As many of the readers of FOI know, I joined 38 other authors in writing the book “Leading Edge Marketing Research; 21st Century Tools and Practices”.

Writing what became titled “The Futures of Marketing Research” and designated the epilogue was a labor of love.

In this epilogue I developed 22 potential futures for the research industry.

Interestingly, I faced two challenges in writing this chapter.

The first was the challenge of language. Thinking about potential futures means exploring things that have not been created yet. And one natural limitation is language. In some cases I had to invent language to describe some of the things that I anticipate. Some of these words and phrases were: RIMEing (rapid, in market experimentation), IIS (iterative Insight Streaming), ACS (anticipatory customer strategies), “nannytargeting”, etc.

The second challenge was overcoming my own fear that some of the industry scenarios I developed seemed a bit far fetched. But, here I leaned heavily on the famous futurist Jim Dator and his well known statement that “any useful statement about the futures should appear to be ridiculous.”

And this leads me to the six people that I need to thank for the epilogue.

First, I need to thank Jim Dator. His speech at The Market Research Event in Las Vegas several years ago was so interesting, divisive (MR folks either loved it or hated it) and thought provoking that I kept adding notes to my notes on his speech. He remains one of the most impressive pure thinkers I have ever shared a room with.

Next up is Peter Bishop at the University of Houston. Peter is a well-known, and well-published futurist. He is one of the few exceptionally smart people that I have met who has a kindness that matches his intellect. His one week course on strategic foresight was unforgetable and my fellow students only added to the experience.

Next is Ian Lewis at Cambiar. Ian penned the first chapter of Leading Edge Marketing Research with Simon Chadwick and has written extensively about NewMR. I learn something every time I talk with him. I was so impressed with him that I invited him to address my firm’s senior leaders.

Next is Lenny Murphy. Lenny has his eyes on the horizon of research more than anyone I know and his categorical knowledge of which firms are doing what is impressive. Plus, Lenny is just a kick-ass guy. I wish he was my neighbor.

And finally I owe a big thank you to Sparky Zivin and Barbara Coons (colleagues at StrategyOne). They proofed my writing and offered helpful and unvarnished feedback. I can honestly say that as I commute to work each morning I look forward to seeing them in the halls, at their desks and around the coffee machine.

My next piece will cover how my thinking has evolved since I wrote the epilogue.

While walking the convention floor this week at The Market Research Event I had the pleasure of talking with folks at Clarabridge and Nunwood.

Both offer knowledge management archiving services that are accessed by a custom-built interface. Nunwood’s “Fizz” is a good example.

Historically market research has been defined by data scarcity. The market research function was needed to go out and collect scarce data and analyze it.

That’s not the problem anymore.

Now the problem is largely sifting through massive amounts of existing data flows and turning this data into information, knowledge, insight and strategy.

Based on this logic, it seems fairly obvious that one part of the future of market research is an insights management system.

Note that I didn’t write “knowledge management system.”

I think a knowledge management system is simply the minimum level needed. Instead, the internal MR department needs a robust insights management system accessed by a centralized interface.

At least three things will be needed to make this work:

1. A real taxonomy for insights so that they can be catalogued and related to each other in an archive.

2. An interface that pulls multiple data flows together, including point of sale data, insight communities, an insights archive, complaint or call center data, social media listening reports, syndicated reports and the traditional tracking studies.

3. A mindshift from a sole focus on primary data collection to a more holistic approach that utilizes multiple data flows.

Unfortunately, some in this space are completely over-promising by stating that the only thing (or close to the only thing) a company needs is to harness the data it already has. This would be almost accurate if we lived in a static competitive environment without new innovation or emerging consumer needs. But, we live in the opposite of that world. The fact is there will always be a need to engage in a discussion with customers, asking them questions and plotting out emerging trends and needs. Existing marketplace data is unlikely to give us the kind of game-changing data that one competitor can use to create entirely new markets or disruptive innovation. But, given (a) the massive increase in data and (b) the typically uncoordinated use of existing primary research, I expect insights management systems to explode in the near future.