MBA Boot Camp: Market Research & A/B Testing (5.4)
Concepts & Vocabulary
Primary Research: Data you collect yourself directly from the source for a specific purpose (e.g., running a focus group, sending out a survey).
Secondary Research: Data that someone else has already collected, which you analyze (e.g., reading a government census report, looking at industry white papers).
A/B Testing: A randomized experiment where two variations of a marketing asset (A and B) are shown to users to determine which performs better.
Core Lesson: Mitigating Risk with Data
When a company wants to launch a new product, it is a huge financial risk. Market research is how they mitigate that risk.
They start with Secondary Research (Is the industry growing? What are competitors doing?).
Then they move to Primary Research (Surveying 1,000 target customers to ask what features they want).
In the digital age, research doesn't stop at launch. Marketers use A/B Testing constantly. They will send an email to 50,000 people.
Group A gets Subject Line: "Huge Summer Sale!"
Group B gets Subject Line: "20% Off All Summer Items." The software tracks which one gets more opens, and the "winner" is then sent to the remaining 500,000 people on the list.
