Ernest Baskin has built his career across academia and industry, teaching market research while applying it in real business settings. In this episode of The Curiosity Current, he explains why market research continues to fail organizations, even when they believe they are surrounded by data. The conversation opens with the New Coke example. Ernest reframes the failure as a breakdown in how research was used, not whether it existed. Qualitative insights that signaled emotional backlash were sidelined in favor of cleaner quantitative summaries. The decision appeared sound on paper and failed in the real world. Research fails when inconvenient insight is ignored or when the process is shortened. Stephanie and Molly explore a common executive mindset: companies already have more data than they can handle. Ernest explains why this logic falls short. Most internal data looks backward. It shows what happened, not why it happened. Without direct customer conversation, teams miss motivations, barriers, and tradeoffs that shape real behavior. The episode also challenges the belief that primary research must be slow or expensive. Ernest explains how outsourcing expertise has normalized inflated costs, while modern tools allow teams to design and run credible research quickly when expertise stays in-house. The conversation closes with behavioral nudge examples showing how small environmental changes can quietly but meaningfully shift behavior, reinforcing why well-designed research still matters.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why market research fails when organizations ignore uncomfortable insights
• The difference between having data and understanding customers
• How to run meaningful research without massive budgets
• Common survey design mistakes that introduce bias and noise
• Why context matters when testing products and concepts
• How small environmental changes can dramatically shift behavior
• What research teams should stop doing immediately
• A simple habit that increases trust and credibility in research findings

Episode Resources:

• Ernest Baskin on LinkedIn
• Saint Joseph's University Website
• Stephanie Vance on LinkedIn
• Molly Strawn-Carreño on LinkedIn
• The Curiosity Current: A Market Research Podcast on Apple Podcasts
• The Curiosity Current: A Market Research Podcast on Spotify
• The Curiosity Current: A Market Research Podcast on YouTube
  
  

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