We see almost every day that the global economy is rocking. Consumer confidence is rising. And corporations are flush with cash. But even so, market research budgets shrink. It seems insights teams continue to be asked to do more with less and we expect that to continue. In a world of constrained budgets, market researchers, […]
Jim White presents “Brands & Narrative Identity: A New Way to Think About Brand Strategy” at the 2017 IIeX Global Insights Conference.
Jim White presents “Brands & American Mythology: Narrative Identity, Brand Identity & the American Self” at the IIeX Global Insights Conference.
By Jim Chastain It just happened again. Nestle has just bought Blue Bottle coffee. There will be Blue Bottle coffee drinkers who are crushed by this and there will be Blue Bottle coffee drinkers who don’t pay a lot of attention to it. Who knows what will happen with the Blue Bottle brand from here […]
1. Write it! (Don’t PowerPoint it) – Writing is thinking. There is no better way to work through insights than by writing the story. Writing forces clarity. It forces you to connect concepts. It won’t allow you to make leaps of logic. It demands flow and coherence. Write the story first. Then use presentation software to visualize the story you’ve written (assuming you’re deliverable is a digital deck).
I used to have a boss in the market research business who would ask, “How do you get interesting insights?” To which he’d provide the answer “Ask interesting questions!” One way to guarantee interesting questions in market research is to stop pursuing Consumer Insights and start pursuing Human Insights. In recent blog posts, we’ve argued […]
By Jim White & Jim Chastain We use brands to tell ourselves stories about who we are. The brands that are most meaningful to us are those that play a role in our internal life stories, or what psychologists call our Narrative Identity. We’ve spent years listening to people tell stories about how brands fit […]
By Jim White I hear a lot of marketers these days say their companies are “consumer-centric.” I used to think this was a good thing. But I’ve changed my mind. Being consumer-centric is good. But it’s not good enough. To be a truly transformative brand — one that enjoys true loyalty, passionate advocacy and a premium […]
By Jim Chastain Let’s stop talking to consumers. I have and I don’t really plan to talk with them anymore. They haven’t done anything to make me upset. They haven’t purposely misled me. I just find them to be limiting and not representative of how they really make buying decisions. Sure they offer opinions. Yes […]
Jim Chastain and Jim White, Founding Partners at RealityCheck Consulting, on the advantages of understanding the human behind your consumer and how marketers can benefit.