Seeing consumer insights through the windshield: An analysis of expectation-based survey research and prediction outcomes

This paper discusses the effectiveness of consumer research which focusses on known users or intended consumers, arguing that this approach is suboptimal.

Seeing consumer insights through the windshield: An analysis of expectation-based survey research and prediction outcomes

John Dick CivicScience Inc

The alien and the republican

Imagine that an English-speaking creature from another planet lands in San Francisco on the day of the city's mayoral election. The first human it encounters happens to be one of the few dyed-in-the-wool Republicans in the town. The alien creature asks the human who he plans to vote for in the election.

"The Republican candidate, of course," says the human.

Then, a few moments later, a second creature arrives to find the same San Francisco...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands