Millennium Marketing Research®
Tom Schori DBA Millennium Marketing Research®, 808 Ironwood, Normal IL 61761, 309-532-8466

Yes, some things really are as simple as they seem.

By Thomas R. Schori, Ph.D., and Michael L. Garee, Principals,  Millennium Marketing Research, 808 E. Ironwood, Normal, IL 61761-5239. Tel. 309-532-8466 -

After many years in the business world, we’ve come to believe that most, though certainly not all, of the solutions to problems faced by businesses really aren’t all that complex. In fact, many times, solutions to these problems can be actually quite simple. It’s the people involved in determining and then administering the solutions that usually make them much more complex than they need to be.

Let’s use a theoretical company to illustrate our point. We’ll call our company Acme Appliance Corporation, a small household appliances manufacturer. Suppose that the company has had static sales for the past five consecutive years. Certainly this is a situation which concerns company officials and they establish a task force to investigate the root cause(s) of the problem as well as to identify possible solutions.

Typically, the task force would gather input (through various research approaches) from a variety of "stakeholder" groups: employees, customers, prospective customers, retailers, et al. The purpose of this process would be to determine what opinions and attitudes these various groups hold about the company’s products. Are the products perceived to be competitively priced? Do they offer the features most consumers seek today in small appliances? Are the products properly positioned in the marketplace? How do the products stack up against similar, competitive products available in the marketplace?

Once the company has obtained insight into such issues, they quite likely will have compiled an impressive amount of information. That’s both good news and bad news. Good news because they have an impressive amount of information upon which to base a new or different marketing strategy, and bad news because, well, they have an impressive amount of information upon which to base a new marketing strategy. What? Let us elaborate further.

In every organization there usually are people at two polar extremes. At one extreme are those who can look at a problem, no matter how apparently complex, and instinctively home in on a rather simple (obvious) solution¾if there is one. At the other extreme are those who instinctively¾and honestly¾believe that if a problem is complex in the first place there is absolutely no way the solution can be other than complex as well.

Returning to Acme Appliance, suppose that the task force learned the following about the company’s products:

  • While certainly not the least expensive nor the most expensive, the company’s products were generally perceived to be competitively priced.
  • About one-fourth of the company’s products were perceived to be lacking some of the product features thought to be important to a majority of consumers.
  • The positioning of the products was found to be somewhat inadequate, in that the company positioned them as "high end" products but consumers thought they more appropriately fit into the "mid-range" product category.
  • Although found to be generally acceptable in the marketplace, the products nonetheless were not all that favorably viewed in comparison/contrast to similar products available from other companies, primarily because they lacked important product features desired by consumers.

Is there a simple¾or at least, a relatively simple¾solution to this company’s problems? We think so. Here’s how we would recommend the company proceed:

  • Since the products seem to be adequately priced, the company should do nothing to manipulate the price.
  • The perceived deficiencies in product features could probably be rather easily remedied by merely adding those features in some sort of incremental fashion during the manufacturing cycle.
  • And, insofar as the current positioning of the products is concerned, i.e., as "high-end" products, the company could do one of two things: reposition the products as being in the "mid-range" of the product category, or, implement manufacturing and/or marketing measures which will result in the products being perceived by consumers as being "high-end." (This latter process, of course, could take quite a long time to accomplish, but may prove to be well worth the effort in the long run.)

But, let’s suppose that within Acme is a strong faction that sees the solution to the problem of slumping sales as being far, far more complex than what we’ve concluded. What would likely be their recommendations?

First, they quite probably would recommend additional study of the problem, in order to get a "better handle" on it. (A cynic might say in order to "stall" and not have to make an immediate decision.) After due consideration¾and this could take as long as an additional year, or even longer¾we suspect their recommendations would consist of something like the following:

  • Introduce a full range of new products, phasing out or immediately eliminating those in the existing line that have been shown to have perceived inadequacies.
  • Launch a lengthy, costly marketing and advertising campaign to bring the company’s products’ image more into line with how the company has been positioning them, i.e., as "high-end" products.

Admittedly, neither approach, i.e., the relatively simple one or the much more complex one, would be painless. But given the relatively high anticipated cost differences between the two approaches, in our opinions, it would be in the best interests of Acme to at least try the relatively simple one before even considering embarking upon the far more time-consuming, far more expensive, complex one.