A Day of Serendipity

Day Two of The Market Research Event (TMRE) in Scottsdale, Arizona, began with David Boyle, TMRE Chairperson and Director of Consumer Insights, Harrods, enthusiastically encouraging attendees to step out of their comfort zone and experience new things. Serendipity, “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way,” was a recurring theme throughout the day’s presentations and activities. Here are some highlights:

• Jeremy Gutsche, CEO, TrendHunter and New York Times Best Selling Author, provided an inspirational, down-to earth presentation on “How to Win at the Future: What Opportunities are Within Your Grasp?”He emphasized that “Everyone wants innovation to happen, but not everyone will leave the path.” Jeremy provided examples from his life to illustrate the path dependency components of Subtlety of Disruption, Neurological Wiring, Ease of Inaction, Optionality, and Breakthrough.
• Jen Handleyfrom Fizziology and Ruth Ingram from Insight Strategy Group talked about how to harness the power of fandom. They explained that “Fans self-identify with the brands they love. Fans join in the conversation. Fans spread the word.” Their presentation provided insight into activating fans and the four steps to fueling fandom.
• Terrae Schroeder from Kellogg and Sara Valasek from The Garage Group shared insights on harnessing the power of entrepreneurial approaches to innovate and grow faster. During their presentation, they talked about the key enablers: Cross-Functional Support, Adoption of Entrepreneurial Skills and Mindset, and Customer Focus.
• Joaquim Bretcha from Netquestand Jason Brownlee from Colourtext shared what Amazon weaknesses brands and e-tailers can leverage in their favor. Some of the key findings were that Amazon is not perceived as the go-to brand in any category, although Amazon has strong perceptions of customer trust, service and satisfaction.
• Mike Leary from Nationwide Insurance and Bruce Ferguson from RDIQ Marketing Research presented on “How Power Partnering Drives Innovation,” which included the six steps to creating a partnership that drives strong business growth.
• Kristina Martinez from Abbott Nutrition talked about corporate innovation in a startup world and provided a serendipitous experience, with help from the #QualtricsDreamTeam. She provided lottery tickets to attendees as a way to help them remember to try new things and to support each other on their teams so that everyone has a chance to shine.
• Emily Higgins and Amy Sheafrom Ameritest presented “How Memory and Emotion Create Stronger Brand Connections.” Emily explained that “emotions are critical, but we need to understand their impact in the context of creating memories. She further talked about brands as “a collection of memories, built on emotions, cognitive processing, and experience.”

Serendipitous Day Two closed with a thought-provoking panel discussion on “Supporting Fast Fail Approaches with Consumer Insight” moderated by David Boyle, TMRE Chairperson and Director Consumer Insights at Harrods. Panelists were Phil Ahad, EVP, Head of Products and Strategy, Toluna; Michael Lancor, Director, Consumer Fundamentals and Insights, Proctor & Gamble; AJ Mathew, Vice President, CNN Ad Sales Research, CNN; and Laurie Manos, Head of Global Consumer Research and Market Intelligence, Converse. Key takeaways were to never stop learning and to find the balance of quality data and speed to market.

Thanks to all Day Two presenters, vendors, sponsors, attendees, and #TMREvent staff for another amazing day of insights and inspiration!