International Commerce International Marketing Internet Advertising Internet Economy Internet Media Internet Prod. Commentary Online Advert. It never ceases to amaze me how much time, energy and money companies spend trying to get inside their customers' heads. Typically, it starts with a simple question, evolves into a complex theory, and ultimately becomes a full-blown research project with expanding budgets and corresponding scope creep.
Companies invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in their web sites.
They spend untold sums getting people to use their sites. Then they spend money to get logging software and, presumably, pay someone to make sense of those logs. Yet when there's a question of customer attitudes, virtually no one thinks to ask the current users on the web site. Well, that's not exactly true. Traditional research companies are thinking about it, or to be precise, thinking about the profits.