Drucker on Marketing: Lessons from the World's Most Influential Business Thinker

Chapter 15How to Do Marketing Research the Drucker Way

Drucker investigated and confirmed that marketing research was essential. However he also discovered that too few marketers understood how to do it correctly and that this led to poor results and major problems. Of course, “the correct way” was the Drucker way. It’s a fact that IBM, the leading manufacturer of corporate computers, researched the market for personal computers before it put up a penny for development. The IBM people did a thorough study too, and their investigation cost a lot of money. The researchers concluded, with little margin for error, that if IBM invested the millions necessary to develop a personal computer for home use, the total market was no more than 1,000 units ...