Live from #TMRE13 Putting a Finger on the Fans' Pulse

 If you didn't notice all the buzz about Miley Cyrus's VMA performance this year, you might be living under a rock. My Facebook and Twitter feeds were littered with comments about her performance for days after the awards were over. Whether it's good attention or bad, it gets you talked about. So is this really just annoying newsfeed junk or marketing gold?

Christopher Chen and Stephanie Gomez from Universal Music Group shared with us how and why they track these comments in Putting a Finger on the Fans' Pulse.

Universal Music Group takes on the task of tracking this buzz - whether positive, negative or neutral. They track more than 3 million social conversations on a given day, between Facebook, blogs, forums, Twitter, you name it. Anything from a risqué performance to a funny YouTube video could trigger chatter like this. Not only does this gossip get you noticed, it has the potential to put your company on the map.

Earlier this year, Jay-Z and Samsung teamed up for an exclusive pre-release opportunity for Samsung Galaxy users ONLY. His new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail was available for free to those users 72 hours before it was set to release to the public. He announced it during the NBA finals in a 3 minute commercial - guess what my newsfeed blew up with that day? I don't know about you, but as an iPhone loving Jay-Z fan, I was quite tempted to switch to Samsung! Here's the story: Jay-Z Magna Carta Holy Grail lands today for Samsung Galaxy owners

Live from #TMRE Social Media and Nascar: Driving Product Sales Together

What images come to mind when you think of Nascar? Fast cars, screaming fans, cold beer and a good ol' burger are a few of the essentials that make up a perfect day at the track. It just wouldn't be the same with a glass of wine and a salad - buzz kill. Kevin Thomas, VP of Strategic Marketing for Roush Fenway Racing gave an exciting presentation on how performance of their cars can increase sponsors ROI over time.

Roush Fenway Racing knows just how to draw in the fans and give them what they want, which is why they are one of the top companies to sponsor. It's not about the price, its about performance. Their creative approaches to PR have proven to not only justify a company's sponsorship of their own hot rod, but the ROI usually exceeds expectations.

Take Cargill for example - a new sponsor of Roush Fenway Racing and looking for a unique approach to market their brand. In addition to increasingly good performance of their car, they went a step further to engage fans at the track - good ol' cookout at the track, offering burgers to fans using their new finely textured beef. Not to mention, the opportunity to meet Ricky Steinhouse Jr.!  

The results they saw showed that Cargill was more than just "paint on a fast car". Not only did they see spikes in beef sales after races, they saw increased sales over time as racing performance increased. All while having a great time at the track, enjoying some great food and meeting famous drivers. Not too shabby for a hard days work!

Live from #TMRE13: Connect.Dream.Create.

Yesterday, I was able to attend Connect.Dream.Create. presented by Laura Flessner of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and Marty Gage of Lextant. Laura and Marty talked about "DCE's" - Desired Consumer Experiences and how being able to connect the aspirations of your customers with specific design attributes provides a concrete, actionable foundation for innovation!

As Pfizer strives to become a more design-oriented organization, they knew they had to create a framework to enhance their innovation process…something that could give their consumers an experience they desired. (i.e. Starbucks' sensory cues: their menu language, music, type of furniture, baristas).

And what they discovered about using this DCE model is that once it gained internal momentum, it became repeatable!!

 Speaking of innovation, I loved Laura's innovative use of her Cowboy Boots with her suit! I'm trying to figure out what brand they are because I love them!!

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!

A New Beginning

What a wonderful whirlwind these past few months have been! Time has flown since I packed up my belongings in Austin seven months ago and made the decision to move back to Dallas, eager to start a position with April Bell Research Group. I was excited for the opportunity to work with April again, but I really had no idea what to expect with this new role.

When I joined the company, it was just April and I, working from her home office. It was great - I could wear jeans to work everyday and take breaks to play with April's sweet little 2-year old, Autumn. Starting out in such a relaxed environment helped me feel comfortable quickly and made my job transition easy and painless. I was learning a lot and helping out with many different aspects of the business, and it was so fulfilling to be making a meaningful impact. Not too long after I started, April hired another awesome employee, Talia, and since then, we have been growing, non-stop.

As much as we all loved the casual, fun environment of April's home office, we were soon on a search for a new office space. Now, if you've ever tried to find an office space, you'll know that it's not typically an easy task, but we were lucky in finding an amazing space pretty quickly. Christine Rogers at Sparkfarm connected us with a cool office loft in the West End that had availability, and we jumped on it!

We moved, with almost no down time, and I am loving it here! I really can't think of anything I don't like about the space. It's wonderful. Well okay, it's always really cold in the office, but we make it work with our blankets and Snuggies. If that's the only problem with this space, then I'm sure we're going to be just fine!

These past couple of months, we have been at full speed, with a lot going on, and the three of us hard at work on getting it all done. But it's such a good problem to have, and I am loving the experience. This journey has been full of so many pleasant surprises thus far, and I'm looking forward to the exciting opportunities that lie ahead for us!

Learning My "ABCs"

I never truly understood the meaning of “going from 0 to 60“ until I got to know April. That phrase is now the definition of my life every day, every week - and I'm loving every second of it!

This summer, April hired me as her Chief Wrangler, which is just a really awesome way of saying office/project manager. I was thrilled to be putting some of my strongest skills to work - I excel in organization, planning and keeping everyone calm, all in a super fast-paced environment. On top of that, we were working out of April's home. It's always an adventure when you are sharing an office with 2 dogs and a toddler running around. It was never a dull moment.

Although we all enjoyed our afternoon breaks to play with April's adorable little girl, the three of us were growing busier by the minute. In August, we decided to get a space of our own - a really cool, loft-style space in the West End with wood floors, exposed brick and a great view of the city. As an added bonus, we are in the same building as one of our long-time clients!

My first few months have been full of training, researching, assisting on projects and keeping track of ever-changing schedules. April, Mayuri and I are always on the go, while trying to coordinate our schedules and keep communication lines clear and open. Work days have been more on the longer side lately, which isn't so bad when your company promotes Friday afternoon fiestas! We always try to keep things fun and interesting!

Despite all the madness, there are some really exciting things happening in our company with some great opportunities ahead of us this fall. I can't wait to see where we are in the next few months and to help our company grow. I've had to do some adjusting on my part, since I've never had as much responsibility as I do now. However, I feel truly blessed to be a part of such a unique and talented group.

The next few months are sure to be a wild ride. Keep tuning into our blog and you will hear all about the exciting upcoming months and the everyday happenings in a small, yet extraordinary/dynamic company.