To these chieftains of the food service industry, the following thoughts are respectfully submitted. You are all guilty of marketing research. And some of you have actually paid a professional to do marketing research. Thus, none of you are innocent. All of the above, and all are valid to some degree.
Marketing research consists of both informal and formal research.
Marketing research includes experiments, surveys, product tests, advertising tests, promotion tests, motivational research, strategy research, customer satisfaction monitoring, and many other techniques. If you are totally objective, a good listener, extremely patient, and have lots of time to personally perform these functions informally, you might not need any formal research. Still, this company is very much the exception. Typically, most companies can benefit from at least some formal research. Answers to these fundamental questions are essential to the long-term success of a restaurant chain.