stealing ideas

My (Smoked) Beef with Marketing Research

Jonathan Salem Baskin of dimbulb has a great post ripping JC Penney’s Dork Dodge game.  Shame on JC Penney’s for stealing this absurd idea… yet their marketing dept and agency likely will keep their jobs because there’s data and research galore for them to back themselves showing that women are the #1 online gamers.  So when their boss and boss’s boss starting asking why they did this despite lagging sales trusty marketing research will have their backs. 

Which brings me to the point of this post and something I haven’t gotten off my chest yet:

“Marketing research” exists not to uncover actionable insight, but to…

1. Reinforce false beliefs or the already known facts
2. Act as an insurance policy if a campaign, re-positioning, new packaging, expanded distribution, strategic partnership, etc. idea fails

Research should be a catalyst, but is more often than not a smoke screen shielding agencies and brand stewards from the consequences of uninspired, lazy work.