Back in the “good old days,” when life was more simple and Mad Men-like agencies reigned supreme, marketing meant pitching ideas to your customers, and basically just convincing them to buy products that were already created and ready to purchase. A good salesperson didn’t care about their customers’ personal lives unless it related directly to …
Read MoreThe term Crowdsourcing feels mainstream, but author Jeff Howe’s book on the subject is only five years old. The term “Crowdsourcing” and the use of the crowd continues to evolve. Initially, most forms of crowdsourcing were based on cost savings measures. Essentially, firms could outsource manpower (e.g. Amazon Turk) or even its inventory (e.g. Stock …
Read More[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1528487839572{padding-bottom: 50px !important;}”]Paying attention to your customers is important. Most companies would agree with that sentiment, as it’s a core principle of both research and development and marketing. Incorporating your customers into the process is even better, which is why co-creating value with customers is critical for success in today’s market. What Is Co-Creation? …
Read MoreOne of the central tenets behind successful co-creation is to fail early and often. The idea is to keep moving iteratively towards a successful solution. That said, it’s preferable to start closer to the solution in the first place, so the ramp up between multiple failures and ultimate success is reduced. With that in mind …
Read MoreResearchers are getting used to hearing about the opportunities afforded by agile research and customer co-creation. Often the terms are used almost interchangeably but, to me, they are distinct, with the latter being a subset of the former. Agile Research is a derivative of the agile development process. For definition, I’ll use Jeffrey Henning’s recent …
Read MoreWould that be a trade association (e.g. ESOMAR, CASRO, The MRA, ARF, IIR, QRCA, etc.)? Can we name an association that clearly speaks for a majority of researchers? No, they’re all too myopic. If a single association doesn’t speak for MR, what about thought leaders? In my opinion, the vast majority of thought leaders are …
Read MoreThis year I hosted my first Thanksgiving, which was definitely an experience! From the initial recipe searching and menu building, to the food shopping, cooking and baking, and finally, eating, there were a lot of moving parts involved in crafting a wonderful family meal. It turns out that Thanksgiving is about so much more than …
Read MoreRecently, I was catching up on the Emmy award-winning favorite comedy Modern Family. Maybe you’ve heard of it? In the episode (‘She Crazy’ Season 7, Episode 4), eyes rolled when Claire Dunphy, a “suit” at a closet company, wanted to pitch ideas at a creative design team meeting. This hit home as I saw …
Read MoreOK, I realize this one is pretty easy. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? A. 5 cents B. 10 cents C. 20 cents D. 25 cents If you instinctively guessed 10 cents, congratulations, you …
Read MoreBy Kevin P. Lonnie/Founder KL Communications There are two attributes associated to MR that I feel are preventing us from making a larger contribution to innovation. As a rule, we are: Risk adverse Process driven The above attributes have their merits. They allow us to provide objective, thorough analyses of potential products through measurable …
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