Ralph Jacobson

Observing Consumers Beats Listening to Them

February 19, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Nate Bolt, co-founder and chief executive of user research firm Bolt Peters, argues that while tech entrepreneurs are encouraged to listen to potential customers, observing is a much better tool to see whether a new product will succeed in the market. What are the merits of observation versus listening in testing new products?      [more...]

Every consumer will tell you they want variety in the stores. Invariably they don't buy variety. In a typical supermarket, 85% of the SKUs move less than a case per month per store. It's crazy to only listen to consumers, and not try things and see how they actually react. Keep up the experimentation.