Comments on: Why Your Quant Metrics Are Lying To You http://pictureimperfect.net/2009/06/12/why-your-quant-metrics-are-lying-to-you/ Perfect Insights on Imperfect Products Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:59:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.2 By: John Rood http://pictureimperfect.net/2009/06/12/why-your-quant-metrics-are-lying-to-you/#comment-1096 John Rood Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:01:09 +0000 http://pictureimperfect.net/2009/06/12/why-your-quant-metrics-are-lying-to-you/#comment-1096 Alain, thanks for these thoughts. I agree with you 100% that survey data can be misleading in a variety of ways. One answer is qualitative/ethnographic research that calls out consumers when their behavior differs from their constructed self-images. (As an aside, I'm glad you pointed out the lack of this self-correction that can limit the effectiveness of focus groups for many applications). Another alternative that you begin to point to here is conducting research via social media. The great advantage from a data standpoint (and there are others) is that the researcher is harvesting self-reported consumer data "in the wild" rather than putting consumers to a question (do you read labels? Do you!?) that puts the consumer on the spot and creates an opening for dishonesty. I've written more about <a href="http://www.knowledgeistics.com=" rel="nofollow">social media market research here.</a> Alain, thanks for these thoughts. I agree with you 100% that survey data can be misleading in a variety of ways. One answer is qualitative/ethnographic research that calls out consumers when their behavior differs from their constructed self-images. (As an aside, I’m glad you pointed out the lack of this self-correction that can limit the effectiveness of focus groups for many applications).

Another alternative that you begin to point to here is conducting research via social media. The great advantage from a data standpoint (and there are others) is that the researcher is harvesting self-reported consumer data “in the wild” rather than putting consumers to a question (do you read labels? Do you!?) that puts the consumer on the spot and creates an opening for dishonesty.

I’ve written more about social media market research here.

]]>