A Blessing And A Curse

By Jim Prevor, Editor-in-Chief, Produce Business

On Nov. 11, 1947, in a speech before the House of Commons, former Prime Minister Winston Churchill had this to say about democracy: “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

In much the same vein, market research is deeply flawed. Henry Ford was correct; it is almost impossible to get consumers to request truly great advances.

During the age of the great transatlantic ships, if you had surveyed the passengers about how they hoped to see transatlantic travel develop, they would have spoken of faster ships, roomier cabins and more frequent crossings. If anyone had said in a focus group that he wanted to sit inside a giant aluminum bird that would fly him across the Atlantic in a few hours, he would have been ridiculed.

So surveys and focus groups, mall intercepts and other research techniques are unlikely to be the source of paradigm-shifting advances, just as they were not the source of Whole Foods, Wal-Mart and warehouse clubs, each of which sprung from the minds of brilliant entrepreneurs — John Mackey, Sam Walton and Sol Price.

Yet market research is all most of us have. A few people blessed by great insight will see what others do not and develop the concepts of tomorrow. Most of us will have to be satisfied with incremental improvements and, for that, marketing research does a bully job.

Still, it must be interpreted carefully. The most common mistake is thinking that what consumers say is most important provides an action agenda for a particular business. It is rarely so.

To be useful, we have to view consumer responses within the context of the business environment. When consumers list traits that are vital to them in selecting a place to shop, they almost always will say things such as price, cleanliness and variety.

The problem is that such information, precisely because it is so consistent among such a large majority for such a long time, has been internalized into the business. We just don’t have many stores, and no large chains, that are successful but dirty, high-priced and with a poor assortment. Even saying it is kind of ridiculous.

Some chains may emphasize one element over another, so Aldi and Wal-Mart may highlight price, whereas Wegmans will highlight assortment. But in one way or another, these three values — price, cleanliness and assortment — are the ante that modern retailers pay to get in the game.

The trick is that the winning hand is likely to be played with cards valued by only a minority, often a small one. So once the price- cleanliness-assortment hurdle is breached and an adequate offer is made in these areas, the differential may be organic or kosher or halal; it may be taking coupons or a favorite credit card or offering gift baskets. In produce, consistently offering an assortment appropriate for particular ethnic groups very often can be the key to capturing the loyalty of a consumer segment.

Another problem with consumer research is that consumers may not know what actually motivates them. So when we get a report of sensible consumers being focused on price, we have to remember that someone out there bought all those pet rocks. Perhaps consumers think this is a sensible thing to say, but then the “treasure hunt” aspect at Costco or the Hawaiian-shirted staff at Trader Joe’s distracts them. Many consumers think it self-indulgent to say they want to shop where they have fun doing so.

Here is another thing that complicates consumer research: What consumers think of things is dependent on how they are presented to them. Pampers failed its first three test markets. In part this is because the marketing campaign was focused on mother’s convenience. A change of direction focusing on the comfort of babies led to an astoundingly successful product. We may learn from consumers that they value convenience, but that doesn’t mean they want to be sold that way.

Think about fresh-cuts…are they sold as a convenience or as a way to get a wide assortment of healthful produce items into the children? There may be many opportunities in switching emphasis. We’ve found similar issues in positioning product. A salad kit sold as complete can make some moms feel as if they are not doing their jobs in the kitchen. The same product promoted as a salad base, which consumers should complete by adding, say tomatoes and cucumber and onion, can attract a whole new clientele.

Henry Ford’s comment about not offering colors was his way of trying to balance between consumer desires and operational efficiency. He made a mistake and lost Ford’s lead in the automotive industry. That is why listening to consumers is vital. The key, though, is to listen shrewdly. To paraphrase Churchill, market research is the worst way of figuring out what consumers want, except for every other way we have ever tried.

Food-Safety Footnote: Bryan’s column was written just before the news of the FDA “Import Alert” on certain cantaloupes from Honduras. It will be interesting, and nerve racking, to see how PMA’s research finds consumer attitudes were affected by this “Alert” and subsequent recalls.

We welcome Bonnie Fernandez to the produce industry.