Reading this today about P&G’s thinking regarding purpose, as opposed to brand, supports a theory that I have been building for some time now. WARC notes that “Procter & Gamble, the FMCG giant, is combining consumer insights and its global reach to pursue ‘purpose-driven branding’ around the world.” After reading Rachel Botsman’s book regarding collaborative [...]

Last night’s keynote address was given by Michael Tchong of Ubercool, Inc. As one might expect, the speech was heavily future and trends focused. So much of what he discussed (especially America’s hyperfocus on the future and “future tense”) was reminiscent of David Brooks’ book “On Paradise Drive.” Although the audience was treated to a [...]

Tom LaForge at Coca-Cola presented his thinking on macro-forces shaping our world (what Smith and Raspin in their book “Creating Market Insight” call “remote environment factors”) and Coca-Cola’s strategy. It was all strategic foresight. Tom, with his focus on the trends driving our futures, represents one aspect of where I believe market research is headed. [...]

What are the social, economic and market research implications when location based services like Foursquare or Gowalla go mainstream? We know from research released by Pew today that 4% of online Americans and 8% of online Americans under 29 years old are already using these services. Pew is now tracking this trend. And, while we [...]

The Burke Institute, a venerable market research institution with high quality training just embraced the future of the insights industry by offering a new course – Next Generation Qualitative Tools. This is a noteworthy development. The course will focus on social media, online communities and virtual research platforms. Until now, the Burke Institute was fairly [...]

Tom Ewing has an update to his thinking regarding Millennials in MR. There was such a great response to his question (Are the kids alright?) that he revised and extended his remarks. It is worth reading the comments. I maintain that there is plenty of young talent in the industry, but that these talented folks [...]

The Boston Consulting Group released an excellent report on the state of client-side (in house) market research departments. You can read it all here. Highlights: 1. Only 35% of executives describe their in-house MR function as “best in class.” (see page 4) 2. Although corporations should strive to move their MR departments from “order takers” [...]

In the Research Industry Trends Report 2009 Leonard Murphy asks two important questions: 1. “How long can a healthy industry operate on low margin with insufficient resources? The strain is already apparent as many shops have closed their doors since 2008.” 2. “What should be done to support a perception that research is a valuable [...]

As even the casual observer of the industry knows, this time of transition is being met with mourning, concern and excitement, often in the same individuals. This is how change works on us. Although the reaction to this change is NOT generally binary, it is worth reviewing the positive and negative reactions to the changes [...]

For an instructive overview of what industry professionals see as challenges today, it is worth reviewing the 2009 Research Industry Trends report here. Page 25 is the key page. Here are the top 2 box responses (“a little problematic” and “a major problem”): 86% price or budget issues from current economy 73% research treated as [...]