The transformation of market research

Last week I spent a great two days taking part in the MRSS Asia Research Conference (declaration: I had also been involved in it’s organisation).  On the first day, more than twenty young (and occasionally old) researchers took part in two stimulating workshops exploring research in the facebook age, and the busy executive’s guide to social media.  On the second day of the conference, 10 world class speakers spoke on a range of topics connected to the future of research in Asia.

My key take aways fall into four areas: the importance of emotions, the power of measuring real behaviours, the value of contextualising survey questions and the reality of Asia’s ageing population (surprisingly I’ve come back to affect, behaviour and context again!). Read more »

“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients.  Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”  - Herbert Simon

Do you need more information?

How much can information can the world use?  It can certainly create a great deal of information according to a study by Martin Hilbert at the University of Southern California, but the ability to create and even store more and more information is not the same as the ability to understand, synthesise and communicate the information.  I believe this is one of the most important issues we face today, both as content producers and as content consumers with increasing competition for our limited attention.   Read more »

Apple must have been relieved to have Steve Jobs back (if briefly) for their latest new product introduction (iPad 2).  Although he looked a little frail, he still commanded the stage, using presentation skills that all researchers can also use, including many tricks from Hollywood.  In The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, Carmine Gallo summarises these skills in three acts (like all the best plays and presentations). Read more »

What makes research valuable?

I had a great time running a Tapestry Workshop earlier this week on “Winning the Hearts and Minds of Clients”.  One of the key, and often repeated, messages on the course is the importance of linking research to business value creation.

I have read several defences of market research recently, with articles by Spych, Frankie Johnson in the last few days.  As a passionate market researcher, I love to read other passionate researchers standing up for the industry and the importance of linking everything back to the customer, and I applaud them for it. Read more »

“Statistics are like bikinis.  What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”  - Aaron Levenstein Read more »

Forbes have recently published an analysis of the world’s happiest countries, and it makes interesting reading, although I’m not convinced by some of the results. Read more »

“Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact.  We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.”  - Denis Diderot Read more »

“There is no victory at bargain basement prices.”  - Dwight D. Eisenhower Read more »

5 questions every innovative researcher needs to ask …. and the one answer they need to give

by Mike Sherman, Neil Gains and Linda Collard Read more »

“Perfect behaviour is born of complete indifference.”  - Cesare Pavese Read more »