Research Seminar: Market research methods and their effectiveness

ABSTRACT
Successful product innovation is widely recognized to be critically dependent on the identification of customer needs during the front-end of new product development (NPD). The use of market research methods to identify customer needs is often referred to as integrating the voice of the customer (VOC) and a wide range of methods have been identified, from the ubiquitous focus group, to ethnography. A substantial amount of VOC work is outsourced by companies to market research agencies. Although the literature describes these methods, it offers only sparse guidance on how to choose the most appropriate method for an NPD project, and most recommendations are based on the attributes of the methods themselves.

In order to understand how market research methods are selected for front-end NPD, a sample of 24 market research experts were interviewed, using a theoretical perspective based on the decision-making and knowledge management literatures. The market research experts were interviewed using repertory grid technique—which is known to be an effective method for tapping experts’ explicit and tacit knowledge. Due to the significant gap in the literature—the role of market research agencies in innovation—the results needed to be analyzed using grounded theory.

The results show that the choice of a front-end market research method is a complex one, that is not just dependent on the attributes of the methods being considered. Experts choose a method based considering four factors: the attributes of the methods; the experience of the client to be served, their agency researchers’ expertise, and the expected outcomes. So, the context in which the market research will be conducted is as important as the attributes of the methods. Interestingly, the results show that market research experts do not necessarily choose the most effective method for their clients, instead they accept compromises. The results make a clear contribution to theory by showing that the choice of VOC methods is not a purely rational one (based on the attributes of methods) but rather a decision based on bounded rationality (where a satisfactory choice, rather than the ‘right choice’ is made). Therefore, this study provides an explanation for the discrepancy identified in the literature that what are perceived as the most the effective market research methods are not the most widely used. For practitioners, this has the implication that the VOC is not being heard as effectively as it could and should be.

Key words: market research methods, Voice-of-Customer, VOC effectiveness, market research agencies, customer insights
 
Presented by: Claus Varnes, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Operations Management
 
Author(s): Claus Varnes, Keith Goffin, Adela Michea og Chris van der Hoven
 
Discussant: Christer Karlsson
 
Agenda:
12:00-12:05 Introduction by Kim Sundtoft Hald
12:05-12:30 Presentation of paper ”EXPLORING HOW MARKET RESEARCH EXPERTS SELECT VOICE-OF-CUSTOMER METHODS” by Claus Varnes
12:30-12:45 Critical constructive review by Christer Karlsson
12:45-13:00 Review comments and open discussion by ALL

Location:
Solbjerg Plads - Room D4.20