Guy Kawasaki - Enchantment (TMRE Day 1 Keynote)

The first keynote address at the TMRE (The Market Research Event, 2012) was presented (after an introduction by a phantom MC) by Guy Kawasaki, based on his newest book, Enchantment. 

Interjecting his presentation with stories and personal anecdotes, Guy provided 10 ways to become Enchanting. In my mind, this is another way to encourage the audience to be both compelling and most importantly, authentic, in all your interactions, personal and professional. His top ten list:

1. Be Likeable: Start with a smile (a real one!), be accepting of others, and most important, default to "yes" in all interactions.
2. Be Trustworthy (and trusting): Always be trustworthy yourself, in your actions, and look for something to agree on with the person you need to learn to trust.
3. Be Perfect: DICEE: deep, intelligent, complete, empowering, elegant
4. Launch your idea: Tell a story, in language salient to the person you are telling it to
   
5. Overcome: Objections exist, change the paradigm, talk to all the influencers
   
6. Endure: See the solution through, reciprocate (what can I do for you?)
   
7. Present: Be a great evangelizer for your story (and use 30 point font!)
   
8. Use technology: It's everywhere - get used to it, and shoot lots of arrows out there
   
9. Enchant up: If you want your ideas/work to catch fire, make sure those above you are as fired up as you
   
10. Enchant down: Ensure your team is given mastery, autonomy, purpose
    

My personal favorite point was made as part of "Launch". There are three ways that any person can be helpful to others when communicating - Offer Information, Insights, and Assistance. I thought this was a great mantra for every market researcher.

Looking forward to a great second day of the TMRE conference. What was your highlight from Monday? What is the one idea you would pass along to others who couldn't be here? Comments welcome below.

@LoriReiser
Advanis

Do Less With Less

It is a well known phrase, in marketing research and other industries: Do More with Less.  But can you really do more with less, or does this lead to:  Garbage In Garbage Out?


At the recent American Marketing Association Research & Strategy Summit, the question was posed to a group of CEO's from leading research firms:  "How do you do more with less?"

Their answers provide some concrete ways to stretch your research dollars and still gain the valued insights that your company needs.

• You are paying for people.  Remember that a research firm's greatest cost is in its people. Although there are certainly efficiencies in process and technology that firms achieve, inevitably, what you are paying for is the quality of the team working for you. Although you may pay more for a single research project, you also are likely to get better insights that will pay you back down the road.
• Rewrite that RFP. Involve your research partners as early in the process as possible. Instead of taking a procurement perspective (get the RFP out to as many firms as you can, to get the best price), involve a few trusted partners to work with you to ensure that you have designed research that precisely gets to the business issues at hand.
• Synthesize your research. In the past there has been a trend to naming your research problem, and then doing a project (e.g., the branding study, the pricing study), resulting in a lot of research that is overlaps other work. By ensuring that all internal researchers have access and awareness of all recent and planned research, you can design a research program that answers the most questions with less overlap, and less overall spend. 
• Instead of doing more with less, do less with less. Consider if every question that comes your way requires a research project? Can a few smaller issues be combined, or tackled as an add on to another project? Can it be researched via an omnibus? Is the research need strategic?
• Be strategic about your spend. Research departments fund projects with a combination of their own budget and a departmental budget. Follow the lead of Jeff Mercer at Microsoft, who focuses his research dollars on projects that align with the strategic goals of the business units they support, and either defer or don't fund research that doesn't align. 

How market research clients can help their partners "come to the table"

This is the one of an occasional series of posts that focuses on strategic marketing.  Market researchers who are valued partners "at the table" are increasingly turning to their marketer skill set. 


I recently attended the AMA 2011 Research & Strategy Summit, and was reflecting on lessons learned from one year ago. One of my highlights was a breakout session entitled "How to Be A Bold Researcher", by Gayle Lloyd of Batesville Caskets.  This was wonderfully excerpted by @lennyism at GreenBook (http://www.greenbookblog.org/2010/09/28/a-few-quick-notes-on-the-ama-mrc/).

"Researchers of the future will need to be savvy business people first and researchers second.  The mantra “think like a business person act like a purveyor of information” will be the key to getting a seat at the table and keeping that seat. The skills to be a good researcher go way beyond data analysis. The researcher of the future will need to be a strategic and creative thinker, knowledge management guru, confident and most of all fearless and willing to go where no researcher has gone before and that’s just for starters."

One of the ways that Gayle integrates the research conducted at Batesville is through a twice-annual research summary. This step, built into the planning cycle, ensures that common threads and themes emerging across the research team are uncovered and synthesized. Importantly, these summaries are also shared with trusted research vendor partners.    More organizations should consider bringing their research partners into the planning, review and synthesis cycles.  Often researchers are selected for their niche expertise (whether this be expertise in certain types of research, geographic coverage, or other purpose), but may be one of several researchers actively working with a client organization. By ensuring that your researchers have "the big picture" you can also ensure that your researchers provide the strongest, most strategic insights possible.

The Strategic Marketer - Know your customer

This is the first of an occasional series of posts that focuses on strategic marketing.  Market researchers who are valued partners "at the table" are increasingly turning to their marketer skill set. 

My alma mater, Wilfrid Laurier University, is currently celebrating its centennial anniversary. As part of these celebrations, the university recently named 100 Alumni of Achievement. Cam Heaps, of Steam Whistle Brewery, represents my class, and I wanted to share a simple, but important lesson, courtesy of a speech given at the 2010 Market Research Industry Association Conference.

Greg Taylor, Cam's co-founder, first introduced the brewery, and its vision. A key to this vision is the employees of Steam Whistle, the "Good Beer Team". Greg told us that the employees of  Steam Whistle must know all aspects of the brewery, and must understand it's vision.

When asked by an audience member what advice he had for market researchers, he surprised us with his answer - the number of potential market research partners who came on a a sales visit, but failed the very first question they were asked - "Have you ever visited the brewery?".

In answering this question, Greg reminded us to practice what we preach  - if we are in the business of knowing consumers, we also need to know and understand our clients. This is the first, but most important step in being a strategic marketer.