I was talking to someone today at a media property about an organization that I used to be involved with.
Apparently, the organization has taken an informal poll among their 70 or so employees about favorite radio stations, newspapers, TV, etc. And that’s what they’re using to decide where to spend advertising dollars.
Let me say it again just in case you lack the ability to scan backward to previous sentences.
They are basing their entire media buy on the musical tastes of 70 people who are not representative of their customer base.
And while that’s just wrong on so many levels that I don’t want to get carpal tunnel by listing them all, it happens all the time with businesses of every size.
It amazes me as I write and speak about the “new ways” to market that some businesses are not just stuck in the “old ways”, but doing the old ways wrong.
Thanks for highlighting this, Chris. I am always amazed when decisions are made without true customer input! We often do what we THINK our customers want us to do because we are afraid to ask them what they want (or we don’t know how to do it). Focus groups have frustrated me for some time, as they are a small sample of customers who are often very biased. As a part of a larger marketing research project, fine. However, they are often used as the sole source of customer information – and that is short sighted!
Keep up the great blog, Chris!
So that’s their idea of market research, huh? I guess they haven’t heard the mantra: “know thy customer.” It’s good enough that they just know themselves