Week 9 Reading Reflection

What surprised me most in this reading was the paragraph about markets. The author described markets and then stated that a new product will only survive if a market exists for the product or service. This seems common knowledge, but I have read about new inventions that were meant as this and ended up being more successful by having a different use in new markets that may not have necessarily been described before.
The most confusing part of this reading was the section on marketing segmentation. I didn't really understand, specifically from the author's example, how people who are in the market can be divided. Sure, I understand you can say these people like chocolate and these like vanilla, but I don't really understand what good that does and if it's a waste of time. I kind of understand how the author was saying this was important for new ventures, but for well-established companies is this really that important?
I'm also surprised that the author discuss production-driven philosophy in which you focus on productivity and then sales later. Why would you do this? Shouldn't the first step in a new business venture be how could I sell this/would this be sellable? Because if your answer is no to this question, but you find out after having already produced your good, isn't that a waste of time, money and energy? I would also ask the author how conducting primary data research could cost money, as he said it could on page 287. Isn't conducting such market research as easy as what we've done in class and just going up to customers? That doesn't cost any money.
There wasn't really anything I disagreed with the author about because I'm sure he knows what he's talking about, or at least more than me who's new to the world of economics and entrepreneurship. But if I was to disagree with him on anything it would be these questions that I posed above and the things that confused me about this reading. But again, I'm sure he could explain it and I would have no disagreement then.