Just ask your mom!.. and save all those marketing research dollars

I'm convinced that some marketers have gone out and spent $250,000 on marketing research when all they really needed to do was pick up the phone and "call mom".

It's not that spending lots of money to watch what people say & do behind 1-way mirrors isn't interesting, it's just that the entire process of conducting research can take forever - and is often overkill given your business objective.

This is where your mother comes into play. Or your father for that matter. Or your friends. Second cousins. Your garage attendant. And the guy who you buy flowers from at the corner.

The truth is that you're surrounded by people who can provide you with a wealth of input regarding the products & services that you manage, market and develop. Not utilizing these incredibly valuable resources would be a profound & deeply limiting oversight.

Now I'm hardly suggesting that you bank the global commercialization of a new product on a five-minute conversation you had with your dog walker. But I am suggesting you utilize the people around you to gather quick, "real", no-cost feedback & insights about consumer needs, your products, your company, competitors, etc.

You can also gain great insights by simply paying attention to what people around you are talking about. Take your mom, for example. What's top of mind for her these days? What appear to be her biggest 'stressors'? Are there any themes you can tease out? How about your neighbor with the newborn? How have the tone and content of your conversations changed since he became a dad?

When the need arises, I want you to turn your day-to-day interactions into one giant marketing research lab. Put on your research goggles and engage the folks within your world. They have so much to give and are often more than happy to provide you easy access to their thoughts & opinions.

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Marketers & the "us vs. them" illusion... take 3

Another helpful tool for marketers to use to further undermine the "us vs. them" illusion is as easy as a few Google searches and a couple of mouse clicks.

Open your web browser, hop onto Google or your favorite search engine, and track down some discussion boards or social networking sites that pertain to your industry and read away. You'll gain instance access to the voice of the customer, free of charge... no need for focus groups or expensive surveys.

Now, of course, I'm cognizant of the bias factors involved in this approach (e.g., reading the words of a self-selecting population). I would never suggest that a marketer take what she hears on some discussion boards and draw firm conclusions about customers - their current concerns, needs, friction points, etc. However, it's a heck of a solid way for generating hypotheses that can then be validated quickly using relevant market-research technologies.

Start doing this immediately. Block out 30 minutes a week on your calendar for "cruising" industry-relevant discussion boards. It's such a small investment, which over time will pay you back major dividends.

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