Direct Marketing Services

Analyzing direct marketing surveys via statistical software can give you a general idea about how a group of people feel about your product or service. However, be wary of drawing any permanent conclusions as a result of your direct marketing surveys. After all, just because you have more information about a product or service doesn't mean you have a better grasp as to how to market it to the public.

Consider the case of New Coke. In the wake of an energetic and aggressive Pepsi advertising campaign, Coca-Cola decided to launch a product which could out-taste its rival. In sipping tests, New Coke tasted better than Pepsi. However, at the end of the day, the release of New Coke proved to be one of the most disastrous marketing maneuvers in the history of corporate affairs.

The Limits and Possibilities of Direct Marketing Surveys

How did Coke's direct marketing surveys lead the company astray? The answer is that surveys describe aggregate tastes, but they're not always scientific. In the case of New Coke, the surveys tested how customers felt about beverages after only a few sips. However, most people drink whole cans of cola at a time. Thus, the surveys tested the wrong variable, and Coke got a misleading result.

Bearing these caveats in mind, direct marketing surveys can be extremely useful. When properly balanced with the informed intuitions of experts, surveys can indeed help to steer your company to safe harbors. The lesson to remember is that survey information shouldn’t necessarily interrupt or override expert intuition, especially when it comes to analyzing something subjective, like taste.