What to Ask

Companies collect consumer data but struggle to gain actionable insights.

In 1999, Sony released a yellow Walkman after receiving huge amounts of positive feedback during focus groups. Unfortunately, when the music player hit the market, everyone bought the original black ones instead of the yellow. This left Sony, like many other consumer companies, wondering why their customers said one thing but did not follow through.

The issue revolves around the way companies deal with data. Often, they put too much focus on collecting it, and not enough energy into pulling valuable insights out of the data that show what customers really need. For instance, companies might only focus on the net promoter score – in which customers rate how likely they are to recommend products – but this number doesn’t tell companies why customers want to promote the product.

Companies view the time and amount of research it takes to find the “why” behind customer responses as daunting because it often involves hours of one-on-one interviewing. They would rather focus on the customer input that validates...