B2B Market Research: Peer-less Insight
Posted by Katherine Canipelli on Tue, Apr 07, 2009 @ 09:35 PM
Launching a blog, I’ve learned, is like trying out for American Idol.
You walk in thinking you’re the next great pop star and then—ephiphany!—you find that your destiny is to be the next great opera diva (a bit like the French soprano’s Natalie Dessay’s story). It takes getting up on stage to find the right voice.
The Power of Authenticity.
This is to say that, after some reflection (and target market feedback), we’re shifting the style a bit. Less dense, more sporty. The Industrious Marketer’s goal is to add some insight on all things B2B marketing, but not necessarily to break new ground with every post. And, for the blogger, a little less pressure and a lot more fun!
More Chapters Yet To Come.
There remains a place for the serious, instructive, analytic, white papery content. Allow me to introduce the new marketingFOLIO B2B Point of View Series. The first article, “Ten Tips for B2B Market Research”, was modified from a 2006 client memo I wrote about the value of targeted research, input to a new strategic market segmentation initiative. (We got the gig, which combined web-based “customer” surveys and in-depth industry executive interviews to capture full spectrum data.)
Readings to Share.
After revamping the piece this week, I was happy to find two good articles that discuss trends in B2B market research. The first came from eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey ("Why Now is Not a Good Time to Slash Your Market Research Budget") citing three recent studies (AdMedia Partners, Duke Univ/AMA, MarketResearchCareers) that suggest that B2B companies may actually use the current economic situation to advantage by investing more in research. The second was a BtoB article ("Online Market Research Takes Off—Internet surveys combined with traditional research methods are becoming the norm") that echo’d my contention that support for B2B research suffers unnecessarily due to fear of small sample sizes.
Other than budget constraints, another pushback against research is “inside information”. Not the SEC kind; I refer to senior executives who strictly rely on personal experience to guide strategy decisions. I’m always a bit shocked to find this, despite years of experience working for engineer-oriented, operations-focused, sales-driven companies that should have inured me to the insularity of it all. Being customer-centric may be a stretch for some businesses, but to be customer deaf is a problem. Especially now, as market norms are shape-shifting as we watch.
As the saying goes, knowledge is power.