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Data in Absentia

Deep observation and analysis of SWOT provide companies with ongoing marketing intelligence, and this practice is an essential component of a firm's overall marketing information system (MIS). But these data, commonly referred to as secondary research, normally provide little more than quantitative findings-the kind that gives firms like Side Launch an idea, for instance, of how many Ontarian beer drinkers are switching from big brands to craft beer. It doesn't delve into key insights companies need to know to answer the important question of "why"-as in "Why are people switching to craft?" or perhaps more interesting to Chuck Galea, VP Sales and Marketing, "Why don't some beer drinkers switch to craft?" For answers to questions like this, firms can guess, or they can conduct market research to get closer to the truth.

With Side Launch, however, like many start-ups, a directed marketing research project is a luxury of funding it simply does not have (at the time of this writing). "Honestly," admits founder Garnet Pratt, "we are not at the size where that even enters the equation." The bitter financial reality of many a small business is that it must navigate its way through complicated questions, fusing together observable forces of the marketing environment and a lot of experiential know-how.

"With those four beers," explains Michael Hancock, founding brewer, referring proudly to the four core brands brewed year-round at Side Launch, "I deliberately made them to cover four really different beer styles." He adds, with admirable pride, "And they're pretty damn easy to sell." Certainly sales of these beers, as well as sales of the quarterly seasonals (which always sell out), is a vivid measurement of the positive response by the market. For something more qualitative and yet still affordable, Side Launch will pay a lot of attention to how the press and bloggers are representing their beers to the public. Ratings sites such as Ratebeer.com and Untappd.com also provide a peek into the "why" as opposed to just the "what," but they alone do not answer unique market research problems Side Launch may encounter.

All of this is not to suggest Side Launch Brewing Company has no need for a scientific market research investment. "We're at a stage," admit both Garnet and Chuck. "Gaining some knowledge on brand recognition at this point would be really valuable," they concur. For now, however, with sharply increasing growth, supported by the collective experiential knowledge of the industry between Michael, Dave (VP Operations), and Chuck, Side Launch has little choice but to hold the fort with what it has created and rely on the most important metric of all-sales data-to prove their case. "We know right now," adds Garnet confidently, "that the four styles of beer that we sell year-round all sell very well and all have their significant strengths. And so our strategy going forward, our primary focus, is to produce as much of those as we can sell, to grow those brands within our established market, and then make prudent geographic expansions as warranted to incite growth." That prudence, one expects, will eventually involve the kind of fact checking that only a structured marketing research project can assure.

1. What is the biggest barrier preventing Side Launch from conducting formal marketing research?

2. What is the "research problem" acknowledged by VP Sales and Marketing Chuck Galea that Side Launch would like to solve?

3. What are some of the secondary data sources that Side Launch can use in its marketing research? What are the limitations of such data in informing Side Launch?