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> > Wandering a bit from the topic...organizations of all sizes
> > and types seem
> > to have lost interest in large-scale, valid statistical
> > market and
> > demographic analysis. A decade ago, there was a
> > thriving market research
> > industry, with publications like American Demographics,
> > Current Thoughts and
> > Trends, the Barna Report, and thick research supplements to
> > Advertising
> > Age. All gone. Data aggregators, market
> > research companies, geospatial
> > visualization companies--many gone or struggling.
> > Instead, I hear leaders
> > citing anecdotes or tiny, dubious "I once read somewhere"
> > studies which
> > support their preconceived opinions.
> >
> > Market fragmentation? Laziness? A triumph of
> > Postmodern philosophy? More
> > than anything, I think it's lack of resources.
>
> If there is a decrease in such studies, I think the main
> reason is simply a cheese-paring attitude. Times are tough
> and money is tight. The company has to squeeze nickels
> anywhere it can to avoid cutting payments into the CEO's
> golden parachute plan. So managers are told to use their own
> "judgment" and eliminate the cost of hiring analysts.
Or.... look at the timing... "A decade ago..."
My alternate theory is that there might be a
significant overlap between companies that relied
to a great extent on such studies and companies that
went away with the bubble. I mean, if the companies
that all went away or shrank drastically were those
that relied on business acumen and entrepreneurial
'gut-feel' among their executives, then the ones that
remained would obviously have been the ones that
relied on the survey and research providers. And since
the premise of this recent subthread is that the opposite
happened...
Possibly no correlation, but I notice that it's been
roughly a decade since my company - or any company
employing my friends and acquaintances - has been
paying to send employees to conferences and professional
development seminar fests like... oh... STC and WritersUA.
The only people I know who regularly go to conferences
and professional gatherings at "company" expense are
government bureaucrats. But then, some of them also go
to paid, full-time immersion language courses that they
then tick off on a qualification/credential list and
never use again.
- Kevin (who lives in a government town)
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