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!

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. 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 performance 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.

Learning What's Good at Goodyear

Kim White presented on how Goodyear used a variety of qualitative research techniques: immersions, peer focus groups, and learning connects to fully understand their consumer's retail experience.

The techniques, developed by MarketVision Research, were creative and insightful...and combined, they allowed the consumer voice to be loud and clear to their c-level management as well as their dealers.

One of the many creative qualitative exercises utilized "Grove" templates. I have also found these templates helpful in a number of different research projects. (You can go online and download the smaller deck of cards ... or you can order larger, wall-size templates for group facilitation exercises.)

The specific template used in Goodyear's research was an Idea Wheel that helped convey consumer's wishes and ideas around the buying experience.

Another very cool exercise included a "Retailer Personality creation" where participants had to "create" the personality of retailers with available supplies. This was an interesting way to gain insight on how retailers are perceived.

Taking this to CEO gave their upper management an understanding of how consumers view them as a retailer and thus, drove change throughout the organization.

April Bell

The Skinny on Facebook

Well, I am here for the first session kick-off at The Market Research Event in Las Vegas. What a great first session to blog about: Facebook. Meg Sloan, research lead at Facebook and Brant Cruz of Chadwick Martin Bailey shared a little glimpse of what life inside Facebook is like.

Currently, Facebook has 300 million users worldwide and at least 1/2 of their users go to the site daily! Wow! How do they do it? Here's a tidbit....

Their guiding principles include:

1. Proactive
2. Scalable
3. Expertise
4. New School
5. Synthesis & Story-telling

Meg also gave us insight into how they view their small marketing research team:

1. Try our best to act like the rest of the org
2. Radical focus on the roadmap and prioritization
3. Making sure we all are doing things we feel strong at each day (staying motivated)
4. Supporting each other/sharing information/work etc.
5. Be nimble and use our resources and relationships to their fullest
6. And last but not least: Ruthless Prioritization as well as Have Fun and create an awesome workplace. Their Q3 planning meeting involved pedicures--sign me up!

You can see more about life inside the marketing research team at Facebook. Check out this video about

"life at facebook." Oh, and by the way, they currently have a marketing research position open for anyone who is interested..I'm now a little more motivated to spend time on my facebook page

...

Live at TMRE in Vegas

Well, hello. Here I am, blogging again for IIR live at The Market Research Event 2009 in Las Vegas. We are at the Red Rock Resort and Casino and it is rockin'! Wow, what a great conference site--here's the view from my room!

It is cool to be back for the 2nd time. Last year was my first Market Research Event. This year, I recognize a few faces and have met a few of you throughout the year.

So, if you're reading this and you're here in Vegas for the event, please let me know if you have something valuable to add to the blog.

Hope to meet you.