• Home
  • About
  • Archives
  • Our Book
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Chapter 07 / Jeff Bezos: ‘Market Research Doesn’t Help’

Jeff Bezos: ‘Market Research Doesn’t Help’

April 24, 2019 by Jon Firooz Leave a Comment

Yahoo Finance recently ran the article titled “Jeff Bezos: ‘Market Research Doesn’t Help“.  The catchy title makes it look like Bezos doesn’t believe in the value of market research but that’s not actually what he’s saying.  Bezos’s claim is that market research isn’t always the best source for innovative product design.  When talking about the development of the Amazon Echo family of devices, Bezos said, “If you had gone to a customer in 2013 and said ‘Would you like a black, always-on cylinder in your kitchen about the size of a Pringles can that you can talk to and ask questions, that also turns on your lights and plays music?’ I guarantee you they’d have looked at you strangely and said ‘No, thank you.’”

The article is a short one but it’s point is well taken.  Consumers are generally great improvers but terrible innovators.  If Apple had asked cell phone users in 2007 what they wanted to see in a new phone design they would have described something very similar to the existing models from RIM, Nokia, and others.  Nobody would have suggested a device lets you make calls but also lets you fling brightly colored birds into a pig-infested structure.  With that understanding, ask your students why bother with market research if consumers aren’t good at innovating?  Maybe it’s product research that’s not valid but other forms of market research have value?  Could product research still have value given the issues mentioned?  The answer is yes and it depends a great deal on the process.  Rather than ask people what they want or need, good product researchers will study how people use existing products, what problems they experience, and what opportunities are yet to be addressed.

Did you like this? Share it:
  • Share via Facebook
  • Share via Twitter
  • Share via Email

Filed Under: Chapter 07 Tagged With: Innovation

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Categories

  • #M4BW
  • Advertising
  • B2B
  • Chapter 01
  • Chapter 02
  • Chapter 03
  • Chapter 04
  • Chapter 05
  • Chapter 06
  • Chapter 07
  • Chapter 08
  • Chapter 09
  • Chapter 10
  • Chapter 11
  • Chapter 12
  • Chapter 13
  • Chapter 14
  • Chapter 15
  • Chapter 16
  • Chapter 17
  • Chapter 18
  • Chapter 19
  • Competition
  • Consumer behavior
  • Cross-functional
  • Customer service
  • Demographics
  • Ethics
  • External market environment
  • Flip Exercise
  • Integrated marketing communications
  • International
  • Legal
  • Logistics
  • Market research
  • Marketing strategy planning
  • New-product development
  • Place
  • Positioning
  • Price
  • Product
  • Product life cycle
  • Promotion
  • Publicity
  • Retailing
  • Segmentation
  • Selling and Sales Mgmt
  • Service
  • Social media
  • Social responsibility
  • Strategy planning
  • Sustainability
  • Teaching Technology Tips
  • Tips for Teaching
  • Tips for Technology
  • TV Commercial
  • Uncategorized
  • Video
  • Viral campaign
  • What's Now?
  • Word-of-mouth

Archives

  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018

Copyright © 2019 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in