What are some of the societal trends in the next ten years?

In a white paper at Decision Analyst, they look at ten of the trends the see emerging from society in the next ten years:

1. The Emergence of China as the World’s Largest Economic Power
2. Global Demographic and Migration Shifts
3. Energy and Water Shortages
4. Managing our Waste/Reuse of Products
5. Lowering Education Standards/Less Skilled Thought Leaders
6. Brand Relationships Intensify
7. Short Time-Frame Transactions
8. On-demand Media Consumption
9. Extensive Expansion of Customization, Personalization, and Community Experiences
10. Youth Rules

How are these thing going to affect the market you're working with? Is there another trend you predict affecting our society today?

Consumers watching less live TV

Market Research World looks at how young adults are moving away from watching live TV and instead moving to online television consumption. Overall, three in five US consumers are watching programming on something other than a television, leaving only 41% of adults 18 to 34 to watch television live. The most popular alternative medium is online, but DVDs and DVRs also have similar consumption rates. These numbers will continue to grow, as the youngest generation is feeding their television viewing habits off the tube. How do you think this will change the marketing landscape of traditional TV?

A Look Back at TMRE 2009: The Future of Retail by Herb Sorensen

The Market Research Event 2010 is taking place this November 8-10, 2010 in San Diego, California. Every Friday leading up to the event, we'll be recapping one session from The Market Research Event 2009.

The Future of Retail by Herb Sorensen

If you missed Herb Sorensen's presentation on on Retailing: The Return to Personal Selling, you should check out his book and blog. No one doubted his passion for the subject as he walked us through the "history of retail" before giving us his take on the "future of retail." "The need for efficiencies" he claims, is the reason the retailer/consumer relationship has evolved to where it is today. "It has always been about efficiencies and where we are today is simply because of this."

The following quote summarized his point: "One hundred years ago retailers ran their stores by watching their customers closely. Somewhere during the last hundred years, spread sheets, slotting allowances, and quarterly performane replaced the basic principles of the business." Norm Myhr, Group Vice President Sales and Promotion and Marketing, Fred Meyer.

He mentioned P&G's early "Soap Opera Ad" and Sears "Wish Book Catalogs" as examples of how we began getting consumer's attention outside of the store when it became difficult to do so inside the store.

And now, "everyone is realizing the system of communicating to consumers 'outside of the store' is not working due to the fragmentation we have" {due to MTV, facebook, etc.}

Statistics he cited include:
In 95, 3 commercials reached 80% of women 18-49
In 2000, it took 92 commercials to do the job

He concluded with how he sees the future of retail, titled: the "Amazonification" of Retail. "Because Amazon gets it, that the selling is always about the closing... Amazon understood that they had to 'close the sale fast.'" And now, "the real battle in retailing is between Wal-Mart and Amazon." So, how will we get personal selling back in the store? By "pulling the internet into the store," he claims.

Also, other tips he gave for "closing the sale" in the store included:
1. Provide only a few "Top Seller" tags in the aisle
2. Brand call out tags on packaging: "Shoppers #1 Choice"
3. To make it clear, you can only do that with 1 or 2 items

I think I'll buy the book. April

The Explor Awards Finalists: ANZ National Bank’s Voice of Customer Platform is a Major Innovation for Customer Insight Programs

The EXPLOR Awards are back at TMRE this year! This week, we'll be taking a look at the four finalists!

Finalist #4: ANZ National Bank Ltd

Represented by: Andrew Ammundsen, Head of Customer Insight – Marketing Information, ANZ National Bank Ltd

While many companies are adopting email and online surveys to collect feedback, we have moved several steps forward, creating an automated feedback loop that connects customers with frontline staff around specific ‘moment of truth’ transactions. Through automated real-time email alerts and daily-updated dashboards, the program has empowered customer-facing staff to harness the voice of the customer to effect rapid, positive change to the customer experience. Automation has also helped generate large cost savings for the bank.

The 2010 EXPLOR Awards winner will be announced at The Market Research Event, taking place November 8-10, 2010.

Photo Source

The Explor Awards Finalists: American Water and Digital Research, Inc.

The EXPLOR Awards are back at TMRE this year! This week, we'll be taking a look at the four finalists!

Finalist #3: American Water and Digital Research, Inc.

Tipping the Scales: How a New Research Tool Has Changed American Water’s New Business Development

Represented by: Bruno Levine, Director, Business Development,
American Water

American Water and Digital Research, Inc. have created the water industry’s first known comprehensive, fact-based business development tool, the Target Identification Program (TIP). This tool has revolutionized the business development practices in the contract services area of the water business. This is an alternative to the traditional relationship-based practices employed in this industry. Attendees will discover the challenges that were overcome to create this tool, and how this tool impacted American Water’s business development process throughout the organization, including strategic analysis, pipeline assessment, and staffing.

The 2010 EXPLOR Awards winner will be announced at The Market Research Event, taking place November 8-10, 2010.

Logos courtesy of DRI and American Water

The Explor Awards Finalists: Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company and Infosurv Inc.

The EXPLOR Awards are back at TMRE this year! This week, we'll be taking a look at the four finalists!

Finalist #2: Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company and Infosurv Inc.

How Wrigley Harnessed The Wisdom of Crowds to Predict New Product Success
Represented by:
Duane Burton, Market Research, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company
Jared Heyman, President, Infosurv Inc.

Prediction markets harness "the wisdom of crowds" to accurately predict outcomes of interest to market researchers -- like which new product or advertising concepts will succeed and which will fail. Learn how Wrigley used a prediction market to assign accurate probabilities of success to several product innovations. With lower cost, greater accuracy, and faster speed than traditional concept screening techniques, we believe prediction markets are poised to revolutionize the way new ideas are screened and tested.

The 2010 EXPLOR Awards winner will be announced at The Market Research Event, taking place November 8-10, 2010.

Logos courtesy of Infosurv.com and Wrigley.com

TMRE Poll: Are you satisfied with the impact of market research within your organization?

We want to hear your opinion on! Vote in this week's TMRE Poll:

The Explor Awards Finalists: eBay and Invoke Solutions

The EXPLOR Awards are back at TMRE this year! This week, we'll be taking a look at the four finalists!

Finalist #1: eBay and Invoke Solutions

How eBay Used Real-time Hybrid Research to Fuel Early Stage Idea Development and Global Consensus Building

Represented by:
Mike Katz, Principal User Experience Researcher, eBay
Peter Mackey, EVP Research and BusinessDevelopment, Invoke Solutions

This session will share how eBay developed and implemented a real-time hybrid research program that unveiled insights used to develop ideas and innovation.

The 2010 EXPLOR Awards winner will be announced at The Market Research Event, taking place November 8-10, 2010.

A Look Back at TMRE 2009: Yes! Proven Ways for Market Researchers to Become More Persuasive

The Market Research Event 2010 is taking place this November 8-10, 2010 in San Diego, California. Every Friday leading up to the event, we'll be recapping one session from The Market Research Event 2009.

TMRE Keynote Session – Yes! Proven Ways for Market Researchers to Become More Persuasive

Presenter: Dr. Noah Goldstein, Professor, UCLA Anderson School of Management and Co-Author of Yes!

The session first opened up with opening remarks from the managing Director of The Market Research Event, Kim Rivielle. Kim mentioned that this event first started off 15 years ago and it has grown into a very industry encompassing event since then.

“We are here to exchange stories…sometimes best practices and sometimes worst practices.”

After her opening remarks Kim introduced the Conference Chairwoman, Kelly Styring, who is a principal at Insight Farm. She went on to officially introduce this morning’s featured speaker Dr. Noah Goldstein.

Dr. Noah Goldstein begins his presentation by stating that attendees will learn how to better persuade messaging through many scientific ways. Dr. Noah gives an example of how Tony Little recently saw much more success by changing this statement “Operators are standing by, please call now” to “If operators are busy, please call again”. The first statement leaves an impression that operators are just standing by twittering, not paying attention, and cleaning their fingernails as opposed to the second statement which leaves the impression that operators are taking phone call after phone call trying to answer questions and fill orders.

The second example explained how some studies show that up to 75% of hotel guests re-use their towels at least once if they see signs like this around the hotel. In the study, there were two different signs showed at the hotel. One sign mentioned “Help save the environment by re-using towels” and the second sign mentioned “75% of people are re-using towels”. We always heard the term follow the herd but there is a strong persuasion figure in similarity. If people see similar people re-using towels in their room then there is a strong chance that they will also follow suit,

The best communicators recognize when they are not the best communicators. How do they do this? Testimonials are key!

What is optimal is to get other people to do the persuading for you, but there are many times that you will have to do it yourself. When you don’t know people though, people question whether or not they can trust someone or believe what they say. Progressive for example, gives you quotes from their insurance company as well as many other companies. At times they do have the best quote but at other times they do not. Since implementing this innovation, Progressive has done fairly well contrary to popular belief.

“To immediately gain credibility in the eye of your audience, argue against your self interest.” (E.g mention a weakness in your case)

Common mistakes people often make is to:

- follow positive information with a negative qualifier, occasionally negating that positive information. Small weaknesses should be mentioned before your strongest qualifier in order to make up for it.
- focus on what the audience stands to gain from the opportunity they present. Companies should tell the people they are trying to persuade what they stand to lose if they don’t take the opportunity they present.

Gifts and favors are most powerful when they are:

- significant and meaningful
- personalized
- unexpected

Soft drink packaging market returning

In a recent article at FoodProductionDaily.com, the soft drink packaging industry for beer and soda is still facing uncertainty. The volume of consumed beverages dropped world wide .4% in 2010 after dropping 1.3% in 2009. Globally, not all markets are showing recover, Russia in particular.

While soda consumption is decreasing, so is the need for packaging. What other industries have you seen this happen to?

Call for Guest Bloggers for TMRE 2010

Earn a complimentary All-Access pass to one of the world’s largest market research events by serving as a guest-blogger. As a guest blogger at The Market Research Event, you’ll have access to the amazing visionaries, authors, academics PLUS retailers, manufacturers, industry authorities and explorers. With six track sessions, networking hours and innovative sessions – you’ll learn and have a great time and this premier event.

Responsibilities will include attending specifically assigned sessions and blogging live or same day. You must have industry experience within the market research field. In exchange for guest blogging, you will receive an all-access pass to the event $3,000+ value. Guest bloggers are responsible for their travel and lodging.

Apply today by sending your name, company, biography and links to your blog directly to TMRE Media Marketer, Jennifer Pereira. Deadline for submissions is Friday, October 15, 2010 at 12pm EST. Early submissions encouraged.

Save $300 on TMRE this week only

The $300 early bird discount expires this week for TMRE 2010. This year’s agenda covers: Segmentation, Media & Measurement, Shopper Insights, Social Media & Community Research, Culture & Research Trends, Market Research Leadership & Strategy, Marketing Research & Brand Insights, Insight Driven Innovation, Data Analysis & Measurement, Business to Business Market Research, the EXPLOR Awards, The New Insights Toolbox, and more.

Click here to visit the TMRE webpage.
Click here to visit the agenda to find out more about the tracks, sessions.

Engaging the customer should be focus for market research

Vision Critical recently wrote a post about customer engagement when it comes to market research. Market researchers are having to find new ways to engage their customers, as the traditional telephone market research techniques are quickly becoming irrelevant. Market research studies have started to change to realize this too. In person observation and interviews are often done in fun environments where consumers are interacting and engaging with the product.

What are you doing to ensure your customer is engaged in your market research collection process?

A Look Back at TMRE 2009: Martin Lindstrom: Buyology

The Market Research Event 2010 is taking place this November 8-10, 2010 in San Diego, California. Every Friday leading up to the event, we'll be recapping one session from The Market Research Event 2009.

TMRE 2009 Keynote: Martin Lindstrom: Buyology

Buyology: The Truth & Lies About Why We Buy
Martin Lindstrom, Author Buyology

Martin Lindstrom starts out by pointing out many of the irrational things we do. From taking the second magazine when purchasing one and that there is no 4th floor in the hotels here in Las Vegas. Studies show that 8 out of 10 new products fail. Until the age of 65, Americans watch 2,000,000 hours of commercials.

One of our fundamental problems is that our non-consciousness brain is making many 85% of our irrational decisions. Lindstrom is going to spend his keynote presentation discussing neuroscience. He took the concept of peoples buying behaviors and combined it with a scientific technique that looked at what people are really thinking about when they’re buying products. This is called the SST methodology.

We have various regions in the brain that can tell us what’s going on. Neuroscience tells you what goes on, not necessarily why it goes on. For this experiment, they used to methods to measure what was going on in the brain. If you look at a brain from a different angle, you’ll get different results, this is why two methods were combined. They took the show “Quizmania” and asked people around their world if they liked it. The general response was that they didn’t like it. After a brain scan, they found out that what they really thought. They looked at other shows brain scans response, like American Idol, and found out that people really liked the show. Then they looked to distribute the show worldwide.

Lindstrom also looked at why people smoke. They looked into the craving spot of the brain. Countries across the world have banned their advertising on television, in movies and on the radio. So they’ve had to find alternative ways to promote their products. They’ve started promotion in other ways, such as Marlboro and their promotion of race cars, designs of the race tracks, and a barcode on the racecar.
Lindstrom is now looking at Coca Cola, which much of the world can recognize from simply their glass bottle. After showing a promotion, Lindstrom points that rituals are created with brands. He points out Apple iPods, McDonalds . If you build a powerful brand, you don’t even need a logo.

Lindstrom then took four different brands and test their smells. A branded smell activates the same areas of the brain that a brand logo does. Kids have an amazing ability to smell different bands and identify them. Non-conscious handshakes sell the signal of a weak person. We automatically assume that, and it may not be true. Less than 1% of brands today don’t have a powerful brand. We should not forget the power of sounds, casinos installed speakers that projected the coin machines into casinos to increase those gambling.

The non-conscious mind makes decisions for us in many cases. As marketers, we need to find a way to get around this. We must understand what goes on in the human mind.

Free Webinar - The Economics of Customer Experience: New Study Reveals The Secrets

Date/Time: Thu, Sep 16, 2010 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/741046393

Delivering an exceptional customer experience is key to creating differentiation and driving greater profitability. Yet, despite the obvious benefits, it can be challenging to justify investments in improving customer experience. In this session, Lior Arussy, customer experience expert and President of Strativity Group, and Justin Schuster, VP of Enterprise Products at MarketTools, will outline the economics of the customer experience model and discuss how leading organizations are driving profitability through differentiated customer experience. Mr. Arussy will also reveal for the first time the results of the 2010 Consumer Experience Study and describe the key drivers to increase profitability through customer experience.

Participants will learn:
• The results of the 2010 customer experience study
• Would customers pay more for a better experience?
• Business at growth and business at risk – understanding the financial impact
• Formula to define the economics of customer experience
• Telecom case study – The financial impact of customer experience
• Financial Services case study – Maximizing revenues from existing customers

Additionally, all webinar *attendees* will receive a copy of the 2010 Consumer Experience Study at the conclusion of the live event.

Featured Speakers
Justin Schuster, Vice President, Enterprise Products at MarketTools
Lior Arussy, President, Strativity Group

Register below
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/741046393

How do you define who is ethnographer?

Blogging Innovation recently looked at how we should define an ethnographer. It is a profession that has no discipline, it just involves watching people. But while doing this, flexibility and openness are requirements of the job. Other key initiatives include observing, listening and questioning what the ethnographer is watching until they understand what is going on.

What do you think are key traits for ethnographers?

A Look Back at TMRE 2009: Joan Lewis, P&G Officer, Global CMK

The Market Research Event 2010 is taking place this November 8-10, 2010 in San Diego, California. Every Friday leading up to the event, we'll be recapping one session from The Market Research Event 2009.

TMRE Keynote Presentation from Joan Lewis, P&G Officer, Global CMK

Joan Lewis' keynote presentation was great! As a researcher who strives to present complex insights in a very simple way, I appreciated her storytelling ability. She drew the audience in through three well-articulated case studies on: Pampers, Olay ProX, Secret Clinical. She described how meaningful consumer insights helped them develop and execute a very clear message and full advertising campaign.

The Pampers UNICEF case study she described resulted in this one message: 1 pack = 1 vaccine. You can see the result of this campaign here. Believe me, the video is worth the 1 minute watch time. I want to buy Pampers, and I don't need them!

And in typical P&G fashion, she concluded with a very simple, meaningful, clear message about their company belief: "We believe consumer passion brings innovation and competitive advantage."

And with a quote from their President and CEO, Bob McDonald, "Our purpose inspires us. Our values unite us. And all our innovation capabilities and culture focus us on making small but meaningful differences...every day...for the consumers who have ALWAYS been P&G's boss and our inspiration."

Thank you for your inspiration, P&G CMK April Bell

TMRE Poll: Are you back in hiring mode?

We want to hear your opinion on! Vote in this week's TMRE Poll: