With the tremendous success of big data for the mapping customer journey, there is a chance that marketing research is not getting enough attention.
Big data focuses on past customer behavior, making companies build strategies based on the past rather than the future. This way, businesses may miss out on innovation. By looking at past trends, they will offer similar product offerings to consumers but will be unable to predict subtle changes in buying behavior. These subtle changes lead to a significant shift in trends.
E.g., A brand like PepsiCo may think that based on the past year’s results, people are buying its sugary beverages and may continue to offer the same products. But in fact, they realized that there is a demand for organic, healthy items and shifted their position to a wellness platform.
Stuck in the past, a company slowly dies, or if it starts late, it loses its market leader position.
Many small businesses may realize there is a need for the new product in the market by being in conversation with their clients. Mid-size companies or more prominent corporations should set aside a budget for marketing experiments or marketing research to understand consumers and make a data-driven decision.
Harley Davidson is innovating (hopefully it is not too late) by offering electric motor for environment-conscious millennials after bearing years of sales plunge. They were happy with their loyal customers who rode their bikes with pride, but the younger generation wasn’t interested. Harley could have predicted this shift towards convenience and environment consciousness, presented in secondary data available by many research agencies.
A combination of big data and conventional methodologies of marketing research is ideal for a business whose goal is to understand its market and offer innovative products.
In this day and age, companies must come out of their comfort zone and innovate so that they can awe the audiences.