Next time you consider using focus groups to determine what new services or products your customers want, consider first the case of Howard Moskowitz.
As best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell explains in his TED Talk below, Moskowitz revolutionized the U.S. food industry in the 1970s by studying consumers’ reactions to 45 different styles of spaghetti sauce. What he discovered was a revelation and something that focus groups had never revealed — a third of the public actually wanted chunky style spaghetti sauce, a product that did not exist at the time. With this information in hand, the Prego brand decided to give consumers what they wanted but had never verbalized. In doing so, they became the market leader.
So, what are your customers craving but don’t know and are unable to tell you?
[...] they want, especially if it’s something they’ve never seen before. (Moskowitz’ pioneering work in the 1970s with spaghetti sauce bore this [...]
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