Customer Reviews

Guerrilla Marketing Research: Marketing Research Techniques That Can Help Any Business Make More Money

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book hardly covers marketing research at all, but it does talk a lot about how market researchers are not taken seriously enough in big companies. Far from talking about "guerilla tactics",i.e. outsmarting but not outspending your competition, it sets research budgets at 0,5 to 5% of your "$50 million marketing budget, anywhere from $250,000 to $2,500,000". Not what I would expect for "guerilla tactics" for small companies. But I have to admit that I have only read the first half and then gave up....

Very good book for a basic understanding of how market research works.
There is very little about statistical measures used to analyze research data, so if you're into that then I would reccomend going with a more econometrics/mathematics oriented book.

I teach at a major university and use this text for my students to have for background material, along with my book Pain Killer Marketing. This book provides useful insights into practical market research methodologies and their problems. The examples are up-to-date, unlike many of the standard market research textbooks. It is easy to read and well-written. I highly recommend this book.

I used the book in a college level course at UCSD Extension. I used the updated version most recently. Students liked his writing and his simplicity. For the money, it's a good value.

The book is a great resource for a small business owner, entry level market researcher, marketing student, or anyone without much research who needs to conduct research or wants to learn more about the process. It is an easy quick read and isn't designed for market research experts.

I'm hard pressed to understand why this is titled "Guerrilla" anything. It is a review of conventional market research techniques, primarily of concern to consumer marketers, large companies and academics (you'll notice that half the reviews here are from academia.)

Having done marketing consulting for small to medium size businesses for 20+ years - I can state that most of this book would be over their heads. Additionally - it's not market research they need per se, but rather a better understanding of their current customers and how to increase the number of top-spending customers. The customer research techniques I used for those clients are very simple and straightforward (nowhere near as complicated as those in this book), and allowed their marketing to focus on attainable, practical results.

I had studied all this stuff in grad school, but quickly realized when I stated consulting that it's for the F500 crowd and the academics - business owners need information that is actionable and will get results - quickly.

The author is also hung up on certain stereotypes - for example, he says it's hard to do a telephone survey for more than 20 minutes. For one of my larger clients (an industry consulting firm)- I've interviewed between 200-300 senior executives over the last six years, and even though I tell them at the onset that it's only 20 minutes, in almost all cases I can't get of the phone in less than 45 minutes or an hour. And these are C-level executives. All depends on the subject, positioning, appeal and the skill of the questioner. In almost all cases I'm designing the research from scratch, not just reading someone else's questionnaire.

Small companies and business owners would be better off just collecting as much data as they can on their current customers, segmenting those customers according to buyer characteristics (perhaps get some help there) and determine ways to best reach them with marketing messaging and both build and expand the customer base.

If you are a small business, this book really isn't going to get you there.

We use this book at UCSD for our Practical Research Marketing Class.

This book is a great textbook for our class but also for people who want to know more about marketing research.

In 18 chapters and 223 pages the author explains his models and insight how to help any business and make more money.

If even UCSD uses this book than it is a must have for every marketing student or marketing professional.