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Thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses suffer from not understanding their customers. They don't what they are doing right that causes customers to come to them. And, importantly, they don't know why customers choose to shop a competitor instead. Essentially, they lack a clear understanding of the needs of their customers and prospects which, if exploited, would assuredly grow their business. Often ego or downright stubbornness prevents entrepreneurs or small-business executives from using market research. They think they know the needs of their customers better than the customers themselves. Frequently, they feel that marketing research is too expensive, complex or just won't provide new answers. Guerrilla Marketing Research extends the well-known Guerrilla Marketing franchise to explain how to use marketing research as a tool for more effectively developing marketing, sales promotion or new product. It illustrates how big companies use market research to make money and how small companies can do the same at a fraction of the cost. It destroys the myth that only big companies can afford marketing research and makes clear to small and mid-size companies and entrepreneurs, and even larger businesses without an in-house research function, how marketing research can add to their bottom line.

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This book has established itself as a classic through seven previous editions by presenting superior, balanced coverage of both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of marketing research.

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Hearing the Voice of the Market provides a detailed plan that enables managers throughout the organization to make more frequent and better use of market information. The book shows managers how to develop the two capabilities that distinguish the successful, market-oriented firm--competent curiosity, and competent knowledge use. The two are closely linked: inadequate information cannot be used well, and sound information is wasted if it is utilized poorly. Includes experiences and insights of the many managers and researchers cited in the text. Readers will learn how to create an environment in which managers are inquisitive about their markets, are able to satisfy their curiosity with real market information, and can make knowledge-based decisions that lead to success.

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What are your customers thinking? Wouldn’t it be great to identify what they want in a product or service? Business owners understand the value of market research for uncovering customer needs and desires, yet the cost is often prohibitive for companies on a small budget, where research is considered too expensive and time-consuming.

According to author Lloyd Corder, a seasoned marketing research strategist, you can conduct research in little time at very low cost using a “snapshot survey.” A snapshot survey is ten to fifteen customer-designed questions that include two or three open-ended questions. His book gives tools and ideas for anyone from senior management to human resources to design and administer a quick survey. Chapters explain how to test customer awareness and marketing programs, and how to identify prospects. Different survey types, customer satisfaction, brand assessment, message evaluation, and employee surveys are also covered. The information gathered using a snapshot survey can test marketing strategies, create publicity, size up the competition, and evaluate your attributes, select the right marketing mix, or simply validate a hunch.

Brief, straightforward, and simple to follow, the advice is well suited to many small-business owners. The survey tools, however, are not necessarily appropriate for larger firms with more complex research needs. [HBS Working Knowledge Annoation]

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Account planning exists for the sole purpose of creating advertising that truly connects with consumers. While many in the industry are still dissecting consumer behavior, extrapolating demographic trends, developing complex behavioral models, and measuring Pavlovian salivary responses, Steel advocates an approach to consumer research that is based on simplicity, common sense, and creativity--an approach that gains access to consumers' hearts and minds, develops ongoing relationships with them, and, most important, embraces them as partners in the process of developing and advertising.

A witty, erudite raconteur and teacher, Steel describes how successful account planners work in partnership with clients, consumer, and agency creatives. He criticizes research practices that, far from creating relationships, drive a wedge between agencies and the people they aim to persuade; he suggests new ways of approaching research to cut through the BS and get people to show their true selves; and he shows how the right research, when translated into a motivating and inspiring brief, can be the catalyst for great creative ideas. He draws upon his own experiences and those of colleagues in the United States and abroad to illustrate those points, and includes examples of some of the most successful campaigns in recent years, including Polaroid, Norwegian Cruise Line, Porsche, Isuzu, "got milk?" and others.

The message of this book is that well-thought-out account planning results in better, more effective marketing and advertising for both agencies and clients. And also makes an evening in front of the television easier to bear for the population at large.