I remember reading an article in the Financial Times last year that challenged companies to search for a new style of  marketer. They weren’t speaking about the latest need for marketers to be both creative and comfortable with data. They were actually referring to the growing need for marketers to stand up to the challenge of taking local brands global. The marketer who understands when local specificities make sense and when they don’t. (Read the article here) In this networked, global market in which we live, more and more successful local brands are being groomed for global...

Spring is most definitely in the air!   We certainly waited a long time for it to arrive this year, didn’t we? Summer will soon be with us. Along with the trees and flowers, communications for weight loss products and programs are also blossoming everywhere. That’s why I decided to write a post on some changes I have noticed in advertising that suggest that many companies are finally beginning to take their customers’ perspective. If you would like to do the same, read on. One advertisement that caught my eye recently was the campaign for Slim Fast from Unilever. I shouldn’t be...

Last week I shared the twelve questions you need to be able to answer in order to ensure you really know your target audience. If you missed it, you can read it here. The post certainly attracted a lot of hits, so I hope you have all found ways to improve your own customer understanding as a result of reading it. All brands and services need a group of customers that they are going to satisfy, since it is impossible to appeal to everyone most of the time. This means that you will need to make a choice about who you are going to target, which also implies that you must accept that you will...

How well do you know your target customers? I mean really know them? Are they men, women, young, old, Fortune 100 companies, local businesses? If you can at least answer that, then you have the basics, but how much more could you know about them? Can you answer the following twelve questions? I was recently working with a local service company who was looking for help with their online presence. They were keen to get more active on social media and had asked for advice about the best platforms, optimal frequency of publishing and possible content ideas. However they were in for a surprise....

Last December I shared 13 of my favourite marketing quotes; if you missed it you can read it HERE. The post received the most reads and likes of any I have published, ahead even of the list of my preferred Infographs (see HERE). It seems we all love great quotes to inspire our thinking and motivate our actions. For this reason, I thought that as we have been discussing insight development for the last month, I would share my favourite quotes on the topic with you. Quotes are a great way to start or end a marketing presentation and to bring home an important point to your audience. As before,...

A few weeks ago I shared some ideas on developing insights. (You can read the post here) It certainly struck a chord with a vast number of you, judging from the comments and acknowledgements many of you sent in. I really appreciated them all so thanks a million. This week I thought I would take insights development even further, by proposing some steps to take for those of you who are still struggling, or would like to upgrade your own process. Often we stop at the information or knowledge stage and thus never get to real insights. This is such a disappointment, after all the hard work of...

Last week I spoke about updating your market research toolbox and how to review your metrics. This week I want to take the next logical step by turning the knowledge you gather into actionable insights. Insights are the pot of gold that many businesses dream of but rarely find. Why is that? Are you one of them? If so then I have some ideas on how you can get better at developing insights. #1. Insight doesn’t come from a single market research study Management often thinks that insight is “just another word for market research”. I remember one of my previous CEOs saying exactly...

Many organisations have revamped their Market Research groups as Insight Departments in the past five to ten years. However, it takes more than a name change for those involved to achieve the recognition they deserve. If you work in or with such a department, then read on, as I have some ideas on how you can achieve this. Last month Forrester issued the results of some research they had done looking into the Future of Market Research in 2013. Their conclusions were: 2013 is the year of truth for market insights: their future will depend on how successful they are at getting increased...

There have been a lot of posts in the last few weeks suggesting we take a look back over our experience in 2012 or to start planning what we would like to do in 2013. I therefore thought I would combine both perspectives by reviewing how we can work more efficiently with customer understanding and information to develop deeper insight and grow our businesses. All organisations try to understand their customers in order to satisfy their rational needs and emotional desires. The way they go about doing this however, can make a big difference in how successful they are. There are globally four...

What are you expecting in 2013? This is a question we should all be asking of both ourselves and our businesses this week. The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to consider what we need to do, to be better prepared for the opportunities and risks that will present themselves in the future. For this reason, and to also announce an exciting addition to the C3Centricity partnership, I decided to ask this of one of THE most inspirational experts in the area of future scenario building, SciFutures‘s Ari Popper. Ari is the co-founder and President of the company that helps...