Establishment accepting research blocks innovation

In reference to your news story about research (DW 1 November), it is not so much market research that restricts innovation, but the way in which it is used by the client’s marketing people.

The results of research can shed light on what is wrong with existing products, however, research can never tell you what it is that the customer really wants. That is left up to your imagination.

After all, no amount of market research would ever tell a manufacturer to invent, say, a camera, before it was invented.

Unfortunately, far too often, the results of market research are used to provide ‘never to be broken commandments’ for the design brief that, as Professor Sir Christopher Frayling rightly states, is an enemy of innovation.

David Crisp

David.Crisp1@btinternet.com