Vicky,
I think what you want to (and end up) learning about your customers depends on the planning, strategy, and execution of your survey. This is not to say that surveys don't fail to give you that information, but taking market research as a field and identifying shortcomings could be an oversimplification.

Nonetheless, I'll also use this as an opportunity to contradict what I just said! :) I believe the biggest limitation of market research is its shelf life. Like bread, market research can go stale. While its 'time to expiration' depends on the topic and perhaps the audience, there are very few studies that would 'go down in history,' so to speak. In a way though, that's the beauty of it: Market research, much like Ethnography, shouldn't be viewed as the end-all be-all of how things are and will always be. Rather, it's a snapshot of the current state of [your topic here]. Recognizing (human-focused) research as fluid, flexible, and suggestive is key. Seeing it as black and white usually misses the point.

Another thing to note about the limitations of market research is the nature of human volatility. We are inherently fickle creatures, driven (perhaps more than we'd like to admit) by emotional reactions and associations, moreso than reason and pattern. In the world of market research, this gets back to that gray area. People's preferences change, evolve, and react to other things going on in the macro-environment. Market research is great at taking a sample of this, but less so at tracking those changes as they're occurring.

What you learn about your customer may be a function of the questions you ask and the people doing the responding. Just remember that your findings may not be forever valid, and your target customers are probably more diverse than you think.

Richard Hom

Health Economics/Public Policy, Richard Hom Consulting

Posted on Oct. 28, 2010

Market research has many strengths and a few weaknesses. The strength is in its ability to characterize a customer base, With that type of characterization, you may draw conclusions about the past behavior of that customer group, If the customer group stays homogeneous then the chances that this group might change are minimal

The weakness that might occur is in predictive behavior. While study design may try to duplicate real life situations and thus create predictors to a certain kind of behavior, say to buy something, it is only predictive and only valid if the market research is current and the study design is rigorous. .

Blind spots can occur even with market research. For example, market research can create a profile of a qualified customer and may identify potentially qualified customers from a sample, but to qualify further, actual contact with the prospect is needed either electronically, verbally or by physical presence. qualifying a prospect

In summary, market research is powerful, but often misapplied or improperly designed and the results returned are not useful. If properly designed, there is value in market research.