Live from #TMRE14: How Will You Use Communications to Inform & Influence Consumers in 2020?

Steven Tramposch, VP of Consumer Market Intelligence at Heineken USA, Will Lehman, Central Nervous System Market Research, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Jee Ahn, Senior Manager, Consumer and Shopper Insights, the Clorox Company discussed how communications is changing in a panel moderated by Sourabh Sharma, Senior Manager, Strategy Consultant and Social Media Expert, at SKIM.

5x5 Reality:

Key Criteria:
Promise Value
Be specific
Put the benefit first
Set yourself apart

Avoid Pitfalls:

Be Positive
Be respectful
Avoid jargon

While CPG tries to showcase a more emotional pull, Heineken sees itself promoting more functional aspects and Pharma falls in between.

In the future, Pharma sees itself empowering the consumer to make their own choices rather than being completely dependent on Physicians' message.

For Heineken, they see information democratizing consumers so they need to be clearer, crisper, and better at communicating emotionally so that they stand out among all the choices in the category, especially with craft beer accelerating.

For Clorox, the future holds the ability to micro-target based on consumer needs and relevant messaging. There will more information to leverage.

As researchers, it will be incredibly important to figure out the drivers, habits, influencing aspects of each market.

Social media is a huge repository of work waiting to happen for researchers, especially regulated industries like finance and pharma. The role of pushing products is going away whereas seeking out and finding the person who NEEDS your product to better their lives is what will be key for success in the future.

There is no perfect strategy for social channels, each platform is different, you can reach people on different occasions on different mediums. You just need to figure out how to be on the right one at the right time with the right message.

Stay true to the core truths of your brand's principle.
And watch how you communicate your product's benefits
We don't leverage visual aspects enough to showcase benefits

As you move forward, consider complexity, and more tools for research, more content across platforms, be faster, work in stack sized chunks, be willing to take risks and fail fast. Don't let data stand between you and your customer.

Don't underestimate the importance of understanding fundamentally your consumer. You won't have to test as much if you gets this right rather than go through 10 different tactics to see what sticks.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Formerly a senior copy editor at Thomson Reuters, a research editor at AOL, and a senior web publicist at Hachette Book Group, Valerie M. Russo is editor at large of The Front End of Innovation Blog, The Market Research Event Blog, The World Future Trends Tumblr, the Digital Impact Blog, and also blogs at Literanista.net. She is the innovation lead and senior social media strategist for the Marketing and Business Strategy Division of the Institute for International Research, an Informa LLC., and her poetry was published in Regrets Only on sale at the MOMA Gift Shop. Her background is in Anthropology and English Literature. You can reach her at vrusso@iirusa.com or @Literanista.