Macdonald, Emma K., Wilson, Hugh N. and Konuş, Umut (2012) Better customer insight - in real time. Harvard Business Review . pp. 102-109.

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Abstract

Few marketing challenges are tougher than identifying and influencing what drives customers’ attitudes and behavior. Traditionally, executives have relied on a combination of quantitative data from surveys (such as those that track customer satisfaction and brand image) and qualitative insights from focus groups and interviews.

Unfortunately, both kinds of research suffer from a fundamental flaw: They rely on customers’ memories, which decay rapidly. Consumers frequently recall a company’s communications inaccurately; it’s not uncommon for people to claim they’ve seen a company’s TV ad at a time when the firm was not advertising. And even genuine memories are often biased by context: If a customer has made a major purchase, she’s more likely to remember her experience of the transaction positively in order to feel good about the purchase. Internet-based research tools suffer less from these problems because they can capture customer experiences almost immediately, before memory fades or becomes biased, but they can be used only with online interactions, which account for just 15% of customers’ encounters with companies and their brands.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Journal or Publication Title:	Harvard Business Review
Publisher:	Harvard Business School Publishing
ISSN:	0017-8012
Official Date:	September 2012
Dates:	Date Event September 2012 Published
Page Range:	pp. 102-109
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Related URLs:	Publisher

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