Our team is very excited about the upcoming 2017 Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) conference!
We are proud to have four different speaking and facilitation engagements at this year’s Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) conference, themed ‘Unlocking the Future of Insights’.
Author: Michael Dorr, Sr. Vice President
Spring was in the air in London last week (in very stark contrast to the stormy/winter weather we’ve had in Toronto) and that feeling of rebirth and optimism was very present at the Market Research Society’s annual conference: Impact 2017.
The conference’s provocative tagline “Are you Future Fit?” asks an important question for market research professionals, our clients, and consumers in general. The topic of “future proofing” is especially topical, given our industry’s poor track record in 2016 at predicting outcomes.
Some constructive solutions for more accurate foresight were presented…
More broadly speaking, one topic at MRS Impact this year really inspired me: Gender Equality. And how better to demonstrate this than have half of all this year’s conference speakers be women (kudos MRS!). The topic of inclusivity was woven throughout the conference and I wanted to share with you some of my observations…
Why companies are using online pack testing
Introduction
Physical eye tracking at shelf, as measured by laser technology, has been the long-standing measure of success in packaging design research. A Hotspex study set out to determine whether our Eyespex™ online attention tracking tool is comparable to laser eye tracking. We discovered that online testing is as effective as laser and, in the process, we uncovered a disruptive truth.
Can you identify some of these brands? Why are some of them so easy to recognize? What emotions do you feel when you recognize them?
What is a Distinctive Brand Asset?
Distinctive Brand Assets are consistent sensory & semantic cues that make it easier for consumers to identify your brand and recall the associations related to it.
2017 will be a transformational year for insights. The marketing world is rapidly changing. The top 100 CPG brands are in trouble with the majority losing market share and facing declining top line sales. Advertising will continue the rapid shift to digital, and although that market is thick with fraud and lack of ROI measurement, Google and Facebook will continue their breakneck growth and become a powerful duopoly. Clients will still massively deploy Zero-Based Budgeting which will put downward pressure on demand and prices for marketing and insights services.
Can you identify some of these brands? Why are some of them so easy to recognize?
Whether you are a baby boomer or a millennial, you likely know who Colonel Sanders is. The image of the Colonel is likely etched deep within your memory, and thinking of him may trigger a variety of different associations from fried chicken to buckets with stripes on them. These mental associations have been built and reinforced through years of advertising, purchasing, and consumption. Repeated exposure to the Colonel has been fairly consistent over the years. Well, that is until recently, when Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) decided to change things up a bit.
KFC’s strategy to leverage its most Distinctive Brand Asset – the Colonel
In what is being dubbed the “recolonialization”, KFC has put a renewed focus on its founder, the Colonel, to make up ground against its competitor Chic Fil A. KFC is likely hoping to utilize the halo effect of a man that was known to be a notorious stickler for quality to increase the perceived quality of its food. In a category where functional differentiation is challenging, KFC may be trying to leverage its most distinctive brand asset, the Colonel, to trigger associations of heritage as a point of distinction over competitors with less of a legacy.
Correctly activated, brand assets strengthen memory structures in consumers’ minds in a unique and powerful way. KFC may be using the Colonel to automatically activate appetite appeal through associations with the old-school, honest goodness of Southern cooking.
Canadian families have a new delicious way to add vegetables into their diets, thanks to 2 new product innovations: Catelli Smart Veggie™ and Catelli SuperGreens ™. Hotspex is proud to be one of Catelli’s insights & innovation partners on these delicious and innovative new products.
Catelli Smart Veggie™ sneaks the goodness of carrots and cauliflower into our Catelli Smart® white pasta. In addition to fibre, it provides half a serving of vegetables in every 85 gram portion*. It’s the perfect solution for a nutritious, yet great tasting meal.
*Made from dried vegetables.
Catelli SuperGreens™ is the ultimate veggie pasta. Made from 100% Canadian wheat and the super-goodness of spinach, zucchini, broccoli and kale*, it’s big on nutrients like vitamin A, potassium, fibre, iron and calcium. It’s the perfect way to introduce a little green into your meal ideas.
*Made from dried vegetables.
Hotspex has been built on a philosophy of continuous innovation. Our mandate is to help our clients uncover the most relevant and actionable human insights that can be applied to build mental availability and accelerate brand growth.
As such, Hotspex is very proud to have earned a spot among the most innovative global insights consultancies for the 3rd year running! Our innovation agenda over the past few years has led to the development of exciting new brand building tools. We are proud to have worked with 15 of the top 20 global advertisers in helping them achieve leadership growth by building distinctive brand assets, winning packaging and shopper-based design, and remarkable advertising.
Moving forward, as the insights industry continues to change, Hotspex is committed to collaborating with industry experts and global brands to develop industry leading expertise in implicit and explicit measurement to guide smarter and more strategic brand building decisions.
If you are interested in us sharing the most recent advances in marketing and behavioral science with your team or organization or would like to pilot leading edge methodologies to uncover unique insights and drive fresh new thinking on your brands, click here.
We’re so proud to have had our Senior Vice President Michael Dorr deliver an insightful presentation on disruption in the market research industry at the 2016 MRIA Annual Conference last week in Montréal. Thank you to the MRIA for being such gracious hosts and thank you to everyone who attended our session on the disruptions that our industry is facing.
View Michael Dorr’s Presentation “Danger Ahead… or is it Opportunity?”
If you have any questions, or would like to discuss the challenges and changes facing market research in 2016 and beyond you can contact Michael Dorr at Michael.Dorr@hotspex.com, or on Twitter @MichaelJDorr.
Or to discover how your brand can grow in 2016 and beyond contact Hotspex
Authors: Michael Dorr
