If you're looking for an off-the-shelf AI-powered Whiz Bang (TM) to fix the pitfalls of forward-looking research, I am sorry to say it doesn't exist. But what I can offer is a set of principles to guide your approach to forward-looking research. Here are three principles I use to design insightful, forward-looking market research programs…

Market research can be a great tool to help brands manage uncertainty. But relying on consumers' projections into the future could lead us to plan for scenarios that reflect more fantasy than reality. Given this, two guiding principles inform how I approach forward-looking market research…

Internal politics and pet preferences can easily run amok at positioning workshops. How can research keep brand stakeholders on track to choose a strategy that makes the most sense for current market realities and the brand’s future aspirations?

By the end of these four steps, brand teams and strategists should feel well-prepared to evaluate positioning directions, and have a clear understanding of the data points that any strategy must address.

Essentially, a research-grounded approach means building evidence into the positioning framework itself, and aligning on a set of market truths before ideating on positioning strategy...By grounding the framework itself in evidence, we can easily point to clear data points when debating any aspect of positioning. And from that debate, brand teams can choose a strategy to pursue.

Rather than researching to gain new understanding or explore a hypothesis, too often I see brands “testing” to simply feel better about positioning statements…