'Rebels' Attack Almost Everything Involved with Research

Critics of market research abound. Faced with an estimated 80% new product failure rate, corporate US is beginning to question whether it was the research or the application of the research that was incorrect. Paul Root of the Marketing Science Institute warned in 1990 that senior management would soon demand insights from the research department, not just data and analysis. At the same time, Greg Rathjen, then with Henderson Advertising, admonished researchers for behaving like nothing more than data custodians and for not providing new and creative links marketers need. In 1992 Susan Small-Weil of Warwick Baker & Fiore Advertising lashed researchers for their lack of creativity, especially in presenting their information to the creatives who must apply it. Meanwhile, marketing consultant Dan Adams accuses research people as being unknowledgeable about the basics of marketing. However, Adams believes people of the baby-boomer generation have the insight to break free of the risk aversion that strangles marketing research.