Abstract:

The world of fact-based consulting has become very crowded of late. While marketing researchers may once have felt like they represented the voice of the consumer in a business world ignorant of true customer needs, marketing research today is but one of several sources of information to which an executive might turn for guidance. A flood of new analytic tools has provided companies with access to a torrent of customer data, leaving marketing researchers uncertain whether they should wade against the current or float downstream. This paper discusses the hurdles and opportunities that a marketing research company should address to avoid being washed away.