As in A Tale of Two Cities, it is both the best of times and the worst of times for marketing research. On the one hand, sophisticated analysis and data collection techniques, once restricted to large corporations by their complexity and costs, have become available to anyone wanting to use them. The cost of acquiring data continues to decline. The Internet offers a whole new domain for conducting and distributing research. Yet, in spite of technical advances and opportunities, the practice of research has often remained static or deteriorated.

The reasons for what might be called marketing research's plight are many. It has suffered from a number of high profile failures which impact its credibility as a discipline. The pace of design and manufacturing in the consumer arena has resulted in techniques such as "design for reaction" which by-pass traditional marketing research. Perhaps most importantly, the marketing research function has often migrated from inside the corporation to external research firms and suffered in the process.

The failure of marketing research is particularly noticeable in the high tech industry. One might ask why it matters in the light of the spectacular success of an industry that contributes so much to the overall economy, but consider the fate of individual companies. Silicon Valley is littered with the remains of companies that, like novas, shown brightly and then collapsed. For the individual firm, the promise of marketing research is as a critical tool in the arsenal for survival.

The current problems of high tech marketing research are not the result of inherent flaws in the discipline but in the function's implementation. Technology companies are often dominated by a basic faith in technology momentum - "if we can build it they will come". True marketing research is often not well understood, not built into the design cycle, and used as window dressing for decisions already made.

Many high tech firms also rely too heavily on secondary research from companies that specialize in their industry. This secondary research often arrives in the form of syndicated products at low price points to attract high tech companies who typically budget for research at much lower levels than consumer product companies. The constant pressure to produce analyses, often in the form of newsletters or periodic forecasts, takes a toll on the depth and quality of the results and, ultimately, on the perception of market research itself.

To be successful, marketing research needs to be integrated into product development where it can actually affect design. This means a continuous effort with a horizon far enough ahead in the product cycle to allow useful analysis as well as innovative techniques that shorten the cycle for obtaining research results. Realizing the potential of marketing research requires the individuals with strong institutional knowledge actively managing the design and implementation of research efforts within the company.