[dqv]

I realize I wasn't clear about that - these notebooks are well-liked and have tons of positive reviews. There is no low sales signal, because people who don't care about the labels still buy the notebooks. It's that they're missing more sales from the people who don't buy them because of the ugly labels on the front. That would be the same with TVs, the only way a TV maker would really know is if they sold a "bedroom TV" and saw no one was buying it or it was getting a lot of returns for the LED indicators being too bright. Even then, if you have consumers who are cognizant of bright LEDs and can't find any information about it, it might still not be indicated in the sales that certain consumers don't want it.

Will they even know to hire a UX researcher?

But even then, as just a consumer, antireviews would be super helpful.

[Fluorescence]

I imagine the signal they measure is AB test / throw crap at a wall type scale i.e. they trial lots of lines of product and scale-up and restock those doing great margin/numbers and drop those that don't. They don't care too much about subjective product picker's design opinions or user reviews - if it sells, it's stocked.

I also expect the demographic they are selling to are impulse buyer notebook neophytes. The lettered purpose on the front triggers those buyers. They buy the product and put it to one side, never to use it. Repeat buyers that care about the notebook design probably turn to specialist brands they multi-buy online.

[xapata]

They can compare sales figures with other notebook brands', if they buy some competitive intelligence or do some sleuthing. Opportunity cost of lost sales.

[worthless-trash]

With a category rank by 'least bad'.