Nov 14 2010
Stale Market Research
Class 15 had us all discussing the real notion behind ‘Market Research’ and justifying why it was important for a business – as well as distinguishing between the different types of market research there is (Quantitative, Qualitative, Primary, Secondary).
But that does not mean that products still can’t be subjected to errors in spite of all this probing research in the playing field that is the actual market.
Take coke for instance, which in 1985, launched a new campaign for a new coke taste, their slogan being: “The best has been made better”. As stated in the article, Coke decided to create a sweeter tasting version of the original coke – which it had been using for 99 years. The company had conducted extensive market research (“millions” the article quotes), including tastings for customers, questionnaires and other forms of market research.
However, after 3 months after the launch of this new coke the product was scraped, Coke admitting to miscalculating market research that had not predicted consumers were already brand loyal to the original tasting coke, and classified the 99 year old product as ‘the one and only’ Coke to buy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/working_lunch/3200236.stm