Category Archives: Market Research

Failing Innovation

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Avoiding bad markets is half the battle. Annually I see multiple software vendors pitching products designed to improve the performance of computers, databases or networks. With few exceptions, these tools disappear within two years because the underlying commodity (computer server, network connection or DBMS) becomes faster and cheaper. One of the most common technology and marketing mistakes is to create a product for an industry that will inevitably correct the problem. Take home Internet connections (please, take mine and bring me FttP). Long, long ago — about 20 years back — having a 4,800 baud modem for connecting to the Internet was considered state of the art and painfully slow (recent college CS graduates may have to look-up archaic words like ‘baud’ and ‘modem’). Without fail, once every quarter, someone pitched a software solution for raising the data transfer rate across antiquated telephone technologies. The following quarter a faster modem … Continue reading →

Do Not DIY

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Don’t try this at work. A discussion recently erupted within an online marketing mavens’ forum. Someone wondered if Do It Yourself (DIY) market research using social media would eliminate more traditional forms of research and many of its freelance practitioners. I responded that amateur efforts create amateur results, and that SMBs would thus find new and exotic ways to stay small through inappropriate research. Oddly, everyone agreed with me, which is surely a sign of the End Times. Services like Survey Monkey have created a great deal of poor research because research is a scientific pursuit and Survey Monkey is a digital chemistry set for DIY researchers. The internet is now littered with invitations to participate in surveys, and as a result people have grown numb to these invites (which makes our research work here at Silicon Strategies Marketing more difficult). Sadly, the results obtained by ad hoc surveys and … Continue reading →

Unextreme Exploring

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We can name many famous explorers, but can you name those that never returned from their expeditions? The unknown is the danger within every new territory. Venture into an unblazed forest and you may never find your way home.  The same goes for new markets, or even markets that are rapidly changing (the sense of panic is palpable in the book publishing market these days).  Yet marketing in virgin territories is not unlike exploring a new continent.  In each, testing is essential. When the pilgrims landed in what later became the United States, they did not make a mad Lewis and Clark dash across the continent.  They rarely ventured away from the shore and whatever rivers provided fresh water. In small steps, they set off in one direction for a short distance, blazed their trail and returned the way they came.  The next morning they would try a different direction.  … Continue reading →

Research Riddle

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The client was slightly stunned to see our proposal for conducting a market research survey.  He blinked twice, signed the contract, and asked if the terms included surrendering his first born male child. The good news is that we had no use for his offspring, and thus Junior was not part of the transaction. CEOs from start-ups and billion dollar enterprises alike balk at market research.  There is always a cost, and unless the price is three digits or less, they often hesitate to commit … until I ask them what the cost of failure is, and the contract gets signed instantly. The cost of failure fits nicely with our formula concerning market success.  The formal is beautiful in its simplicity, and reads: P(s) = 1-P(f) Or stated in English for those of your who forgot your college statistics class work, the probability of success equals one minus the probability … Continue reading →

Lively Laddering

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“But how does server virtualization make you feel?” Sounds like an odd question to pose to a Chief Technology Officer, but it might be appropriate.  Everyone outside of congress has human emotions. Numerous studies show that promotions appealing purely to emotions sell better than those that pry only on intellect. Exploiting common target buyer emotions is a basic marketing tactic. Which is oddly missing from most B2B marketing. High tech entrepreneurs rarely add qualitative research to their task list.  Having met with early adopters, they mistakenly assume they understand everything about their entire market. The motivations of early adopters are as different from the broad market as are Hillary and Bill Clinton’s motivations toward Monica Lewinsky. Start-up founders may accidentally appeal to one or another emotional motivation of early adopters, but rarely do they take time to discover the motivations of each buyer genotype within their top three market segments. … Continue reading →

Market Omissions

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Poking couch potatoes is useless. For as along as television cable companies have provided set top boxes, one or another technologist has pimped the possibilities of interactive television (iTV).  Some were horrible notions, such as Microsoft attempting to turn your TV into a dial-up terminal and thus annoying the rest of your family as you v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y surfed the Internet.  Others sought to enhance viewing experiences by offering multiple picture-in-picture angles of sporting events.  A few tried to make a buck by littering your TV screen with icons that would instantly purchase merchandise. They all bombed, and for the same reason (and continue to do so). The fundamental flaw behind iTV is that television was designed specifically to prevent interaction.  A couple of generations of boob tube bumpkins have stridently avoided interacting with their parents, spouses, children and reality.  Television was a tool for disconnecting the brain and thus decompressing … Continue reading →