At SKIM, we’ve been focusing on what the world of customer insights will be like in 2020. At this year’s TMRE conference on October 20-22 in Boca Raton, Florida, we put the spotlight on communication. What will drive customer decisions in 2020, with respect to all the ways you communicate: embodying claims, positioning, messaging, ads, and mobile?

Taking the discussion to a larger stage, literally, we opened it up with three of our clients from very different industries; Heineken, Teva Neuroscience, and Clorox. Collectively, we compared and contrasted how they expect to influence customer decisions in the future with regards to communications.

How will you use communications to inform and influence customer decisions in 2020?

The overall question was: What will the future bring for communicating with customers? How will you inform and influence customer decisions in the future?

Discussion synopsis

Sourabh Sharma, Communication and Social media Research expert for SKIM, opened the panel by showcasing the importance of being prepared for the year 2020; given that, not planning for the future, is essentially planning for failure. In an effort to deepen consumer insights, SKIM has investigated several ways to marry emotional and rational research when it comes to communications. Exemplified by Will Lehman, Senior Manager of Central Nervous System Market Research at Teva, who highlighted that the world is moving towards ‘rationalizing the emotional’ in 2020.

The panel unraveled a way to plot the three industries on a continuum between these two extremes. While in traditional fast moving consumer goods, the functional element is a given for consumer trial and usage, Jee Ahn, Senior Manager Consumer and Shopper Insights at the Clorox Company, shared that it is the emotional connection that is becoming increasingly critical, partially because it is a distinction from competition. In alcoholic beverages however, Steve Tramposch, VP of Consumer and Market Intelligence at Heineken, pointed out that the emotional connection already exists with the likes of lifestyle ads by Heineken and its competitors.

However, the industry is now seeing a shift to having functional elements present as a notion of legitimacy and distinction. Lehman demonstrated that pharmaceuticals, with its multi-stakeholder setup of physicians, payers and patients, falls in between the emotional and rational spectrum. The regulations present in the industry require a certain functional benefit to be present (similar to consumer products), but the emotional quotient is vital for differentiation against similar drugs and generics (almost like alcoholic beverages). The combination of these three industries helps demonstrate a continuum of emotional to rational communications, almost in direct contrast to each other.

A discussion on platform effectiveness showcased similarities across all the industries with the evolution of marketing and the influx of platforms and mediums to reach end users: on their smartphones, on social media, in store, in transit, and in a plethora of locations. Researchers should be aware of where their core end users are, different ways to reach them, and where new and upcoming users may be.

An interesting deduction by Ahn for consumer goods, where product launches are relatively more frequent, was to have ‘occasionality’ in product and maximize options to communicate with customers. The idea resonated well with Tramposch with a flagship series of products, but with the pharma industry, the need to reinforce core benefits continually remains critical to the industry and its multiple stakeholder setup. Truly, the future is faster and more complex, so as Tramposch mentioned, there is a growing need to focus on ‘snack sized’ insights across the industries, enabled by technology.

Ultimately, the panel discussed the implications for market research in the year 2020, deducing that to conduct research, you have to truly understand your core end users and what your brand means to them. Ahn stressed the need to understand your brand’s foundation and conduct fundamental research on key benefit areas, perhaps owing to the fact that data overload can be overwhelming. Lehman’s experience resonated, with important advice to not let data stand between you and your customers.

Since the foundational principles of marketing will still hold true in the year 2020, marketers and researchers must truly understand their brand and the end user in order to create that desired connection and ensure the success of future marketing initiatives.

Panelists

From Heineken, we were joined by Steve Tramposch. Steve is the VP of Consumer and Market Intelligence at Heineken. He is responsible for consumer insights, market intelligence, shopper insight, innovation research and strategy for all of the US.

From Teva Neuroscience, we were joined by Will Lehman. Will is the Senior Manager of Central Nervous System Market Research at Teva. Two of the brands he is responsible for are Copaxone, the largest selling Multiple Sclerosis drug, and Azilect, the largest selling Parkinson’s Disease drug. Both markets are extremely competitive with an explosion of new competitive products and the potential introduction of generics.

From Clorox, we were joined by Jee Ahn. Jee is the Senior Manager Consumer and Shopper Insights at the Clorox Company. She works in the cleaning category and is responsible for determining long term strategy and the innovation pipeline, identifying white space and new product opportunities with brand and shopper insights.

From SKIM, Sourabh Sharma hosted the panel. Sourabh is a New York-based Communication and Social media Research expert for SKIM. He is passionate about extracting value from the rapidly evolving brand-to-consumer interface by his active work in social media research.

About TMRE

Launched more than 12 years ago as an event focused on online market research, TMRE has grown to be the most comprehensive insights conference in the world. Focused on the business value of insights, it unites leaders across market research, consumer insights, strategy, innovation, marketing, analytics, shopper insights, media research, ux, customer experience, business intelligence, competitive intelligence, and more. Attendees range from executives at Fortune 100 companies to leaders from smaller start-ups and non-profits. Find out more at the TMRE event website.