Typical market research is dangerous if it stops us doing something that would have been more productive.
Worse, a reliance on conventional market research goes beyond a simple waste of money. It corrupts an organization’s ability to learn and, if that wasn’t damaging enough, can lead to untold waste in the pursuit of strategies and initiatives that would never have been developed with a deeper approach to understanding consumer behavior.
All the brands we love eschew standard market research. Apple, Nike, Virgin, HBO, Netflix, JetBlue, Pixar don’t do old-school research.