Angus writes another blog that really got me thinking. In his blog, he asks: “Does market research results changed based on changes in society or does society change based off the decisions of market research?” Having just learned from Audrey’s blog: Apple does no market research, I think that differ from traditional way of keeping a business running, what Apple does is very mind blown. If companies’ ultimate goal is to resonate with societal values, does not matter the answer to Angus’s question, market research is essential to a company.
What is market research? Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategies. (Wikipedia) So, is market research really that important to a business? At least Apple does not think so. According to Audrey’s blog: Apple DOES NOT do any market research. However, even Jobs said, “we (as Apple) do no market research”, personally, I still think they do market research, but really in a different way. When Bill Gates talked about Jobs, he said, “ he (Jobs) really knows what the market wants…” Although before the launch of iphones, there are other brands market and sell their smart phones in the market, the market really built up after the launch of iphone. Same as the tablet market, ipads brought the market to a whole new level. Therefore, it is fair to say, instead going into the existing market, really, Steve Jobs, or Apple created the market. If the market is created by him or this brand, why bother doing market research? Or if he created the market, he had enough research done already. However, to other companies, it is different.
I agree with Audrey that “an innovator like Apple is very rare”, but Apple didn’t succeed without market research. It had its research done in a different way. In conclusion, does not matter which way a company use to do its market research, market research is essential to a business.