Unconventional Ways To Gather Revealing Business Information: Leave the Office and "Examine the Carpet"

Marketing Viewpoint by Ruth Winett

Unconventional Ways To Gather Revealing
Business Information: Leave the Office
and "Examine the Carpet"

Recently we have heard about unconventional ways of gaining useful insights into constituents’ behavior that do not involve surveys or interviews. Here are three examples:

Using Statistics Creatively

Samples from six Massachusetts wastewater sites taken August 25-August 31, 2024, indicated a high level of COVID viral activity in Massachusetts. “Wastewater monitoring can detect viruses spreading from one person to another within a community earlier than clinical testing and before people who are sick go to their doctor or hospital. It can also detect infections without symptoms,” according to the CDC. Changes in virus levels are important data points for providers of test kits, masks, and hospital care, and vital for schools and workplaces.

Information about changes in water consumption is also useful. Water usage in downtowns everywhere plummeted during the Pandemic and is gradually increasing again, indicating a gradual return to the office, reports the Boston Globe. Bevi, a Charleston, Massachusetts, smart-cooler startup, estimates that office attendance in Boston rose to 59% for the first half of 2024, compared with 53% in full-year 2023. Bevi’s data is useful to restaurants and other businesses considering whether to open a new location in a particular city. Their data is useful for public transportation companies, as well.

“Examining the Carpet”

Michelle Wu, Mayor of Boston, occasionally joins random workers on their commute to work on Boston’s MBTA (Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority). Wu seeks firsthand experience dealing with the challenges of public transportation, and she wants to hear from her fellow commuters. Dr. Morton Galper, my Babson marketing professor, used to call this “examining the carpet.” This means leaving the workplace and observing the behavior of your customers/constituents as they pursue their ordinary activities, that is, looking for “facts on the ground.”

Creative Sources of Business Information

It is worth considering if your business should look for revealing “facts on the ground” or other early-stage data that reveals emerging trends. The data could come from internal or external sources.

Sources:

COVID-19 Wastewater Data – Current Levels | NWSS | CDC . Data Last Updated 2024-9-05.

In New York City in office attendance was 46% in 2023 and 53% in 2024. During the same time in office attendance in Los Angeles was a staggering 64% in 2023 and 79% in 2024.

“High-Water Mark: Want to know how many people are back at the office? Ask the watercooler,” Dana Gerber, Boston Globe, September 6, 2024.

Actionable Business Insights

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