by Bob Topor, Senior Consultant

As you might imagine, as an impassioned and enthusiastic marketer for most of my professional life, I have espoused the value of qualitative and quantitative research directed towards understanding users. This external approach is critically important for academies in order to understand their users, clients, and CUSTOMERS! Throughout my career and in my talks, lectures, books and consulting I have stood firmly by this research concept. It is a solid one. That goes without question.

However, recently, I have been thinking about the antithesis of research. I call it seat-of-the-pants actions. This is best described as acting based on one's gut feelings. It is what most of higher education administrators and faculty did for the four or five decades I worked in it (before the advent of marketing about two decades ago). It was one of the most frustrating aspects I faced in my early career in higher education. I was so impassioned about the need for research that I wrote books to help people discover the value of qualitative and quantitative research directed towards understanding users' emotions and actions. It became one of my continual battle cries!

Second thoughts!
I am re-thinking the value of seat-of the-pants actions. There may be more value there than I had realized. After all, seat-of the-pants actions worked well for many centuries before we had the technological (computer) and academic methodologies (research systems) to understand human behavior that we have today. It is hard for me to deny that seat-of- the-pants actions worked at one time. So I am left wondering why I was so quick to shunt it aside. It may have been necessary for me to do this just to advance the newer research-based approaches. After all, the "old" has to give way to the "new," hasn't it?

In my haste to suggest new, more powerful and proven techniques, I may have been unjust to the (older) professionals who relied on seat-of the-pants actions. When I think back about it and the people who practiced it, I am left with a big question: Why did many seat-of-the-pants actions succeed for so long?

I think the answer lies in the PEOPLE that practiced it. For the most part, these were folks who were dedicated to much greater extent than I find in current higher education situations. Sure, today there are people who "say" they are committed to advancing higher education, but I find it is often shallow lip service, not reality. In the old days, it was much more common to find people who were legendary in their personal commitment to their institution. I knew many of them. They ran the full gamut of education...administrators, faculty, staff and support workers. Some of these were people who lived and breathed higher education, who had no problem working on weekends, at home, on holidays, in the office, at night, "overtime" often with no extra compensation. They did not flee the office at five p.m. They were so passionate about their work, their decisions were based on information they had accrued through damn hard work. I know this for a fact, because I was one of them!

So, I may have done a dis-service to the professionals who practiced seat-of-the-pants actions. If I have, this is my formal apology. I now realize why and how this happened. I will not back away from my suggestions to use marketing research, I still believe in it and always will. For you, readers of this newsletter, it would be foolish to overlook the possibilities and opportunities marketing research can reveal. It would be just plain dumb to deny the value of information research provides. But, at the same time, pay homage to those who came before, ones who had only seat-of-the-pants conclusions, based on incredible personal efforts, on which to base their actions.

Quick Quiz:

This quiz is intended to get you thinking about forms of marketing research you have available to you: Does your institution rely on research to better understand your primary and secondary target markets? Is that information based on contemporary research methodologies? Have you seen evidence of decisions based on seat-of-the-pants kind of thinking? How effective have seat-of-the-pants actions been? Do you respect the people who rely on seat-of-the-pants actions? How long do you think you have to work in this field to be able to make effective seat-of-the-pants decisions? How many years? Can you identify individuals at your academy who use effectual seat-of-the-pants methods? Send your response back to Bob Topor at topor@marketinged.com. All responses are confidential. Your anonymity is respected. ©2003 Topor Consulting