Live from #TMRE13 - Experience Design: Key Steps to Delivering Customer Delight and Business Results

Lesley Mottia, Executive Vice President of Product & Experience at Zipcar, gave an extremely interesting presentation on the key steps companies should take to improve overall customer experience. Companies can follow these steps in order to find out what makes their customers happy and drive business results.

1) Be with your Customers - You get a completely different experience by actually being in person with your customers and observing their actions. Ethnographic experiences are much more valuable because you can see consumers' actions first-hand. CustomMade spent time with its customers in order to better connect with them. 

2) Imagine the Ideal - Instead of focusing on solving today's problems, imagine the overall picture of where you want to be years from now. Moo disrupted the business card segment by creating customized business cards to better suit the needs of small businesses. They came out with Printinfinity, which allows companies to print different images on the back of each card.

3) Design the Whole Experience - It is important to look at the overall user experience, instead of focusing on just one aspect of it. Zipcar had a problem with consumers being unable to locate their cars, so they added guides and location photos to make the overall process easier. 

4) Humanize the Details - Find a meaningful way to connect with consumers to make it a great personal interaction, whether it is online or offline. Warby Parker personalizes the experience of buying glasses online by sending you multiple frames to try on and giving you the opportunity to consult with their "social team" to receive input.

5) Recovery as Opportunity - When something goes wrong, make sure you act, and use it as an opportunity for a spotlight moment. Customers like when companies are able to bounce back quickly and treat it as a way to improve their business. 

6) Measure, Rinse, Repeat - Need to quantify how well the process is doing and decide what areas need improvement. This is the most important step of the process, in my mind, because companies should continuously be looking to improve their programs.

Mayuri Joshi isResearch Magician at April Bell Research Group, a boutique, full-service marketing research firm, committed to delivering fresh insights you can act on! Learn more at aprilbellresearch.com.

Live from #TMRE13: It's Just Not That Hard - Using Consumer Insight for Competitive Advantage

How does a market researcher come into a large organization as a one-man army, where there is no marketing research team and very little budget allocated for research, and come out successful? Susan Topel, Director of Strategic Insights at Centene Corporation, shared her inspiring story.

When she joined the company, there was not much knowledge regarding Centene's customer base, and decisions were made based on what the company "thought" the customers wanted. Topel's job was to dive in to uncover the reality of the situation and present compelling insights back to the company. 

How did she do this all on her own? "It's all about the right tools," she said. For her, that tool was Qualtrics, an online survey software which helps her save time on analysis so she can spend more time in the up-front process. By using Qualtrics, last year she fielded 453 surveys, all on her own! 

"You can do it all, and that is what I am here to tell you," she encourages the audience. Though it may seem overwhelming at first, all it takes is the right tools to get you on the path to quickly and easily discovering powerful insights.

Mayuri Joshi isResearch Magician at April Bell Research Group, a boutique, full-service marketing research firm, committed to delivering fresh insights you can act on! Learn more at aprilbellresearch.com.

Live from #TMRE: Improv Improves Innovation

For the 2nd workshop today, I was glad I stayed in the Professional Development track.  As an information hound and being in this business for many years, it's always fun when I feel like I learned a new way to approach innovation.  And that was what this was all about. Michelle James, Chief Emergence Officer of The Center for Creative Emergence, took us through several exercises designed to break us away from the common fears we all have:  worry about not looking good, fear of saying something stupid, etc.

The Improv Principles and Improv Mindsets

she discussed (and we experienced) are all about acting "as if" what others are giving you is a gift...and then "adding to it."  And from that, there is freedom.  Feeling free, and that you will be accepted allows teams to STOP worrying about fears and in that moment, begin to create.  I love that:)

She also mentioned how natural it is to come to the edge of your comfort zone with resistance but that forcing through it (i.e. 'playing' by these principles), a new environment is created with those around you...and those who feel like they helped create, also feel as if they own the outcome!

Live at #TMRE13: You Are The Presentation

A presentation about presentations provided a good kickstart for TheMarketResearchEvent today! Gene Zelazny of McKinsey & Co. gave a compelling talk about making the most of your business presentation.

He spent an appropriate amount of time discussing how Defining the Situation First was the single MOST important aspect of a good presentation.  By first defining what you want impact you want the audience to haveas a result of the presentation in 1 sentence, everything else flows easily from there.

This framework for thinking about presentations reminded me of a 1-day Duarte Design workshop I attended last summer - I still remember how impactful the workshop was. The instructor claimed that once you first get clarity on WHAT the audience should DO as as a result of what you're presenting, the more clarity you will have in creating the story...and slide deck.

Zelazny also went on to show how important it is to "turn the story upside down" when structuring the presentation.  In other words, giving the recommendations first instead of trying to detail the process of getting there.

A few resources he provided were www.powerframeworks.com as well as his 2 books, Say it With Charts and Say it With Presentations.  All of these give simple design visuals to help when you're developing graphics for presentations.

Nashville, Here We Come!!

Well, I'm heading out of Dallas today for Nashville and The Market Research Event (TMRE), and I'm bringing my boots!

This will be my 4th time attending the event, and I look forward to it every year!  I'm especially excited this year to be covering the event here on TheMarketResearchEventBlog and other social media.  Two members of my team, Talia Short and Mayuri Joshi, will be blogging as well.

We plan to highlight and recap key sessions so check back periodically - we'll be covering the conference's best!

Coca-Cola VP talks about Truth, Insights and Community

It is obvious that Stan Sthanunathan, Vice President, Marketing Strategy & Insights at The Coca Cola Company, loves his job.

He opened with 

"The marketing research profession is the best profession in the world....for one simple reason. Insight is the most critical thing." 

Well, he certainly knows his audience because most of us here at The Market Research Event agree with him...at least I do:)

Diane Hessan, President & Ceo of Communispace facilitated the discussion, and she told me prior to the session start that it would be worth blogging about...and it was!

This is what I enjoyed most about his presentation:

1. Visionary thinking...

"The responsibility of companies is to help create the future.....but you have to learn how to stop looking in the rearview mirror?" 

 2. Perspective on hiring

"Hire people that are not the same as you had before." He said that many of his "strange hires" have turned out to be "great hires." He also cautioned companies not to"outsource your thinking." 

3.Clear communication of the brand

"What makes coca cola what it is today? It's the community we have established..that we touch people on a daily basis." "It's a drink that promotes happiness." Check out what Coca-Cola is now doing with a program they call 5 BY 20.

Creating "Delicious" Research

Carol Fitzgerald of BuzzBack and Amelia Strobel of Kraft gave their story of "Exploring Dimensions of Delicious with Kraft Foods" in the Explor Awards track this afternoon.

The project developed in order to build a corporate theme for Kraft. They wanted to develop a company positioning around the idea of: "make today delicious."

They wanted to know how they could communicate delicious and whether or not there was an emotional connection to a theme that tied closely to food.

They used a variety of techniques offered by Buzzback and found that delicious is: warm, intimate, and highly positive. They have extended "delicious" throughout their organization and are now sponsoring "Make a Delicious Difference Week" working with two organizations: Feeding America and Save the Children.

Using Neuroscience for Marketing Research

Mark Potts of MindShare and Dr. Andrew Pradeep of NeuroFocus gave an excellent presentation about the process of using neuroscience for marketing research in their workshop presentation titled: Neurological Testing Reveals the Truth of Audience Engagement.

Here are the basics:
Who:
Respondents are recruited based on research objectives (as in traditional studies).
What:
Respondents wear a "full cap" on their head with 64 sensors attached. These collect data 2000 times every second. This coupled with eye-tracking is the "data collection" methodology.
Why:
Consumers can't tell us everything they're sensing. For example, a consumer may look very closely at something on a grocery store aisle that grabs attention but the subconscious areas of the brain don't "tell" the conscious what they think, feel, etc. But it can, however, be measured through brain activity.
How:

3 metrics are measured directly at the brain.

1. Attention: what are you paying attention to....this is based on the science behind ADD/ADHD clinical diagnosis
2. Emotion: how are you emotionally engaged ....this is based on the science behind mania & phobia clinical diagnosis
3. Memory Retention: what is it that you're experiencing that activates your memory....this is based on the science behind Alzheimer's

When:
As with all new technological tools in research, this is not a catch all approach but 3 of the areas where it can be used is when trying to measure:

1. Purchase Intent
2. Novelty
3. Awareness

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

Getting Shopper Insights Off the Ground at Dr. Pepper Snapple

Jacob Ratner, Research Director at Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (DPSG) gave an awesome presentation on the organization's road to developing a shopper insights strategy! He touched on some of the trends evolving with retailer/manufacturer relationships.

He remarked on the trend I have also seen the last few years in the relationship between retailers and manufacturers. Retailers are creating their own insights projects vs. leaning as heavily on manufacturer's research findings. They are wanting to be a bigger decision-maker in every stage of research.

He also talked about one of their big 'aha moments' when moving to a shopper insight focus vs. a heavy brand consumer focus: The Shopper is Not (always) the Consumer. Knowing the consumer is one thing....but what if that consumer is not the shopper? Likewise, the shopper is not always the consumer. This insight alone has driven much of their work in the last year. His passion for looking at the shopper and consumer in different ways yet holistically was a key take-away. Thanks, Jacob, for sharing!