do not rely on intuition In discussion about market research, many commentators and so-called experts have highlighted comments Steve Jobs made in this regard, and his criticism of research that asks people what they want. Jobs believed that people rarely know what they want. For researchers, these are sobering words. However, they in no way […]

do not rely on intuition In discussion about market research, many commentators and so-called experts have highlighted comments Steve Jobs made in this regard, and his criticism of research that asks people what they want. Jobs believed that people rarely know what they want. For researchers, these are sobering words. However, they in no way devalue the importance of market research. They simply point to the importance of asking the right question. Steve Jobs was correct in saying that people rarely know what they want, and Clayton Christenson (Harvard Business School) was equally right when he noted that people know what issues they need to address, and James Dyson (Dyson vacuum cleaners) was equally right when he said that consumers understand their problems. It is all about asking the right question. The fact that 85% of new products fail, and the further statistic that 95% of consumer products fail, suggests…