Matt Rhodes posted under a similar title today (http://blog.freshnetworks.com/2008/10/innovate-through-a-downturn-but-make-it-customer-led/), and I have to say that I agree with him. My feeling is that this is a time when businesses of all sizes and in all sectors should be jostling for position, showing off their wares, and, most important of all, showing how they are different from their competitors. That means that businesses should be finding their unique selling points, the technology or service or process that makes them different, and making sure that their clients realise it. At the same time, businesses should do this, as Matt says, in a customer led way: maybe what we do today is different, but it’s not quite what our clients and customers want or need – but with a bit of inside knowledge of the customers requirements, we should be able to find a unique proposition that has a market even in a tough economic climate.
None of this, so far, has much to do with traditional market research, does it? Not really. But then the tools of traditional market research – the survey, the mystery shopper, the focus group – are a key means to finding out what the customer actually wants and needs. Tied in to the use of on-line (and maybe off-line) communities, market researchers could help the businesses around them to find the way forward.
So I’m not that worried about the tough times: I think that there is nothing new in what I am saying, and companies all around us are looking for that sweet product or service that will get them through.
