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Ideas
The Myth of Market Research
The comedian Lewis Black has a great riff about Starbucks’ store locations. It begins with a corner in Houston where, he says, “there sits a Starbucks. And directly across the street … there is another Starbucks.”
This, Black contends, is the end of the universe.
Cue the laughter. To the casual observer, a Starbucks across the street from another Starbucks couldn’t be anything but a planning gaffe. Or could it? Companies use huge amounts of market research when deciding where to place stores. Developers, planners, government workers and educators depend on it too. Which neighborhood gets a grocery store? Where should a transit line run? Market research has the answers.
The problem is that those widely relied-upon “answers”—even when they don’t result in obvious goofs—still lead organizations astray. And the consequences are more serious than a surplus of skim mocha lattes.
The rest of this article is only available in Next American City magazine.
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