i Listening | Joel Rubinson on Marketing Research
Thoughts by Joel Rubinson, Chief Research Officer of The ARF
VISIT THE ARF | Subscribe via RSS

Management intuition based on past behaviors and preferences are becoming increasingly inaccurate predictors of the future, which makes a future-focused marketing research/consumer insights function more important than ever. Use a full range of listening tools to guide the marketing organization based on anticipatory insights.

True listening is scary, that’s what’s up. It’s a big change from our traditional way of thinking. So, the single biggest opportunity in the history of consumer marketing lays dormant.

Six big wakeup calls in 2009 are doing the marketing research profession a favor; refocusing us on what it will take to conduct trustworthy research, find unexpected feedback, provide anticipatory insights, measure media in a way that people now choose to experience it, and properly rebalance our understanding of how people choose brands by placing more emphasis on understanding the shopper.

Listening reveals insights via social and open-book approaches. Listening is about studying the change-makers (people) in a way that is native to how they are increasingly living their lives. We must learn how to add listening to our survey-based approaches for generating anticipatory insights.

Social media is not just a “thing”; it will be integrated into EVERYTHING. Verizon Fios is integrating social media (Facebook, Twitter) into TV. Facebook and twitter apps and web access are now fairly common in cell phones. On the other hand, it is important to realize that social media is part of mobile life, not the other way around.

MORE »