Fighting DIY Market Research Trend is Useless
DIY (Do it Yourself) Market Research seems to be getting a lot of attention lately. So today an analogy about DIY market research, and some advice to market researchers concerned about the DIY trend.
But first a bit about the history of the ice making industry courtesy of Guy Kawasaki:
Ice 1.0 At one time if you wanted Ice you had to get it from those that cut ice blocks out of lakes
Ice 2.0 Later Ice Houses were invented which could store and produce ice any time of year at a central location in a city
Ice 3.0 Finally refrigerators were invented and anyone could make ice at home
So what? Perhaps that time is coming for market research.
Interestingly, no Ice Cutters made the change between Ice Cutting and Ice houses. Similarly no Ice House businesses became refrigerator manufacturers. These businesses were destroyed because none of them saw the opportunity, instead they just continued doing their thing until no one needed their services.
When the time comes, make sure your company is ready to make the move to refrigerator manufacturing!
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Andrew Martin // Aug 21, 2010 at 9:33 pm
A refrigerator does a whole lot more than make ice.
I suspect that’s your point, but I’m willing to be wrong.
2 Manufacturer // Aug 22, 2010 at 6:49 am
Nice article it was very interesting topics
3 Mark Fauntleroy // Aug 22, 2010 at 11:25 am
Andrew, I think the fact that refrigerators do a lot more than make ice is part of the point. The ice is the necessity. Make it easy for your customers to at least make their own ice. Chilling wine, dispensing water, keeping lettuce crisp, etc. (showing them what they can do with the ice to make their lives more comfortable) are the upsell opportunities.
4 Michaela Mora // Aug 24, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Ice Reddy reported revenues of $104.2 million for the second quarter of 2010. Ice hasn’t disappeared despite the proliferation of ice-making refrigerators. There is still a market and need for it. DIY research teams don’t always have the expertise, resources and time to do all they need to do and more often than not use research vendors to support them. There is still a market and need for them.
5 Rajesh Vinaykyaa // Oct 29, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Well written…. but won’t the ice melt?
6 Bo Schnurr // Oct 29, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Ice making is not what we do. Ice was only one method of food preservation of which salt, fermentation and domestic heating appliance livestock cross substitute. Elisabeth Noelle always said is that we make “demoskopes.” greek for maps of our neighbors. We measure social heat. Gossip. The guys in this group who make the latest wittiest, highest resolution, semantic audioscopic engines will never be obsolete just because so many Simons provocatively say we are, Simon.
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