It's What the Market Wants

America voted and the winner of American Idol for Season 8 is Kris Allen. Going into the finale, Adam Lambert was clearly the judges favorite. In fact, if the decision was up to the judges, I think Adam would have been the winner. But, after 100 million votes, Kris came out the victor.

What happened? Did America get it wrong? I don’t think so. If you think about Kris and Adam as two different products, with different features that appeal to different audiences, and you can only market one of them, how are you going to decide which one to market? You’ll probably do some market research to find out which product will generate the most revenue. That’s exactly what American Idol did on a weekly basis. It conducted market research to determine the market appeal for each of the singers. Kris appeals to mainstream America and Adam appeals to a niche market. Both are extremely talented

At the end of the day, it's less about what we as business owners, product managers, and marketers want or think should sell and more about what our customers and prospects want. We have to remember that we might not be the target market. We need to understand and listen to the market and be open to changing directions based on market research, if necessary.

Market research is a powerful tool to gain insight into your market needs, wants, and desires. How well do you know your market?

Katie Wacek is the President of Sandia Mountain Marketing, a marketing consultancy that provides strategic and tactical marketing expertise to small- and medium -sized companies, professional service firms, and thought leaders throughout the United States. Learn more.