subject: Know Thy Customer In Wholly New Ways [print this page] Know Thy Customer In Wholly New Ways Know Thy Customer In Wholly New Ways
Qualitative research can fit into multiple places in the innovation cycle, from finding a new opportunity to filling a gap no one else has filledto developing a concept to determining positioning to developing messaging. Lots of businesses use research to test a specific product. They want to learn how people use their product, to gain the truth about how the product works, what consumers think when choosing and using it, and perhaps how the product can be improved to increase satisfaction, loyalty, and adoption by new users. .
But when don't they use research when perhaps they should? "People don't really take the time to understand their user," said Shelley Krasnick, Qualvu's Managing Director of Research & Insights. "If their main user is a male between 18 and 24, they sometimes assume that he's just like their 22-year-old cousin. They don't take the time to learn what is really valuable to that segment and how their product fits into the consumer's life."
Are you failing to see the truth? Companies also miss an opportunity to learn something about their consumers by failing to look at why people actually use a product, Shelley added. "Instead, we tend to look to see if consumers use our product in the way we think they should use it. People may use your product for a totally different reason. I once worked on a case where it turned out those consumers liked a product's container better than they liked the product," she said.
"The objective is to know the customer as well as you possibly can, because you can never know your customers too well. I don't think there's a single company around that couldn't benefit from knowing more about its customers. Think of it as having instant access to your consumer base at a moment's notice. That's the kind of philosophy that will keep you on the right track," she said.
