Les Wexner Quotes

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

We need to be in front of consumer trends and translate those trends into insights and foresights.

It's incredibly important to be - once you do have a product - acutely observational about the trends.

It's not a matter of being first, it's being there at the right time, being first in volume to market, and knowing what trends to stay away from.

Maybe there are too many restaurants. Maybe some of mine need to close. So be it. I'll live with the market place.

Follow sound business trends, not fashion trends.

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

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.

I don't see a lot of studio executives caring at all about what the culture is telling us. They think they make the culture. They're not out taking the temperature of things and using the results of whatever sort of cultural surveying they're doing to make movies. They're interested in doing things that people are already comfortable with, and taking those properties and filling them.

Anything new and different is most susceptible to market research.

I'm very analytical about the industry and I understand that there are value systems, and all sorts of things like that.

I learnt the hard way about positioning in business, about catering to the right segments.

I understand demographics.

And so if your competitors aren't growing, if there isn't a competitive reason to grow, and you want focus and discipline to add customers to existing stores, you adjust your strategy.

Television networks are a lot like automobile manufacturers or anyone else who's in commerce. If something out there catches on with the public... I guess you can call it 'market research.'

Marketing is a very good thing, but it shouldn't control everything. It should be the tool, not that which dictates.

As soon as you go into merchandising, everyone nods sagely and says, 'Ah, now we know why you are doing it.'

It is important to exhaust the potential of existing markets. But it is equally important to open up new markets.

When Republicans went to college and studied business, they took a course in marketing and found out how people really think. Progressives need to take a lesson from that.

The state of the economy is not the issue when it comes to growing a business. The relevant questions are always: 'What business are you in? Furthermore, is it adapting to the times?'

Certainly, the human race can be fickle, and times do change, but overall, the barriers to bringing a product to market - and understanding what 'the market' wants - have remained unchanged.

You don't need Math to do business reporting. Business is all about choices that consumers make.

I think the challenge for all technology companies is to modify what they're doing to be what the market needs at that point.

If I want to make a product that is appealing to consumers, like a piece of clothing or a video game, that's fad driven. Some companies do it, and I don't know how they do it, but it's generally a bad place to invest.

When a market isn't in transition, gaining market share is hard - you're fighting to take one or two points of share from competitors.