Are Your Customers Telling You The Truth?

Media reps and advertisers make decisions all the time based on what people tell us they want. Sometimes it’s through well designed focus group testing, but more often than not it’s more anecdotal than analytical.
The Detroit 3 need to build cars that Americans want: small, energy-efficient, affordable vehicles. Right? Well, that’s what we say we want, but what we really like are our trucks!!
And everyone says they support green efforts, yet how many of us have changed our light bulbs or bought a Prius?
Here are some great thoughts from a blogger who calls himself “The Ad Contrarian:”

One of the biggest mistakes a marketer can make is taking too seriously what consumers say about a product in the development stage. When consumers are exposed to it, they will tell you it's a good idea. But what they can never tell you is whether it's a good enough idea to eclipse the inertia of their habits.
The most powerful force in marketing is not price, quality, distribution, advertising, or branding
-- it's the resistance to change.
Marketers always overestimate the attractiveness of new things and always underestimate the power of traditional consumer behavior. – The Ad Contrarian Blog