How We Think

Fear of Knowing — Why We Resist Doing Research

November 30, 2015

Fear of knowing followed by the fear of having to change may be the biggest obstacles to embracing a marketing research program.

In an email providing comment on the draft of a questionnaire being prepared to assess prospective customer perceptions, the client took a moment to reflect on how he was feeling about the long overdue marketing research project. I was initially somewhat taken aback to see language including “exhilarating in its own freakish way,” “frankly terrifies me,” and “a kernel of thrill in it all.” After all, as a marketing researcher, I find nothing more exciting than generating insight from customer input and working with strategists, designers and writers to apply that insight to marketing plans and implementation. How could it be scary?

The message stayed with me for some time as I recognized that I was experiencing a significant opportunity to use this input as valuable insight into why clients may be resistant to research.

Not to dismiss the often stated reasons to skip research and rely largely on internal discussions and beliefs from clients to shape strategic and creative direction. Indeed, costs, time and sometimes the absence of perceived return on investment are legitimate concerns that can and should be addressed logically. But it’s much more difficult to combat the strong emotional response of fear with the same objectivity.

Where does this fear come from? It seems to emanate from two primary sources:

• Fear of what we’ll learn. Understandably, asking customers to reflect on our product or service or how we present ourselves to them opens us up to hear things we don’t want to hear. Research may reveal, for instance, that our product is distinguished from that of competitors based on an attribute that is not important to users when they make a purchase decision. Or that our hard work to excel at customer service still does not stand out.
• Fear that what we’ll learn will require us to change. Anxiety about what marketing research will reveal further relates to the changes we project we’ll have to make to respond to user input. The knowledge that our users are not reading our blogs or are deleting our e-newsletter on arrival suggests we have to find other ways to communicate with them. A negative reaction to a creative concept that we’ve fallen in love with sends us reluctantly back to the drawing board – or worse what if research reveals that the concept we do not like is the preference of users?

In the end, it’s important to face those fears. Listening to customers’ voices can and should be exhilarating. If those voices tell us things that are uncomfortable to hear or require new strategies, these are opportunities for course correct. We can be talking about the difference between making bad investments in our products or services or in how we communicate with customers and managing strategies that are responsive and effective.

One way to address the fear of marketing research is to take it slowly. A taste of the insight that comes from accessing customer insight may be just enough to help you make smart moves and become a believer. Regardless of your time and budget parameters, you may want to start with influencer interviews or customer focus groups to begin listening. Once your appetite has been whet, you’ll be ready for a bigger project such as conducting a survey or deploying an online community.

Having the confidence to make smart decisions based on insight and intelligence should always trump acting out of fear when it comes to your business.