Limitations of Causal Research

While only causal research can establish causal relations, it has some serious limitations compared to exploratory and descriptive research. Here are some limitations that cause many marketers to think carefully before embarking on causal research.

Causal Research is very expensive: Setting up test markets requires a major commitment of management time and money. Testing alternative advertising campaigns in real markets can easily exceed $1 million to $2 million.
Causal Research takes a long time to complete: This is especially true when the researcher hopes to measure long-term effects of marketing programs.
Causal Research tips off competitors to the marketer's plans: Once a company starts a real market test, competitors can read the results. Competitors can also test their responses to these tests. In some cases, competitors are able to copy the firm conducting the test and get to the market first.
Causal Research is difficult to administer: It may be impossible to control for the effects of extraneous variables.
Contamination: This problem refers to people from outside the test market shopping within the test market, which can distort the test's results.
"Clean" markets can be hard to find: When I worked at Ogilvy & Mather, I was assigned to General Foods' Country Time Lemonade account. Country Time was a seasonal business supported with advertising from late spring to just after Labor Day. General Foods directed that in addition to having a national advertising campaign, there must be two advertising tests: one for a new advertising campaign written on the same creative strategy as the national advertising campaign, and the other for an advertising campaign written on an alternate creative strategy. After several years of this aggressive test marketing, it was impossible to find "clean" test markets, or markets not affected by previous advertising tests.

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