THEY CAN’T – IT IS YOU JOB TO WORK THAT OUT Steve Jobs once, or perhaps more than once, expressed concern about the value of market research – suggesting that there is no point in asking consumers what they want because they rarely if ever know. He argued that marketing research was of limited value […]

THEY CAN’T – IT IS YOU JOB TO WORK THAT OUT Steve Jobs once, or perhaps more than once, expressed concern about the value of market research – suggesting that there is no point in asking consumers what they want because they rarely if ever know. He argued that marketing research was of limited value in identifying innovation opportunities. Despite being a big fan of marketing research I would argue that Steve Jobs was 100% correct. Indeed there is plenty of research demonstrating that consumers and people and general find it very difficult to identify what they will want into the future and indeed what they might pay for it. Before going on, let me explain the difference between market and marketing research. Market research involves developing an understanding of the market as it is today. Marketing research is about understanding opportunities and problems and the actions that might be…