Debbi Fields Quotes

I have come East to find what the public likes.

Certainly in business terms, considering how thriving the market is. Understanding what people want is essential. We have a team on the ground whose job it is to keep tabs on what's good, whether it's a tapas bar in Barcelona, or an amazing fish and chip shop in Yorkshire.

It's not the consumers' job to figure out what they want

Research is an organized method of trying to find out what you are going to do after you cannot do what you are doing now. It may also be said to be the method of keeping a customer reasonably dissatisfied with what he has. That means constant improvement and change so that the customer will be stimulated to desire the new product enough to buy it to replace the one he has.

You see, I used to do a certain amount of market research by going to the local drugstore and seeing what the truck drivers would put up. Now it's all just copies from the latest best-seller list and damn little of anything else.

I love market research because you really have an idea of what your consumers are looking for.

The public don't know what they want; it's my job to tell them.

Companies are very, very good - better than consumers themselves - at knowing what consumers are actually craving.

I don't believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career.

How do you know what people value? Well, you watch what they buy. How do we know what products to create? Well, it's based on what they value.

Research your idea. See if there's a demand. A lot of people have great ideas, but they don't know if there's a need for it. You also have to research your competition.

There just doesn't seem to be a market for something with aspiration anymore.

Customers don't know what they want. There's plenty of good psychology research that shows that people are not able to accurately predict how they would behave in the future. So asking them, 'Would you buy my product if it had these three features?' or 'How would you react if we changed our product this way?' is a waste of time. They don't know.

When companies try to guess what consumers want, they essentially make the choice for consumers.

The problem with entrepreneurship is we are often working really hard producing high quality products that no-one wants. The creation of stuff is not valued.

If you're an entrepreneur and you're starting a company, I think the first thing you do is you go and talk to a bunch of people. But then the next thing you probably should do is figure out if there's a broader demand than just people you know. That's where I think SurveyMonkey is pretty valuable to people.

We're not in the business of shaping consumer demand. We respond to it.

If you think you know the consumer better than anyone, then you're in real trouble. So we take a close watch. You spend time in stores.

Don't spend months building something without any idea if someone actually wants it.

Too many bar owners built a bar for themselves... when they should have built what their market and demographic demands!

To study consumer behavior is to explore human nature at its most fundamental level using the modern world as its backdrop.

Bars need to be conceived and built for the local audience, not the personal tastes of the owner. Huge mistakes are made with regard to market research and concepts. Research and capital are paramount!

It is impossible to know what people will like. No market research, formulas will help, it's best to stop guessing.

The market and the consumer and idea trump the system.

To create something you want to sell, you first study and research the market, then you develop the product to the best of your ability.