I know from personal
experience that there are many sides to market research but when it comes right
down to it, it is all about the numbers and sensationalism. Let me expand on this, when I had my own
business it was in a very small community in up-state New York. Not much news up there you know you the annual
snow storm and the weekly house fire that burnt down to the foundation.
Here’s the scenario: there had been a huge
fire on the block in the middle of the city where my business was located. It burned almost the entire block spreading
from one ancient building (each building was over 100 years old) to
another. This fire left at least one
fourth of the downtown charred. My
business was on the devastated block of the small city. At the time I was having issues with a
company I had been working closely with for over five years. I had been doing some consulting for them in
return for special favors for my customers.
Things with the company had gone south within a few short months due to
a new CFO. Even though I was friends
with the vice president of the company I was in a sense being “Locked Out”.
After a very lengthy conversation with the company I decided it was time to
close my business, not because of the fire but because of new policies with the
other company that was in effect affecting my business revenue.
This decision was not taken lightly by the
company I was doing business with or the community in which my business was
located. I had the entire 20 foot window display that faced the main street in
town. On that window I put a huge going
out of business sign that said 40% off everything in the store. Within 24 hours
I had every major network news anchor knocking at my door, “Why are you
closing?”, and with every interview that was done we told them that it had to
do with our distributer’s company policies.
That is boring news, not very good ratings in telling the truth. No too hard to believe that with every one of
those newscasts that were done we were cut off at the part when we told the real
reason and the interviewer goes on to tell the viewer that we were going out of
business because of the fire and bad business downtown now. Oh the dreaded fire, catastrophe, doom and
gloom, every business downtown is going to close their doors now in a
widespread panic sale. Several businesses did close the following year and I
would recommend reading, “The Tipping Point” to understand why.
I went back years later and the massive
hole on that street was still there. Some businesses had closed but over all
people were still doing business. The local television stations were still in
business and looking for the next great sensational story to exploit.
Bottom line, all that companies care about
is making money and you are nothing more than a number not the individual but
the demographic or populace you belong.
They don’t care if you like the seeds in your jam or not, they care that
the people that don’t like seeds in their jam are the ones that spoke up. Do you listen to what someone else is telling
you or are you educating yourself and making your own decisions? Life is about growth, change and taking
responsibility. In order to have that each one of us should be thinking for ourselves
and making our own educated decisions.
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