Posted by Debra Semans on Tue, Aug 31, 2010 @ 09:36 AM
Welcome to the August 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Kathy Bremer. Kathy’s career has spanned advertising, public relations, marketing, fundraising and executive search. She has held senior roles at marketing agencies (examples: NW Ayer Advertising, Porter Novelli) and at both corporate and nonprofit client organizations (examples: Canon, CARE). Currently, she is managing director of BoardWalk Consulting, which specializes in nonprofit leadership searches, strategy and governance. More about BoardWalk and its nonprofit clients atBoardwalk Consulting. Kathy’s bio here:Kathy's bio.
To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice. Kathy chairs the board of CHRIS Kids, and has chosen CHRIS Kids as beneficiary of Polaris’ donation. The organization is in the final months of a capital campaign to build supportive housing for kids 17-24 who are aging out of foster care and might otherwise be homeless. CHRIS Kids heals children, strengthens families and builds communities. Two challenge gifts will triple all pledges and donations to the capital campaign. To learn about CHRIS Kids and to donate, click: CHRIS Kids.
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TMD: Kathy, we’re having some fun with the TMD blog this month. In each post, we are talking a little bit about marketing research and then a little bit about careers in the Non-Profit world, to take full advantage of your unique background.
What has been the most successful marketing research project you have undertaken?
Kathy: At Porter Novelli a few years back, we were charged with building awareness of autism, and changing the behaviors of parents and pediatricians. While early intervention makes the biggest difference, most doctors and parents tended to take a “wait and see” approach. Marketing research showed that for the message about early identification and action to break through, the messaging had to be about something broader than autism. The resulting “Learn the Signs/Act Early” campaign addressed the milestones of childhood development. Consumer and pediatrician-directed messaging, advertising, PR and multi-level communications produced significant changes in awareness and behavior, earning the effort “social marketing campaign of the year”.
TMD: How can marketing researchers explore a nonprofit career?
Kathy: I would give the same advice to marketing researchers that I would to any corporate executive. Talk with friends who work or volunteer in the sector, and get involved in volunteering yourself. Nonprofits have an incredible array of volunteer needs, ranging from sorting clothes and delivering meals to mentoring and serving at the committee and board level. Identify volunteer opportunities through networking, checking the websites of nonprofits with causes that appeal to you, and/or calling the United Way 211 number. Jim Collins’ book Good to Great and the Social Sectors is a resource, as is the website of Civic Ventures, the nonprofit that developed the concept of “Encore Careers.”
If you decide to pursue work in the nonprofit sector, demonstrated engagement with one or more causes is helpful. Prospective employers look for evidence that you have the right “heart” for the work. In nonprofits, cultural fit matters even more than in the corporate sector.
Nonprofits employ close to 6% of the workforce. By some estimates, up to half of today’s nonprofit executives will be retiring within five years. More than 500,000 new nonprofit leaders and managers will be needed in the next decade. The need for talent and mission accomplishment is serious. For many people, working at a nonprofit is the most satisfying work of their life.
Let us know: Are you thinking of changing to a career in non-profit? What do you want to know? If you work in non-profits, what advice would you give a marketing researcher looking to break in?
Join The Marketing Dialog next week when Kathy Bremer of Boardwalk Consulting answers the question we have all been waiting for!
Posted by Debra Semans on Tue, Aug 24, 2010 @ 09:32 AM
Welcome to the August 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Kathy Bremer. Kathy’s career has spanned advertising, public relations, marketing, fundraising and executive search. She has held senior roles at marketing agencies (examples: NW Ayer Advertising, Porter Novelli) and at both corporate and nonprofit client organizations (examples: Canon, CARE). Currently, she is managing director of BoardWalk Consulting, which specializes in nonprofit leadership searches, strategy and governance. More about BoardWalk and its nonprofit clients at Boardwalk Consulting. Kathy’s bio here: Kathy's Bio.
To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice. Kathy chairs the board of CHRIS Kids, and has chosen CHRIS Kids as beneficiary of Polaris’ donation. The organization is in the final months of a capital campaign to build supportive housing for kids 17-24 who are aging out of foster care and might otherwise be homeless. CHRIS Kids heals children, strengthens families and builds communities. Two challenge gifts will triple all pledges and donations to the capital campaign. To learn about CHRIS Kids and to donate, click: CHRIS Kids.
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TMD: Kathy, we’re having some fun with the TMD blog this month. In each post, we are talking a little bit about marketing research and then a little bit about careers in the Non-Profit world, to take full advantage of your unique background.
When has marketing research driven a difference in decision making?
Kathy: We recently conducted customer research for a company whose growth to-date had been driven by a unique product. The research showed that customers preferred the company’s more reliable, customer-friendly competitors and would readily switch if the unique product became available through them. Further, we learned that customers balked at buying products beyond the one unique product from this company—thus limiting volume and profit potential. These insights are driving multi-year planning and numerous strategic and process changes throughout the business.
TMD: It seems that a lot of people are reaching an age where they want to give back. But they really don’t know whether a non-profit would be a good fit or not. What are the urban myths about working in nonprofit?
Kathy: Here are my top 5:
- Working in nonprofit is a chance to slow down. Nothing could be further from the truth! Nonprofit staffing tends to be lean, and the combination of commitment to the mission and involvement of volunteers can make for an endless set of demands. If you go to work at a nonprofit because you’re passionate about the cause, and you expect to work hard to advance the cause, your expectations will likely be met.
- The nonprofit world is less advanced and disciplined than the corporate world. Successful nonprofit executives are masters at bringing great talent, entrepreneurial thinking and sophisticated metrics to bear. You will find corporate experience at the board and staff levels. However, most nonprofits cannot afford the same level of investment in staff enrichment, technology and training that corporate entities can.
- At a nonprofit, staff members feel they’re making a difference each day. The internal politics and stresses in many nonprofits mirror those of the corporate sector. And because there is not a single “bottom line” in nonprofit work (e.g. profit), there can be multiple agendas operating at the same time. On the other hand, being part of an enterprise that truly is making a difference—not just money—is exciting. The passion in well-run, effective nonprofits is authentic and uplifting.
- Nonprofits are flat, not hierarchical. Larger nonprofits can become quite hierarchical, even bureaucratic, in response to the high demands on staff. At the same time, nonprofit culture generally espouses passion and engagement, so people at all levels are encouraged to speak their mind and have their viewpoints heard. One corporate CFO, making the switch to nonprofit, was dismayed at what he perceived as lack of respect for the CFO role.
- Nonprofit work is basically the same as corporate work. While corporate experience, including marketing, can map well to nonprofit, there are fundamental differences. These include the organization’s purpose—to provide social benefit, versus to grow and make money—and the values and cultural context of people who are attracted to nonprofit work. Asking for business, or negotiating a transaction from which each party benefits in tangible ways, is fundamentally different from asking for charitable support. That said there are similarities in business processes, relationship aspects and the desire to do great work.
Let us know: If you work in a non-profit, what are your “urban myths”? What expectations do staff who have been in the corporate world have that just are not true?
Join us in next week when The Marketing Dialog with Kathy Bremer of Boardwalk Consulting continues!
Posted by Debra Semans on Tue, Aug 17, 2010 @ 09:19 AM
Welcome to the August 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Kathy Bremer. Kathy’s career has spanned advertising, public relations, marketing, fundraising and executive search. She has held senior roles at marketing agencies (examples: NW Ayer Advertising, Porter Novelli) and at both corporate and nonprofit client organizations (examples: Canon, CARE). Currently, she is managing director of BoardWalk Consulting, which specializes in nonprofit leadership searches, strategy and governance. More about BoardWalk and its nonprofit clients at Boardwalk Consulting. Kathy's bio here:Kathy's Bio.
To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice. Kathy chairs the board of CHRIS Kids, and has chosen CHRIS Kids as beneficiary of Polaris’ donation. The organization is in the final months of a capital campaign to build supportive housing for kids 17-24 who are aging out of foster care and might otherwise be homeless. CHRIS Kids heals children, strengthens families and builds communities. Two challenge gifts will triple all pledges and donations to the capital campaign. To learn about CHRIS Kids and to donate, click: CHRIS Kids.
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TMD: Thanks for participating in this month’s Dialog, Kathy. Because of your unique career path, we are going to have some fun with this blog. In each post, we will talk about marketing research and then we’ll talk about careers in the Non-Profit world. Sound good?
Let’s get started. What important lessons did you learn about marketing research or marketing research companies early in your career?
Kathy: When I worked in advertising, one of my brands was Procter & Gamble’s Folgers Coffee. Conventional wisdom had it that coffee is a commodity product, signifying coming of age and belonging. Through marketing research, we uncovered longings, memories and experiences related to coffee that changed the game. The Folgers brand became #1 coffee in America by “owning” the morning, mountain-grown aroma and anticipation of the first sip.
TMD: How do marketing, and marketing research, map to the nonprofit sector?
Kathy: Many people who have had fulfilling careers in marketing consider what it might be like to apply their talents on behalf of a social cause. While fundraising, also called advancement or development, demands nonprofits’ top priority after the mission itself, large and mid-size nonprofits today appreciate the value of marketing, branding and research. More and more mid-sized nonprofits, as well, are bringing marketing expertise into their staff mix.
Nonprofit work is not for everyone, but it can be remarkably fulfilling for people with the right temperament and mission orientation. Nonprofits tend to be highly participative, with people at all levels weighing in on issues they care about. If you prefer a more structured, hierarchical environment, you might be uncomfortable with the role ambiguity and consensus-building approach of many nonprofits. Additionally, while nonprofit salaries have been rising in recent years, compensation is rarely at the corporate level. Lastly, nonprofits are usually resource-constrained. The need to stretch financial and human resources requires ingenuity and can be stressful.
On the other hand, if you are energized by nonprofit mission and thrive in an environment that is engaged, entrepreneurial and mission-centered, nonprofit could be a fabulous move.
Let us know: Are you thinking of changing to a career in non-profit? What do you want to know? If you work in non-profits, what advice would you give a marketing researcher looking to break in?
Join us in next week when The Marketing Dialog with Kathy Bremer of Boardwalk Consulting continues!
Posted by Debra Semans on Tue, Jul 13, 2010 @ 10:59 AM
Welcome to the July 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Jo Ann Herold, who brings over 20 years marketing experience to Top Right Strategic Marketing. Prior to consulting, she spent 16 years at Honey Baked Ham and was formerly the VP of Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer with them. She has worked as a Regional Marketing Manager for Shoney’s and Captain D’s for five years. Before that, she was head of marketing for the Jackson, MS Zoo and has owned her own marketing firm.
To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice. Jo Ann has chosen The American Marketing Association Atlanta Ken Bernhardt Scholarship for Outstanding Collegiate Marketer Award. “The reasons I am passionate about this scholarship is that I am a lifelong learner, it gives students a chance to study marketing—which has been a great career for me, I am president-elect of the Atlanta chapter of AMA, and Ken Bernhardt has been a friend and mentor. As an added bonus, he will match all donations personally,” said Jo Ann. (Please note, Ken Bernhardt was also TMD’s very first guest marketing leader)
If you would like to know more about The American Marketing Association Atlanta Ken Bernhardt Scholarship for Outstanding Collegiate Marketer Award or to make a donation, please contact AMA Atlanta or Jo Ann directly at jherold@toprightpartners.com
TMD: Thanks for participating in this month’s Dialog, Jo Ann. Are you a fan of marketing research? And if so, why?
Jo Ann: I use some form of marketing research almost every day. As a consumer marketer, I am always asking consumers, customers, suppliers, vendors and experts their opinion. I look for patterns and consistency in the answers. But I also look for the misfit answers.
I also like when an answer jumps out. Sometimes, however, the answer isn’t so clear. I think of research as detective work—it’s a blast to start with a blank sheet of paper, provide an articulate problem statement, develop the hypothesis, and then uncover the information from all points of view.
I serve on the Executive Advisory Board for the AMA. We brought in the thought leaders and are in the process of developing a white paper on the Trends in Marketing for 2020. I am also working on a fun project for InterContinental Hotels right now. I also have taught research as an Adjunct Professor. Obviously, I am a huge believer in research!
TMD: Why do you think marketing research is important?
Jo Ann: It provides the voice of the customer. It takes the personal opinions out of the answers and provides unbiased “truths” to the problem.
TMD: From the marketing research you conducted, what information was your company surprised to discover or would not have known without the research?
Jo Ann: When I was CMO at HoneyBaked Ham, we were surprised to learn that the glaze was the key differentiator for the product. It seems so obvious now—but it was a huge Aha at the time!
TMD: That’s funny isn’t it – to look back on something and see how obvious it is now? But at the time … huge insight!
Can you tell us about a time where a bad marketing decision was made due to the lack of research?
Jo Ann: Oh gosh, you had to ask that. Pricing is often the least researched and most important piece of the Marketing P’s. One time, I made a pricing decision without research. I learned my lesson and now, always try to incorporate research into any consumer pricing decision.
TMD: Well, you aren’t the only marketer to have that experience! How about at time when marketing research saved your company money?
Jo Ann: Marketing Research has helped some of my clients understand what the consumer will pay for. What attributes are “worth the price” and what areas are “fools gold.” At HoneyBaked, I was able to save the company a lot of money in packaging.
TMD: You’ve had some great experience in marketing over the course of your career? How has your thinking about marketing research evolved over that time?
Jo Ann: Dramatically—especially as my responsibilities increased. The impact of my decisions had significant financial implications. Research aided the decision making process.
TMD: What has been the most successful marketing research project your company has undertaken? What made it successful?
Jo Ann: The most successful projects are the ones where there is a creative insights process involved.
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This includes smartly identifying what is the problem that needs to be solved,
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Including the business in the problem identification,
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Sourcing the right approach or supplier to lead the research,
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Wrapping the project with a session that summarizes the key insights and “Ahas”,
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Determining how to commercialized the findings for financial gains, and
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Sharing the research and findings throughout the organization and with key suppliers.
TMD: The creative process is certainly important. But how do you get buy-in for marketing research from other executives?
Jo Ann: Include them in all steps of the process. Share the problem statement, invite executives to hear and see any aspect of the customer interviews, ask them to provide input into the “Aha” section of the research project. They will love being a part of it. And you will too!
TMD: What marketing decisions do you think are the most difficult to make without any research?
Jo Ann: Anything related to the marketing P’s should have some element of research. Also, research doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. For example, store visits, customer calls and customer surveys can be conducted using internal resources.
TMD: That is such an important point – information does not have to cost an arm and a leg. Especially now, we have a lot of information available to us.
Let me ask you one last question: What are your recommendations for marketing research professionals? What are the pitfalls they need to watch out for?
Jo Ann: Always provide insights into the data. That is what is the most important. At each step of the process, ask the question, “What does this mean?”
TMD: Jo Ann, thank you so much!
Let us know: What marketing decision are the most difficult to make without research?
To be notified about upcoming posts click here.
Posted by Debra Semans on Tue, Jun 15, 2010 @ 11:08 AM
Welcome to the June 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Sharon Goldmacher, President of communications 21 (c21) (communications 21 - integrated marketing PR agency). Inspired by other young entrepreneurs during a trip to Australia, Sharon founded communications 21 in 1992 as a full-service marketing PR firm specializing in brand development, product launch campaigns, media relations, executive exposure and special events; as well as creating marketing materials, Web sites and social media programs for clients. The company is committed to "Remarkable service. Real results." After its first year, the company won the DeKalb (GA) Chamber's Stargazer award for "Small Business Start-Up of the Year." And it hasn’t stopped winning awards ever since!
Full bio of Sharon Goldmacher.
To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice. Sharon has chosen the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. “The Georgia chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society is doing great work in helping to fund cutting-edge research, drive change through advocacy, facilitate professional education, and provide programs and services to help people with MS and their families move their lives forward. I know several people – both family and friends – who suffer from MS – and the research that is currently happening can only continue with your help,” said Sharon.
To make a donation, please click here: National MS Society
If you would like to know more about MS, please click here: Learn more about MS
TMD: Thanks for participating in this month’s Dialog, Sharon. Tell me about a time when marketing research really made a difference for your clients?
Sharon: communications 21 – or c21 – is often charged with a variety of marketing, PR and interactive assignments from clients – from creating marketing plans to developing media relations outreach programs to establishing or increasing customer engagement via social media. Marketing research, or at the very least, connecting and understanding what a client’s various target audiences are seeking in terms of information, services, products, etc. is vital to the success of any strategy.
Two clients used research to help them make vital decisions for their companies. The first was BellSouth when they decided to consolidate more than 200 offices spread across metro Atlanta into three primary locations along MARTA rail [Atlanta’s local public rail transportation]. The ultimate goal was to remove more than 20,000 single occupant vehicles of their employees each day from Atlanta’s heavily congested roads. In order to understand if their idea was even feasible, BellSouth conducted comprehensive research with their employees. It uncovered information on where employees lived, average commute times, willingness to use public transit and more. The study findings allowed BellSouth to confidently move forward and achieve its goals.
Instead of comprehensive customer research, Cousins Properties uses a series of short consumer surveys that provide them with added customer insight around The Avenue brand. The Avenue is a brand used for eight outdoor lifestyle centers in the Southeast. The Avenue In fact, we encouraged a survey in advance of the company’s website redesign for The Avenue, which helped them to focus on the features customers would like to see and use. In addition, Cousins has uncovered information on customers’ use of social media, mobile applications and more, and the types of retailers shoppers would like to see at The Avenue properties. All great information that helps them to continually deliver what their customers want.
TMD: Has there ever been a time when you or your client were surprised to discover something or would not have known something without having done the research?
Sharon: One client did not think their customers used smart phones, and was not considering online advertising or mobile marketing in its marketing plan. The research showed more than 60 percent of its customers used smart phones and wanted discounts to their phones directly. The client has since changed their strategy.
TMD: No doubt! I think that is one of the most important benefits of marketing research: to keep us open to how the world is changing – especially now. Sometimes you just have to test those assumptions. We have a lot of clients now asking about how their customers are using (or not using) social media – and there have been surprises!
Sharon, another important concern we are hearing from our client: saving money. How has marketing research saved your company or your clients’ companies money?
Sharon: With any marketing endeavor, if you’re using a shot-gun approach to reach people who may or may not care about a particular product or service – it will always be more expensive. And with social media, it’s more critical than ever to know where your audience is, what they are saying and what they want. Research can help narrow the spray of buckshot into a laser focused arrow – to hit the right audience with the right message. Without it, clients may throw good money after bad and not see any results.
TMD: c21 and Polaris both work with a variety of clients - very big companies and very small companies. You and I both know that not every company researches every decision – even very important decisions. What marketing decisions do you think are the most difficult to make without any research?
Sharon: Product sales and product redesigns are the most difficult decisions to make without market research. A company approached us to market their very expensive supplement product to active adults, yet they had limited research on their target consumers’ locations, where they shopped, what their triggers were for buying supplements, price sensitivity, etc., and didn’t seem interested in making the investment to find out. I felt we would be set up to fail, and ultimately, we did not take them on as a client.
Market research, when done properly, can make difficult decisions easy. We tested two product redesigns for a bottled water company. The bottle was to be the first two liter product on the market. The company president liked one bottle design, and we liked another. We conducted several focus groups, and the research clearly chose a winner (unfortunately, not the president’s favorite). However, he went with the research findings and bottles flew off the shelves – a true success. And c21 pitched a story on how a small businesses can use market research and placed it in Time Magazine – double bonus!
TMD: So much is changing in business, the role of marketing research in business is being examined a lot these days. The industry seems to be challenging itself to evolve with the new business realities. From the research user’s perspective, how has your thinking about marketing research evolved over your career?
Sharon: The advent and popularity of social media has made gaining small insights easy. Even though not everyone uses social media, clients see the tremendous value in having direct and ongoing access to their most loyal followers, customers, fans, etc. For companies that combine true market research with social media research, the knowledge can be extremely powerful.
TMD: Interesting – I agree completely that Social Media is a powerful new tool in the toolbox. It will be fun to see how the Marketing Research industry adapts!
Let us know: How are you using social media in gaining insight? How are you combining social media with traditional marketing research approaches?
To be notified about upcoming posts click here.
Posted by Debra Semans on Tue, May 04, 2010 @ 11:05 AM
Welcome to the May 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Sybil Stershic, President of Quality Service Marketing (QSM). QSM helps companies develop employee- and customer-focused solutions for bottom line success. Sybil is the author of Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care and the Quality Service Marketing blog. Click here to learn more about Sybil: Quality Service Marketing: About QSM
To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice. Sybil has chosen the Global Facilitators Service Corps. “What impressed me about this all-volunteer organization is how they let communities-in-crisis know they’re not forgotten after the first responders leave. The Global Facilitator Service Corps provides materials and mentoring, as well as facilitative tools and techniques, to help communities help themselves. For example, one of their most requested workshops helps community professionals and volunteers understand how to facilitate and foster community resilience in the aftermath of a disaster or major change. Given the ongoing recovery from an increasing number of natural disasters, ranging from Hurricane Katrina to the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Brazil, the need for GFSC’s services continues to grow,” said Sybil.
We invite you to make a contribution of your own or to learn more about the Global Facilitators Service Corps by clicking this link: Global Facilitator Service Corps
TMD: Thanks for participating in this month’s Dialog, Sybil. You are a leader in the field of internal marketing, but that concept may not be familiar for TMD readers. Tell me, what is internal marketing?
Sybil: Very simply, it involves taking care of employees so they can take care of customers. Internal marketing recognizes employees as an organization’s “first audience” and uses a variety of communication, educational, and motivational tools to engage employees in serving customers and meeting business objectives. But don’t let the marketing label fool you, as you don’t need to be a marketer to apply internal marketing. It’s really a comprehensive approach that blends internal communications, human resources and management to ensure your organization provides the tools and reinforcement that employees need to take care of customers and deliver the brand promise.
TMD: OK. Is there any research that supports the need for or the benefit of Internal Marketing?
Sybil: There’s a solid body of research that validates a self-reinforcing relationship between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability. One notable example is The Service Profit Chain published in 1997. And there are more recent studies that continue to confirm employees’ positive impact on financial success.
Despite this evidence, I’m amazed at how companies try to focus on creating a positive customer experience without doing the same for their employees.
TMD: And as you noted in the Foreword to your book, Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care: “Research shows that employees who have better relationships with their companies are more likely to:
- Stay with the company, thereby reducing the high cost of turnover.
- Recommend the company to other potential employees, also reducing search expense.
- Be more productive in their jobs, augmenting the organization’s return on its investment.
- Provide higher service levels, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty."
TMD: I’m sure we’ve all got horror stories to tell about customer experiences with employees who were disaffected, disillusioned and just downright nasty! Seems like it is the exception when you have a good experience. So how did you first become involved with Internal Marketing?
Sybil: Early in my career I became aware that employees’ impact on customers was an outcome of how employees themselves were treated. Think of it as customer relations mirroring employee relations – the way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers. So I began experimenting with how to apply marketing inside an organization to help employees better serve customers and each other (i.e., employees as “internal” customers). Over the years I’ve practiced internal marketing, I came to learn what works and what doesn’t in engaging employees. It sounds like a no-brainer, but sadly there are many companies who still refer to their employees using annual report rhetoric – “our most important asset” – without really treating them as such. I know many people who work in what they describe as a “toxic” workplace. They’re among the growing ranks of disengaged employees just waiting to jump ship once the economy improves.
TMD: “Toxic” is such a powerful word, but you can exactly see what it describes. No one should have to work in an environment that makes them sick.
TMD: In your last post, we learned a lot about the importance of Internal Marketing. Since there are many researchers in our audience, let’s talk about the kind of marketing research that can be helpful in internal marketing.
Sybil: Research enables a company to understand how much internal marketing is needed based on customer and employee feedback. I suggest starting with customer satisfaction research – what are your customers telling you about how well they think you’re taking care of them?
You also need to look at the results of any employee satisfaction and/or engagement research to understand how employees view your organization. Most employee surveys, if done at all, reside in Human Resources and may not be shared with Marketing. Keep in mind, however, you need more than feedback on employee benefits – you need to know:
- Do employees understand the organization’s goals and what is expected of them in achieving these goals?
- Do employees know who their customers are? … How customers use the company’s products & services? …What customers think of the company/brand?
- What employees think of company operations - do they have access to the information and tools they need to perform their jobs? … What works and what gets in the way of their ability to deliver on the brand? … What are their suggestions for improvement?
Many companies know far more about their customers than their employees. So for those companies initiating employee research, I recommend they look for research providers with experience in “linkage research” that integrates the results of employee surveys with customer surveys.
TMD: How has your thinking about marketing research evolved over your career?
Sybil: I did a short stint as a research analyst in bank marketing earlier in my career. While my chosen path didn’t stay in research, I know how important it is in providing critical insight and input to decision-making.
TMD: I didn’t realize you had been in marketing research! That is an opportunity that can really change the way you use information in your business decision-making. And I am sure marketing research has changed as well over your career.
Sybil: What has changed about research, and what I’m most concerned about, is what’s available on the internet. It’s easy to find studies published on the web, and that’s good news for people looking to support their ideas and for research firms to promote themselves. But some of the research that’s out there is frightening, especially when little information is provided on sample size or methodology. I question how much of it is really valid and reliable.
What hasn’t changed is the need to listen to customers and the marketplace, in addition to listening to employees and enterprise partners. This, I believe, will continue to be the value of marketing research.
TMD: Indeed, while Marketing Research is more accessible to businesses than ever before as a tool for managing their businesses, I agree completely that there is not enough respect for that tool and knowledge about how best to apply it.
TMD: Sybil, thank you so much! This is very valuable insight for our readers.
Let us know: Have you used marketing research to assist internal marketing efforts? How?
To be notified about upcoming posts click here.
Posted by Debra Semans on Wed, Apr 07, 2010 @ 09:24 AM
Welcome to the April 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog.
Well, it finally happened. In spite of the best of plans, rigorous nagging, and trying to make it as easy as possible, life intervened and our guest marketing leader for April was not able to complete her assignment.
However – we have had such stellar guest marketing leaders since we began this blog, it wouldn’t hurt to recap some of the best from the best. This month, we’re going into our archives and bringing back some of the best quotes from our previous guest marketing leaders.
As you know, to thank our guests for their participation, Polaris makes a donation to the charity of their choice. Because there isn’t just one guest marketing leader this month, we are featuring two of the organizations that we support: Families First and Literacy Action, Inc.
Since its inception, Families First has continually strived to provide solutions for children and families faces life's greatest challenges. Their long history of service that has established Families First as the leading non-profit family service agency in Georgia. Each year, Polaris works with Families First to sponsor two families for the holidays. “We collect money, shop for gifts, wrap them and deliver to Families First. This has become a Polaris holiday tradition that means a lot to all of us,” said President Jan Carlson.
“Literacy is the key to breaking the inter-generational cycle of poverty, and Literacy Action leads our community in that effort,” said Senior Vice President Debra Semans, who serves as a Trustee for Literacy Action, Inc, a 42-year-old organization dedicated to improving the life skills of Atlanta’s low-literacy adults.
We invite you to make a contribution of your own or to learn more about Families First by clicking this link: Families First : For Children's Sake : About Us : Who We Are. You can learn more about Literacy Action, Inc and make donations here: Literacy Action, Inc. - Home.
One of the best things about the guest marketing leaders on The Marketing Dialog is their unstinting generosity toward their profession and those of us who labor in Marketing every day. Where else can you get senior, experienced marketers to tell you their keys for success? Their tips for today’s marketing research professionals make great reading:
TMD: What are your recommendations for today’s marketing research professionals?
Ken Bernhardt: Get solid training and understanding of marketing strategy so that the research you design and conduct is relevant for the senior decision makers who will be using the research. Always obtain a clear understand of the problem that the research is addressing and invest the time and mental energy to develop the strategic implications of the research.
Ron Strauss: ‘Garbage in, garbage out.’ You cannot spend too much on good recruiting. Make sure that the people recruited are not only knowledgeable, but, if you are looking for insight into new products and/or services, make sure the people you are recruiting are visionary in their outlook. If you’re looking for unconventional or new solutions or thinking, then you must recruit unconventional respondents.
‘Marks on the wall.’ In many product/service categories, the context of the market has grown comfortable to the players in the market. They no longer notice ‘marks on the wall’ as they’ve become acclimated to them. It’s the job of smart research professionals to see those marks on the wall, and to explore them for potential ways to create competitive advantage. This is the part of marketing research that’s more art than science.
‘Outside the box.’ Clients often define the scope of a research project before the MR folks are consulted. Always find out what the client’s assumptions are and question them. This will often lead to a redefinition of the scope of the research -– and a much more useful outcome.
Ann Wilson: Probably the biggest “watch-out” for marketing research professionals are the clients who already know how they want the research results to turn out. These are the folks who just want the research to confirm what they think they already know. Often, if the results don’t bear this out, they twist the interpretation or pounce on selective statistics to support what they want to do. Then when their marketing efforts don’t produce the desired results, they often blame the marketing research and/or use it to avoid blame: “Hey—how was I to know it would be a disaster? The research said it would work.”
TMD: First, a perennial MR challenge: How do you get a buy-in for marketing research from other executives?
Ron Strauss: Executives are paid to make decisions that either support a program or kill it. Either way, they can make the wrong decision in the form of higher costs or missed opportunities. I explore with them the cost of a wrong decision, and help them see the cost of research in perspective to the overall cost and risk involved with the decision. If the research can be done in a timely fashion, it’s usually a ‘no-brainer.’
Ann Wilson: Depending on the size and “newness” of the project (as opposed to a fresh effort in an ongoing initiative), most executives I work with expect marketing research to be a part of the plan and budget. They’ve almost all had experiences where research saved both money and brand equity by helping avoid a bad decision or enhanced marketing efforts by revealing a potential new direction that hadn’t been thought of. In these challenging economic times, however, sometimes company leaders want to squeeze the budget for marketing research. In those cases, I remind them of the volatility of today’s marketplace and the complexity of product and service decisions facing consumers. How can we possibly make sense of this environment for our marketing effort without research? That, plus a couple of reminders about the wisdom of using marketing research on past occasions usually convinces them.
Vicki Gordon: Typically the executives I’ve worked with are receptive to the proven point that timely and well-designed market research can often prevent costly mistakes and provide the valuable insights necessary to ensure long-term business success.
The biggest single objection that I seem to encounter is the additional amount of time added to a project to layer in appropriate market research. Therefore, it seems to me that as marketers we need to build that into project plans from the very beginning and secure buy-in up front to avoid getting stalled mid-project.
TMD: What were the most important lessons you learned about marketing research in the early days of your career?
Ron Strauss: I’ve come to see that MR is a conversation between parties that serves to share and transfer knowledge. And, today, with the advent of social media, it’s a conversation that the market research professional increasingly does not control. The challenge for the future of MR will be to continue its function of knowledge sharing and transfer while ensuring the quality (reliability and validity) of the knowledge and, therefore, a solid understanding of the risk/reward ratio of the decisions being made based on that knowledge.
Vicki Gordon: Don’t be wedded to an idea because it’s your idea. Too often I’ve found that products/services that make absolute sense to me just don’t resonate with a broad enough audience to warrant taking to market. Same is true for advertising concepts, logos, taglines. Consumers see things in visuals and hear things in words that often quite different from the author/artist’s intent and vision.
Ann Wilson: I was fortunate, when I was a marketing cub in the 80s, to work with three of the smartest, most insightful and patient marketing research professionals I’ve encountered in my career. I had been put in charge of national advertising for my company, and my experience with research at that point was zilch. These great guys took me under their wing and taught me what marketing research was and what it wasn’t, how to be a client who worked as a partner with the marketing research team and how to effectively interpret and use the results. The basics they taught still serve me well—such as getting crystal clear about what you are trying to learn, investing adequate time to develop the right questions and being objective about the outcomes.
Posted by Debra Semans on Tue, Mar 02, 2010 @ 11:33 AM
Welcome to the March 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Hala Moddelmog, CEO and Founder of Catalytic Ventures, LLC. Hala leads the company to provide strategic and operating consulting services in the areas of foodservice, healthcare, franchising, retail and non-profit. Previously Hala was the President and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and President of Church’s Fried Chicken, a division of AFC Enterprises. Click to learn more about Hala.
To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice. Hala has chosen the Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation. As the only organization of its kind in the nation, the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation provides memory opportunities for children who have a Mom or Dad with late stage, limited life expectancy cancer. “Thousands of moms and dads in their 20's, 30's, and 40's with late stage cancer will die each year, despite the advances in research. These parents are leaving behind grieving children, and this foundation helps them enjoy time with each other, in spite of the situation,” said Hala.
We invite you to make a contribution of your own or to learn more about the Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation by clicking this link: http://www.jajf.org/favicon.ico.
TMD: Thanks for participating in this month’s Dialog, Hala. We usually start with the basics and ask why do you think marketing research is important?
Hala: Frankly, my views regarding marketing research have evolved quite a bit over my career, and it is most probably because my roles have also evolved quite a bit. I’ve spent the last 15 years of my career in president and CEO roles, while spending the first 10 years of my career in marketing strategy and research roles. Early in my career, it was my job to convince senior management that the research results should drive decisions - that the correct methodologies had been used, and more importantly, that the results were being interpreted in a manner that would move the business forward and create value for the customers and for the enterprise.
TMD: And how did that change?
Hala: In my senior leadership roles, I found myself challenging some of the very assumptions/methods that I had relied upon to put forth strategic recommendations. However, since my early career had afforded me a very strong grounding in market research, I had empathy and understanding when putting forth those challenges. I really listened to the answers and tried to help use the data even beyond the surface presentations.
My bigger issues arose when strategic initiatives were put forth without the appropriate market research and analysis having been undertaken.
TMD: Ouch! What happened then?
Hala: If an organization happens to have marketing professionals who are not well-grounded in market research, sometimes the correct questions are not asked and that is when having an extremely experienced outside resource is critical. I’ve definitely learned that as leaders, both junior and senior, we are sometimes too close to the business to see fully what the questions are or should be before we implement new strategies and set our baseline measurements for comparison. I’ve also come to appreciate out-sourcing for specialty skill sets more and more as the ways of gathering data have increased significantly over the course of my career.
TMD: Very true. One of the reasons I came back to marketing research was because of the great new tools and techniques that are available to us. Hala, tell us about a time where a bad marketing decision was made due to the lack of research.
Hala: During my tenure as President of Church’s Chicken, we market-tested co-branding a new Mexican food concept within the Church’s restaurants. We conducted all the obligatory product testing – the consumers loved the products. We tested the advertising – they said it was fabulous. We tested the pricing – they said it was right on target, and on and on with all the expected research on an undertaking of this magnitude. What we failed to discern, or at least failed to ask correctly for true discernment of the customers’ behavior, were two very important points: Would new customers “go to a Church’s” for these products they claimed to be ready to purchase, and would existing customers make additional visits for these products they also claimed to be ready to purchase. Of course, we asked these questions over and over and in many different ways during the market test period, but we did not really get the true answers until we had spent a lot of money and a lot of time and had to pull the plug on the project.
TMD: So the brand couldn’t stretch that far.
Hala: Right. So in this case it wasn’t so much a lack of research per se, but perhaps a lack of the “correct and sophisticated” research needed AND our lack of listening to what the research was trying to tell us. This example is a classic case of executives hearing what they wanted to hear.
TMD: What were the most important lessons you learned about marketing research in the early days of your career?
Hala: The first important lesson I learned early in my marketing research career was that the numbers had to tell a cohesive and comprehensive story. People learn by hearing stories, and they are engaged by both the left and right side of the brain if the research results are presented correctly. I was an undergraduate English major with a graduate degree in journalism and I loved business – I liked the spreadsheets and the P&L’s and the way those numbers told a story about a company’s past, present, and future. When I had the opportunity in my first job out of graduate school to be a marketing research professional for Arby’s Franchise Association, I was so excited because I got to gather numbers/data from consumers to tell the story about what a product or advertisement and a brand meant to them and how that brand might influence them to spend more money and increase their loyalty and emotional engagement. Market research and strategy construction are an exciting blend of numbers and words.
TMD: We have had other marketers talk about telling the story – it’s such a critical part of communicating research findings. What’s the next lesson?
Hala: Lesson number two, which really came on day one, was that the market research professional had better have his or her eye just as trained on the bottom line as on the top line. Certainly, marketers are expected to drive sales, revenues, the top line; but marketers who don’t understand the bottom line and treat it with as much respect as the top line won’t be around long to work on that next top line project. Plus, it is simply more rewarding for the company and the person to meet both challenges.
TMD: Very true! What’s your best tip for Marketing Researchers?
Hala: After all my years in consumer-based businesses, focus groups are still one of my favorite methodologies, though one of the methods most fraught with the perils of misunderstanding of the data or misuse of the data. My number one recommendation is to start and end with an excellent, smart, flexible, and persuasive moderator. Anyone reading this blog has been exposed to a less than desirable moderator, and they have experienced “untrained” executives misusing focus group data either through lack of understanding or due to driving an agenda they believe in strongly. If your moderator is smart and flexible, he or she can course correct during a session without risking the integrity of the process or the data; and if your moderator is smart and persuasive, he or she can help the marketing research professional avoid having the data misused or misunderstood by the company.
TMD: Do you have any career recommendations for marketing research professionals? What are the pitfalls they need to watch out for?
Hala: One general recommendation for marketing research professionals is to be consistent, firm in your conviction, and avoid holes in your data. This last comment may seem overly obvious; but again, we’ve all been exposed to executives who will take your data when they like the answers and ignore it when they don’t. Much of the job is to earn the trust so that the data can truly speak for itself.
TMD: Hala, thank you so much! This is very valuable insight for our readers.
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Posted by Debra Semans on Wed, Feb 03, 2010 @ 11:50 AM
Welcome to the February 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Michael Berens, Director of Research & Knowledge Resources, American Society of Interior Designers. The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID, www.asid.org) is the professional association representing over 36,000 interior design professionals. Through education, knowledge sharing, advocacy, community building and outreach, the Society strives to advance the interior design profession and, in the process, to demonstrate and celebrate the power of design to positively change people’s lives. ASID members engage in a variety of professional programs and activities through a network of 48 chapters throughout the United States and Canada.
To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice. Michael has chosen the ASID Foundation. The ASID Foundation started as a way to support interior design education but has more recently broadened its mission to support programs and research that further understanding of the many ways that interior design benefits our health and safety. “Green design is just one of the best known examples, but there are many more that most of us never notice. Through its work, the Foundation is helping to insure a better quality of life for us all,” said Michael.
We invite you to make a contribution of your own or to learn more about The ASID Foundation by clicking this link: http://www.asidfoundation.org/favicon.ico
TMD: Thanks for participating in this month’s Dialog, Michael. We usually start with the basics and ask why do you think marketing research is important?
Michael: Over time, it is easy to become seduced by what you know about the customers (or in our case, the members) you hear from often. Their stories become the stories, and their voices fill in the blanks for all the other people you never hear from. Marketing research, if well done, can reveal who the rest of your customers are and give you insights into what they want and what they are thinking about. What we don’t know can hurt us, but often we don’t know what we don’t know.
TMD: I love the idea of Marketing Research telling the customers’ – or members’ –stories. That really fits with using story-telling as a way to communicate information and reinforce an organization’s culture and values.
In your opinion, how does marketing research for associations differ from other marketing research situations?”
Michael: With an association, you have easier access to your target market through your membership directory and prospect lists. You can develop a closer relationship with them, and you have many more channels through which you can get input and feedback. However, there are different levels of member involvement, and you have to be careful that you are not just hearing from the same members over and over again.
TMD: From the marketing research you conducted, what information was your organization surprised to discover or would not have known without the research?
Michael: One of the biggest surprises was when we asked members and potential customers what they would like to see us offer that we currently don’t offer. Many of their suggestions—in fact, the ones that ranked highest—were things that we have offered for years, or thought we had. We discovered that there was a big disconnect somewhere. Either we were not communicating effectively or what we thought we were offering was not what the customer wanted. We have since done some focus group work to try to sort out the source of the disconnect.
TMD: Proving once again that perception is reality!
Michael: Indeed!
TMD: What marketing decisions do you think are the most difficult to make without any research?
Michael: In my experience, the most difficult and dangerous decisions are those that assume you know what people want based on customer feedback. What people say they want and what they will actually pay for or show up for can vary greatly.
TMD: I have always thought those were the trickiest situations to research as well. Humans just aren’t good at predicting what they will do in the future!
Michael: It’s easy for someone to say if they like something in a vacuum, but once they have to make choices, their preferences or level of commitment can change drastically. If a substantial investment is involved, you need to do the research and delve a bit deeper into what’s behind the feedback you’re getting before making a decision.
TMD: What were the most important lessons you learned about marketing research in the early days of your career?
Michael: One was to spend the money to oversample for market segments that were largely unknown or usually difficult to reach. You want to have really good information from those folks, especially if you are running crosstabs. Otherwise you are likely to end up with more uncertainty, not less.
TMD: Good point – nothing like getting the results back and wishing you had sampled differently to teach that lesson. Anything else?
Michael: The other is, I suspect, part of the initiation of being a researcher. That is, discovering how resistant people can be to research findings. Even when the powers that be are clamoring for research and hard data, they will fall back on what they think they know if the research findings don’t reflect their world views. A few years ago I came across Peter Block’s book on consulting, and he goes into great depth on that phenomenon and how to prepare the presentations of your findings so that you dodge that bullet. I wish I had read it 10 years earlier!
TMD: That would be Peter Block’s Flawless Consulting? (Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used)
Michael: Right.
TMD: Good recommendation – especially since marketing researchers are – at the end of the day – consultants to their customers, whether internal or external.
Michael: That’s my perspective.
TMD: Michael, thank you so much for your time and for sharing your unique perspective on marketing research in the world of Associations. We enjoyed speaking with you.
Posted by Debra Semans on Thu, Jan 07, 2010 @ 12:52 PM
Welcome to the January 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Ann Wilson, Principal of Maywood Marketing and Communications (www.maywoodmarketing.com). Ann has extensive experience in marketing communications for all types of industries and will be talking about her experiences with marketing research. Click to learn more about Ann.
To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice.
Ann has chosen The Empty Stocking Fund in Atlanta, GA as her charity. The Empty Stocking Fund has been bringing holiday cheer to metro Atlanta’s underprivileged children since 1927. Each year the generous contributions received from thousands of Atlantans along with local businesses and foundations enable them to provide gift packages to tens of thousands of children living in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties.
Ann says, “I started supporting the annual Empty Stocking Fund drive almost 10 years ago, because one of my clients was a regular contributor. As I learned more about the cause, it touched my heart because Christmas is the time of year that children whose families are in need feel that more keenly than at any other time, I believe. Helping make their holidays a bit brighter seems like a great way to keep the spirit of the season.”
We invite you to make a contribution of your own or to learn more about The Empty Stocking Fund by clicking this link: http://www.emptystockingfund.org/favicon.ico.
TMD: Thanks for participating in this month’s Dialog, Ann. Let’s just start with the obvious question: Why do you think marketing research is important?
Ann: There are a very few blessed individuals who are so attuned to the wants and needs of their consumers or customers that they are able to “trust their gut” with regard to marketing decisions and come up winners. The rest of us don’t have a clue what our target audiences want—despite the overwhelming volume of information available to us. Instead, we have a range of (usually differing) personal opinions. The best, most cost-efficient, time- and brand-saving solution is simply to ask potential customers exactly what they want up front, through marketing research.
TMD: Tell us about a time when marketing research prevented your company from making a big mistake.
Ann: I worked with a company planning the expansion of one of its brands into China. One of the early pre-launch steps was to conduct market research on the name and logo as well as the concept. To our surprise, we learned that both the name and certain aspects of the logo meant “death and ill fortune” in some Mandarin dialects. Needless to say, we changed the logo design and adjusted the brand name for the Asian rollout.
TMD: So that research kept your company from becoming one of those Marketing textbook case studies of what not to do. Good for you!
How has your thinking about marketing research evolved over your career?
Ann: I’ve become more convinced than ever that market research should be part of the standard equation for any marketing endeavor. With all the technology at our disposal and the speed, breadth and cost-effectiveness the Internet has made possible for many research projects, why wouldn’t a responsible business want to incorporate marketing research into the plan?
TMD: Tell me about a time when marketing research really made a difference in your decision-making?
Ann: A few years ago I worked with a client on a marketing campaign to introduce a revolutionary new technology in a fairly mundane service category. The marketing agency developing the ad campaign for us felt strongly we should go with considerably longer-than-usual copy in the print ads to talk about the benefits of the new approach. The client and I weren’t so sure. We researched it and found potential users were extremely interested in reading and learning about the technology and how it would improve the results delivered. So, we went with the “talky” copy and the launch campaign was quite successful.
TMD: And you and your client were open to learn something new. Keeping an open mind is so essential to good marketing research.
TMD: What were the most important lessons you learned about marketing research in the early days of your career?
Ann: I was fortunate, when I was a marketing cub in the 80s, to work with three of the smartest, most insightful and patient marketing research professionals I’ve encountered in my career. I had been put in charge of national advertising for my company, and my experience with research at that point was zilch. These great guys took me under their wing and taught me what marketing research was and what it wasn’t, how to be a client who worked as a partner with the marketing research team and how to effectively interpret and use the results. The basics they taught still serve me well—such as getting crystal clear about what you are trying to learn, investing adequate time to develop the right questions and being objective about the outcomes.
TMD: Sounds like you were a good student of marketing research as well as having great teachers!
How do you get buy-in for marketing research from other executives?
Ann: Depending on the size and “newness” of the project (as opposed to a fresh effort in an ongoing initiative), most executives I work with expect marketing research to be a part of the plan and budget. They’ve almost all had experiences where research saved both money and brand equity by helping avoid a bad decision or enhanced marketing efforts by revealing a potential new direction that hadn’t been thought of. In these challenging economic times, however, sometimes company leaders want to squeeze the budget for marketing research. In those cases, I remind them of the volatility of today’s marketplace and the complexity of product and service decisions facing consumers. How can we possibly make sense of this environment for our marketing effort without research? That, plus a couple of reminders about the wisdom of using marketing research on past occasions usually convinces them.
TMD: What are your recommendations for marketing research professionals? What are the pitfalls they need to watch out for?
Ann: Probably the biggest “watch-out” for marketing research professionals are the clients who already know how they want the research results to turn out. These are the folks who just want the research to confirm what they think they already know. Often, if the results don’t bear this out, they twist the interpretation or pounce on selective statistics to support what they want to do. Then when their marketing efforts don’t produce the desired results, they often blame the marketing research and/or use it to avoid blame: “Hey—how was I to know it would be a disaster? The research said it would work.”
TMD: I am sure many readers will relate to that!
Ann: That said, it’s important to set clear, realistic expectations for clients, ensure they see the whole picture the research results are creating—not just a tiny bit—and not shy away from challenging a client’s preconceived notions or misguided interpretations. That’s not always easy to do, for sure, and they don’t always come back to thank you. But I have been that kind of client on occasion, I’m afraid, and I was quite grateful to my marketing research company for setting me straight.
TMD: Ann, thank you so much for your time and for sharing your extensive experience with Marketing Research. We enjoyed speaking with you.