Research methods that will waste your money

Ask donors what they think about your fundraising, and you're almost guaranteed to get deceptive answers. It's not that people lie; it's just that they don't actually know what they think, so they try to help you by making up answers.

A recent post at Ageless Marketing, a thoughtful and very worthwhile blog, looks at this issue: The Foundations of a New Marketing Paradigm.

... people don't know their own minds very well. Brain scans indicate that as much as 95% of the mental activity underlying our perceptions, thoughts and decisions takes place outside the cognitive reach of our conscious minds. But because we tend to get uncomfortable if we don't have a picture in our conscious mind that makes sense and seems real, we often construct images in our minds of a faux reality just to feel better.

This is why focus groups and other qualitative research are so deadly. What people tell you about their behavior and what they actually do is very often at odds. Every time I've observed a focus group on the subject of direct mail, when a successful control mailing is shown -- a proven motivator or response -- it gets universal comments of I'd never respond to that!

They say they wouldn't respond -- and they surely believe that to be true. But at home, in the mailbox, the hated piece of mail is working.

There are uses for focus groups. But learning how people will behave isn't one of them.

If you really want to know what people will do, watch what they do. The one type of behavioral research you can take to the bank is direct-response testing. Base your decisions on that, and you'll do smarter work and save a ton of money.

(See also Focus Groups Can Kill You.)

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