3. How important is marketing research in promoting a new product?

When you think about the kind of people who buy hybrid and alternative fuel cars, you’re probably picturing a handful of smug, hipster vegetarians tooling around Seattle or San Francisco or Vermont.
There’s probably a lot of political bumper stickers on the back of the car. Maybe there’s a kayak or mountain bike on the roof.
A few years ago, you’d probably be right.
When the Honda Insight, the carmaker’s first consumer hybrid car hit the market in 2000, Roger Schofield, owner of Schofield Honda in Wichita, Kansas, thought he had it all figured out. For one thing, Wichita isn’t exactly known as the epicenter of eco-consumerism.
He’d probably sell a handful of the combination Nickel-Metal Hydride rechargeable cell/internal combustion-engine, gas-powered cars to a couple of single 20-somethings. The thing only had two seats and seemed pretty flimsy with its lightweight aluminum body. With a sticker price of $20,000, it was pretty pricey, too.
The first Insight Scholfield sold went to a 63-year-old.
The second person to buy one was 65.
As it turns out, Scholfield’s experience was consistent with Honda’s marketing research. They determined that the typical Insight customer was older, highly educated, probably with an engineering or science background—people who tend to be very research-driven. Nearly a decade later, almost every auto manufacturer has a hybrid car, SUV, or truck on the showroom floor.