Market Directions Newsletter
January 2008
Happy New Year
Reading Market Directions' newsletters will help you distinguish market research as the tool that enables you to grow your business by removing all doubt from marketing decisions.
 
Market Research
 
Discover Your Customers
 
Happy New Year Greetings!   Starting the new year with a look back at probably everyone's first focus group experience---- "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."  As a marketer do you observe Goldilocks differently?  How do you get to the core of unconscious decisions?  Let me know----- comments
                           
Mary M. Malaszek
Mary M. Malaszek, Market Directions, mary@mktdirections.com
Your First Focus Group 
  Focus Group
Goldilocks wanders into a house in the middle of the forest, not knowing what, or who to expect.  Once inside she is presented with food, comfort and rest choices. 

 When she sees three bowls of porridge she realizes she is hungry.  But, she does not understand the extent of her hunger or her urgency to relieve her hunger pangs.  She tries all of the bowls of porridge, settling on the last and smallest one. 

Now you are the observer of this experience--- the marketer---- getting ready to take your porridge to market.  You observe Goldilocks through the glass--- as she tastes the first bowl of porridge she remarks: "too hot," she proceeds to the second and remarks: "too cold."

Behind the glass you are stunned because you know that you have prepared each of the servings of porridge exactly the same, and each has been sitting out in your test kitchen for precisely five minutes.  You scurry to contact the cook to determine why one bowl is hot and bowl is cold.  However, just as your heart rate accelerates to a pounding level, Goldilocks, tries the last bowl and remarks: "just right." 

Article Premise

Customers don't know what they want and they make what appears to marketers as--"irrational purchasing decisions."

Not Convinced?  Read about Goldilocks
Understanding Goldilocks

 Focus GroupPromptly, the moderator begins to discuss with Goldilocks her choice for a bowl of porridge.  The moderator probes about the first two bowls,  "too hot!, too cold?" and; "What if I told you that each of the bowls of porridge were exactly the same temperature?" 

 

Goldilocks, fidgets in her chair, twirls her hair and says:  "yeah they were probably the same temperature now that I think about it, but when I saw the three bowls I thought I was really starving, once I tried the large bowl, I looked over and saw the medium bowl, and thought I'm not that hungry after all, then I tasted the medium bowl and saw the small bowl and thought, that's probably enough porridge for me, I should just eat a small bowl."  I didn't want anyone to realize that I made a mistake so, I just used the first excuse I could think of to not eat the first two bowls." 

Market Research

What's the marketers moral of the story? 

Most of what the customers mind does is unconscious; that is, automatic, habitual.  So even though your customer's conscious mind is actively absorbing impressions, it is unaware of most of them.  The conscious mind doesn't need to be aware, it doesn't have to make decisions.  A decision is made by your customer's unconscious mind. 

As in Goldilocks case, she first reacted to hunger, but as her hunger pangs began to be quieted, she reacted to her upbringing and family values around food, thus choosing the appropriate portion sized bowl of porridge. 

How would you use this data?

You have your qualitative data what conclusions can you draw? 
 
Here's ours:  Presenting a niche with porridge, appropriate portion size is important and a factor in the purchase decision. 

About Market Directions

DeliverSince 1994, we have enabled organizations to understand their customers in whole new ways. By asking the right questions and analyzing the answers, our methodology enables senior marketing and sales executives to significantly increase sales and gain measurable competitive advantage.

   

We do this by using a variety of market research tools and present our clients with new, exciting, and profitable ways to understand their customers.

 

Our promise to you? That as a result of our work, you will understand your customers and your business in a whole new way. You will see your products and services as your key customers see them, and, equipped with this critical information, you will save both money and time, delivering your products to new markets of eager, highly-qualified buyers.   MORE SALES Learn More