Perhaps counter-intuitively, at Stitch we often find ourselves starting conversations with,“Actually, you don’t need to research that.” If we’re in the business of selling market intelligence services, this wouldn’t seem a wise response to an inquiry. But since we’re actually in the business of marketing success via insights (see case studies and blog), we relish the opportunity to help companies differentiate between what we think we want to know and what we know we need to know in order to win.
Overly simplified Will they buy it? Research ++
We often want to jump straight to the instant gratification of asking consumers or other target audiences direct questions like ‘Would you buy X for $Y?’ This often leads to both false negatives (Nobody wants it; abort!) or false positives (Everyone wants it; build more and raise the price!).
SOLUTION: To determine appeal and demand, best research practices will uncover what outcome the target seeks (tangible vs intangible, e.g.), what trade-offs are expected and acceptable, and what gets a brand into the consideration set (the magic short-list). From there, analytics can tell us who will buy what, as an outcome of what triggers selections.
In other words, our audience doesn’t have to answer yes or no to tell us yes or no.
Testing Insider Language ++
We have some great meetings, and much insight is shared on whiteboards, but end-user language and context is often very different from the ways organizations frame their unique selling propositions internally. A common misstep is to attempt a market evaluation of a concept using language that is meant for internal strategy only.
SOLUTION: What does the end user care about, personally? What is the angle relative to other messages they will be hearing from your competitors? A positioning and a pitch can be tested without being an advertisement (salesy) or a brief (corporate), but we must answer these questions first.
This allows research respondents to experience relevance and a feeling of contributing to a process (more authentic response).