Skills for a NewMR World

New SkillsThursday 20 October, 2016
2 sessions

Access all slides and recordings from this event via our Play Again page.

In a fast changing world, market research needs to keep updating its skills to keep pace with the needs of its customers, changes in technology and new thinking. In this two-webinar event, we share key learnings from around the world.

Access individual recordings and slides by clicking on the presentation title.

Session 1, Chair: Sue York

Session 2, Chair: Ray Poynter

Descriptions of the Presentations

  • Phyllis Macfarlane, Developing MR skills for developing markets, “In this session we will look at this issue from both angles. We will explore what skills researchers in developed markets need in order to understand how to do good, perceptive research in developing markets and how to avoid making all those ‘assumptions’ which serve you well normally, but which may lead to you actually conduct poor and misleading research in a new market, (despite your best intentions and efforts). And secondly, we will discuss how researchers in emerging markets can develop and hone their skills to deal with both the (sometimes incomprehensible, and sometimes just unreasonable) demands of international clients, and also encourage local brands to take the plunge into the world of market research’’
  • Gaelle Bertrand, From Collection to Curation: Future-proofing your Research Skills, “Drowning in information, research clients increasingly need individuals who can collate, curate and connect information to derive intelligent insights, and present them with considerations for action. This presentation will outline some of the skills required to support this growing need. It will also highlight some of the resources available to upskill in this changing environment.”
  • Edward Appleton and Sybille Diegelmann,“For Real!” – Research in Unusual Spaces and Places,
    The closer Research gets to the people’s lives we wish to understand, the better. Qualitative research is well placed to access the raw emotions, unfiltered reactions, even implicit motives by applying key principles of ethnography and geo-psychology: going to the places and spaces where our participants are feeling, seeing, browsing. Context is king…..!
    We share learnings from research executed in situ – in a fashion retailer, in a hotel lobby – on the following aspects:
    ·   Becoming better detectives: how emerging “clues” discovered in situ help us uncover the hidden plot and the key to the marketing mystery
    · Getting to Client “aha” moments: capturing atmosphere, details, smell, music, in real-life surroundings
    · Tangible outcomes and stakeholder engagement: joining qual research at the hip to operational impact
    We also share the challenges of this type of in-situ research: i) recruiting on the spot, ii) logistics & time-challenges, iii) “intruding” into complex employee micro-environments.”
  • Emma Clark, I’m bored, get to the point, “In a world where the average consumer attention span is 8 seconds, how do we keep up? How do we convey our message before it’s too late? In this webinar I hope to provide 3 simple tips for catching people’s attention; whether it be in communications, reports or surveys. After all your message is only as good your ability to share it.”
  • Dan Stracey, Why big companies are encouraged to behave like small companies and the emergence of the T-shaped worker, “With 40% to 60% of Research jobs predicted to disappear, and the prospect of between 20-30% new jobs being created, it has never made better sense to step back and reflect upon the state of the industry – where we all are, and where we want to be in order to enhance long-term career prospects and keep ourselves motivated with interesting, stimulating work.  We’ll be sharing our thoughts on the major trends impacting Research skills and skill requirements, further reflecting upon agile principles in the world of employment. We’ll be introducing you to the concept of the T-shaped worker and discussing why large company workers are becoming increasingly encouraged to behave like their smaller company counterparts.”
  • Reg Baker, Practicing The NewMR: What Researchers Need To Know, “The emergence of a host of new research methods and data sources coupled with changing client expectations challenges us to rethink the skills MR practitioners need to do good research in a much changed world. Where surveys and focus groups once reigned supreme there is what seems to be an ever-expanding toolkit to be mastered. At the same time, clients expect shorter cycle times, lower prices, and game-changing insights. In this presentation we will consider how these forces are impacting the research profession and how people need to prepare to be successful in it.”
  • Steven Cosgrove, Data Activation to Maximize Market Research Efficacy, “Data activation is a tremendous opportunity to enhance and even transform how market research is done. Data activation enhances market research by linking various streams of structured (relational databases spreadsheets and even XML files) and unstructured data (word processing documents, PDF files, e-mail messages, blogs, Web pages, video, pictures and social sites) into actionable market research. This presentation demonstrates how to identify and map various streams of data from ERP, CRM, WEB and IOT to supplement ongoing market research efforts.”
  • Catherine Rickwood, Yummy! Tasty research snacks for a time-starved audience, “With charting and reporting becoming automated, and many self-service research options, we need to adapt to provide more thinking andconsulting behind the deliverables over the doing. We also need to secure the future of research by making sure our outputs get to the top of the food chain to impact decisions. In this session, we’ll provide tips for generating ‘Snackable’ or easily digestible outputs to maximize the potential of your research.”