Marketing in Real Life

As a blogger, I feel like I have no choice but to write a predictions post for 2011.  Or at least what I hope will happen in 2011! So here are three things I see sitting right here, waiting to happen. 1) Data integration reaches a tipping point:  whether it's the combination of internal and external behavioral data, social media and primary research data, or even just sales and marketing data, it is time for departments to break down the walls and share what they know and work together to make smart decisions based on that data. 2) Real time will become more real. As with the DVR and the touch screen before it, much of the talk about real time data access was years ahead of the reality.  Pushed in part by the real time nature of social media and it's explosion, but also by the true integration between marketing, sales, and support systems, real time is becoming a reality at more and more companies.  And your internal and external customers are beginning to e...

Last month I attended The Market Research Event , my favorite market research conference of the year. It lived up to expectations once again and six things keep bouncing around my head as I reflect back on it. 1. The innovation conversation is focused on qualitative and distribution: Judging by session attendance and the nominations for the EXPLOR and NGMR Disruptive Innovator awards, the vast majority of innovation is coming in the form of qualitative research methodologies and information distribution. This is being driven by the continuing emergence of technology first companies into the market research space, as opposed to new entries using traditional ideas and techniques. This new life in the industry is a good thing for sure, but getting from cool technology to useful insights is easier said than done and those who don’t understand the end goal of what researchers are trying to accomplish will likely fail. 2. Quantitative topics aren’t sexy: There was not much talk of adv...