Mother-in-Law Market Research

I'll never forget my first marketing class at business school. Our professor peered at us with an intense glare as he pushed back on our standard, "chip shot" comments. At one point he asked the guy next to me to opine on the case we were discussing, which involved launching a new consumer product. "Well," my neighbor answered confidently, "I think it will be a hit because I can see my mother-in-law buying it." "I see," replied my professor dryly and then turned to the class with a withering look on his face, "Steve appears to have fallen into that fatal trap of 'Mother In Law Market Research' - believing this new product will be a hit just because his mother-in-law likes it. Instead, let's look at the data, shall we?"

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