← Methods · Part 1 of 6

People do not always do what they say they do

That sentence sounds obvious and it is the reason most marketing research is weaker than it looks. A survey records what somebody was willing to tell you, some time after the fact, in the language your question gave them. Behavior records what actually happened and never explains itself.

Two kinds of evidence, and why neither is enough aloneWhat people say— Surveys and polls— Interviews and focus groups— Reviews and ratings— Social listeningExplains why. Recalled, and edited in the telling.What people do— Clicks, sessions, dwell time— Cart and checkout behavior— Search terms actually typed— Purchase and reorder recordsRecords what. Never says why.The gap between the two is the finding. We look for where they disagree.
We look for where the two disagree. That gap is usually where the useful finding is.

So we use both, deliberately, and we say which is which. When a client hears “customers want X,” the first question is always whether that came from something they said or something they did — because the two carry very different weight.

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