In its broadest conception, Market Research seeks to find meaning in consumer behavior. From an exploratory stage, charged with understanding this behavior, to a conclusive stage, charged with its description and prediction.
Thus, the activity of researching the market becomes an awareness tool that allows those responsible for a company to obtain in-depth knowledge of the client and lays the foundations to serve them in the best possible way.
A good manager knows that it is better to make decisions with information than without information, even if this is not 'perfect information'. In this traditional but limited sense, the information obtained from a market study is used to make a decision and is quickly discarded.
We could change our attitude and consider that the learning obtained becomes part of the company's stock of knowledge, perhaps by adding data to a series of continuous information; or as verbalizations about the operation of the industry, contained in a document that we could well call 'Market Information Compendium'.
This change in attitude favors an increase in the intellectual capital of the company and also encourages the sensitivity of those who work in it.
How then can we take advantage of a merely technical tool to develop a value as apparently abstract as sensitivity?
Market research begins with a situational analysis that generally highlights a problem or opportunity. Assuming something needs to be done about it, a list of information is established to support the decisions that need to be made.
Once this list of information is defined as the purpose of the study, all the next steps have to do with the general question of how to obtain it.
Beyond the technical aspects of market research, if we understand that its purpose is to provide information, we can easily conclude that there are two ways to obtain it: question and observe.
In a general way, observing refers to all that information that is not obtained through questions. It has the enormous advantage of being essentially a non-reactive investigative technique, in the sense that it does not, in principle, require a response from the person being investigated.
Thanks to this, observation does not obstruct buying behavior and allows information to be obtained naturally. Its main tool is direct observation in a natural, uncontrolled environment, feasible at points of sale and places of use and consumption of products and services.
We all do it, informally, when we are in the supermarket, at the cinema, in a restaurant, during a walk, at the house of our family or friends, etc. We look around us and obtain large amounts of information about the characteristics of people, their behavior, their state of mind and their patterns of use and consumption.
As consumers or customers, we make purchasing decisions based on the information thus obtained. For example, we favor the busiest, liveliest movie theaters or restaurants. As entrepreneurs, we can learn a lot just by observing.
The method is expensive because it requires meeting people at the time they make their purchases, consume their products or use their services. In addition to the cost involved in the investment of time, we have the problem of privacy. We could not, for example, sit down for breakfast with the typical family that consumes our brand of cereal. Much less sit down with her to watch television in the evening.
These problems are partially solved when we look at the consequences of behavior, rather than behavior directly. In other words, we observe the traces left by purchasing behavior. It may be easier for a stay at home mom to allow us to look at the pantry, refrigerator, and other product storage places in his home. The content gathers a great deal of information. And even without your permission, we could still look at the waste in the trash can.
Other traces of purchasing behavior are found in the records that originate from many transactions: telephone statements, credit card, checking account, etc.
The other big problem with observation is that, although we can observe behavior and its consequences, we can hardly observe feelings and only some of the personal characteristics of clients. In fact, some of them that seem obvious are much better to ask, such as gender, age or marital status.
When watching is not enough, the proper technique is to question. And this is the preferred method of formal market research, whether it is carried out under a flexible (interview) or structured (questionnaire) approach.
Of course, in principle, we can ask about any subject, past, present and future. Just as we can ask a family member about other members of her family. Questioning is a very efficient way to obtain information, but a few caveats are worth it.
Questioning implies invading the social environment that it is intended to describe and can generate an attitude in the interviewee and even induce atypical behavior. Furthermore, it necessarily requires the cooperation of the interviewee.
The most important message of these techniques to obtain information is that the more we look around us and the more we ask those around us, the more sensitive we will become as entrepreneurs and as people.
Sensitivity is a very important value and one of the two pillars of leadership and the attitude that encourages, generates and favors it is an inquisitive attitude, so we must learn to pay close attention and ask questions left and right, not only through formal investigation processes, but through our direct contact with the market: take a long look and ask more.
