Most of the clients we work with have ideas about what their customers value, what’s likely to encourage someone to buy and where the biggest opportunities for growth are. These early conversations are often one of the most valuable parts of any new project, as it helps set the context for our project team.
However, there’s one phrase that comes up a lot: “We think our customers want…”
Usually, the end of that sentence is pretty sensible, but “we think” isn’t the same as “we know”. And basing a strategy on these types of assumptions can be very costly. That’s why so many businesses choose to work with a market research agency to test key hypotheses before making big commercial decisions.
When assumptions become accepted as fact
Many of the businesses we work with don’t come to us because they have no idea what to do next. Most of the time, they already have a direction in mind; they’ve developed several proposition ideas, shortlisted a pricing model or refined a campaign. The question isn’t usually, “What should we do?” it’s, “Have we got this right?”.
That difference is important because internal assumptions can often turn into company facts. The longer an idea goes unchallenged, the more people start referring to it as something they know rather than something they believe. And so before long, product roadmaps, marketing campaigns and investment decisions are all being built around an assumption that nobody has ever validated.
Of course, assumptions aren’t always bad. Every business makes them and if you’ve spent years working in a sector, you’ll naturally build up a strong sense of what customers value and how the market behaves.
The challenge is knowing which assumptions are safe to rely on and which could lead you in the wrong direction.
Why customers don’t always behave as we expect
One of the most interesting parts of market research is seeing the gap that sometimes exists between what businesses expect customers to do and what customers actually do.
We’ve worked with organisations that were convinced customers would pay more for additional features, only to discover that simplicity mattered far more than functionality. Others have invested months refining messages they believed would resonate, before finding that a completely different message generated much stronger engagement.
Equally, we’ve seen research confirm exactly what a team expected. Those projects are just as valuable because they give businesses confidence to move forward, knowing their instinct is backed by evidence rather than optimism.
The important point is that nobody really knows the answer until customers are asked in the right way.
Looking beyond what customers say
One of the biggest misconceptions about market research is that it’s designed to tell businesses whether customers like an idea. However, that’s usually only one small element of a research study.
A proposition might receive extremely positive feedback, but that doesn’t necessarily mean people will buy it. Likewise, customers might tell you a feature is important, yet happily choose a cheaper alternative without it. Or they might prefer one concept in isolation, only to make a different choice when they’re comparing competitors or weighing up the price.
This is because real purchasing decisions are rarely based on one factor alone. Customers make trade-offs; they balance price, quality, convenience, trust, features and dozens of other considerations, often without even realising it themselves.
And understanding those trade-offs is usually far more valuable than simply collecting positive comments.
Why businesses test ideas before they invest
By the time most organisations come to us, they’re rarely starting with a blank sheet of paper. They already have ideas ready to go. For example, they might have developed a new proposition, shortlisted a pricing model or narrowed down a campaign.
What they’re looking for is confidence before committing significant time and budget. They want to answer questions such as:
- Should we launch this proposition?
- Which pricing model is likely to perform best?
- Which audience should we prioritise?
- Which message is most likely to change behaviour?
And these are the exact kinds of questions that good market research is designed to answer. Rather than relying solely on internal opinion or stakeholder preference, businesses can make decisions based on evidence from the people they’re trying to reach.
One question worth asking
Good market research isn’t about proving people wrong, it’s about reducing uncertainty.
Sometimes the findings validate exactly what a business already believed. Other times, they uncover opportunities or challenges that nobody had considered. Both outcomes are valuable because they help businesses make better-informed decisions.
So the next time someone says, “We think our customers want…”, it’s worth asking: How do we know?
If the answer is based on instinct alone, it may be worth validating the assumption before it potentially becomes an expensive decision.