdom.”). But American could
now have more confidence in launching the telephone service.
OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO THE USE OF MARKETING RESEARCH
In spite of the rapid growth of marketing research, many companies still fail to use
it sufficiently or correctly, for several reasons:
■ A narrow conception of marketing research:Many managers see marketing research
as a fact-finding operation. They expect the researcher to design a questionnaire,
choose a sample, conduct interviews, and report results, often without a careful
definition of the problem or of the decision alternatives facing management.
When fact-finding fails to be useful, management’s idea of the limited usefulness
of marketing research is reinforced.
■ Uneven caliber of marketing researchers:Some managers view marketing research as
little more than a clerical activity and reward it as such. Less competent market-
ing researchers are hired, and their weak training and deficient creativity lead to
unimpressive results. The disappointing results reinforce management’s prejudice
against marketing research. Management continues to pay low salaries to its
market researchers, thus perpetuating the basic problem.
■ Late and occasionally erroneous findings by marketing research:Managers want quick
results that are accurate and conclusive. Yet good marketing research takes time
and money. Managers are disappointed when marketing research costs too much
or takes too much time. They also point to well-known cases where the marketing
research predicted the wrong result, as when Coca-Cola introduced the New Coke.
■ Personality and presentational differences:Differences between the styles of line
managers and marketing researchers often get in the way of productive relation-
ships. To a manager who wants concreteness, simplicity, and certainty, a
Marketing Researchers Challenge
Conventional Marketing Wisdom