Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

Customer Research is for Everyone

I was recently asked to give a 30-minute luncheon talk on Consumer and Market research. It wasn't difficult enough that they wanted me to give a 30-minute talk, for me it's hard to say good morning in 30 minutes, but they also requested that it be of such a general nature that all present would be interested. The problem was that the audience was made up of people from all forms of business. How do you make a market research presentation interesting to people that are not involved in manufacturing, marketing or consumer research?

My approach was to use a technique I was taught while attending the "Creative Problem Solving Institute." The technique encouraged looking at how methods in one area may be applied in another totally different area. I selected methods within "Customer Research." The resulting theme was: "Customer Research is not just for companies that make and sell something, it is for everyone." In building on the theme, I defined one of the primary purposes of Customer Research as being, "the determination of those action steps necessary to develop a stronger and more favorable relationship between two entities that have a mutual relationship."

To broaden the focus of the audience, I asked three questions. First, a show of hands of those who are actively involved in Customer Research. The second question asked, who considered their employer as a customer? The third question was, who considered their spouse or family as a customer?

To extend the focus of Customer Research, I introduced the concept, "we all are selling something even if it is just ourselves." From this perspective, we took eight common customer research steps and compared the tasks involved in the business perspective with the personal perspective.

Identification of:

                    Our different customers
                     Each customer's needs (and expectations)
                     The specific product in each relationship (business and personal)
                     The intended promise in each relationship (concept)
                     Our image (good and bad)
                     What and how we communicate the message (concept)
                     Our competition
                     And finally, new opportunity exploration (in case of the personal relationships, enhancements in the relationship)

I had a lot of fun developing the perspective and found it an interesting exercise utilizing business tools in a personal relationship. I hope that you will find the task interesting enough to give it a try. After all, if there is any area where we want a most favorable relationship it should be with the family.


[Back][Index][Forward]