Conference Recap: Quirk’s Dallas
By Amy R. Castelda
Last week in Dallas, Quirk’s Media kicked off the first of four The Quirk’s Event conferences. Drawing top-tier brands and vendor partners, the event underscored the significance of professional growth, peer connections, and the revival of #facetofacemrx.
Sessions featured trends unfolding in 2024 (we see you, TikTok Shops), the pros and cons of AI (lots to unpack still), and the importance of research’s seat in the boardroom.
Check out these highlights from standout sessions:
Six most important steps to user persona development
Paige Paradis, Associate Advisor Strategy, Insights, and Analytics at Mary Kay described how to leverage UX personas to understand beauty consultant and consumer experiences, needs, and behaviors.
Personas enabled their team to build stronger connections with consumers and consultants alike, driving brand loyalty and ultimately achieving sustainable growth in today's competitive skincare and cosmetics marketplace.
However, Personas are not generated overnight. They take time, a rigorous research plan, and a strong activation strategy to ensure adoption throughout the organization. Paradis walked through steps from leveraging empathy and affinity maps to generating a matrix to drive cluster analysis.
A key takeaway was the reminder (and warning) that when we turn data into a relatable story, our basic human instinct is to design for yourself. The beauty of Personas is they help keep us honest by putting the user/customer/client at the forefront of design and not personal preferences.
Interested in learning about W5’s approach to Personas? Click here!
Aligning with CXOs for insights that drive growth
In this session, we explored new research on elevating the insights function profile for CXOs, including what differentiates high-growth companies and how insights can align with senior executives on these key drivers.
Veteran researchers MoneyGram’s Christopher Wardlaw and Dairy Max’s Greg Timpany had a few tips to ensure research has a seat at the table:
· Make C-Suite lives easier and they’ll get curious about how you’re doing it
· Educate C-Suite on the toolbox of market research
· Get out your notebook and start knocking on doors, listen to what your colleagues are trying to accomplish, and come back with research to help them reach their goals (…and make their lives easier).
· Ask the question: “What are the five most important questions research can answer that would substantially impact your ability to grow the business?”
Reinventing brand health tracking at The Wonderful Company: A FIJI Water case study
We all know the importance of brand tracking data, but what happens when a heritage tracker needs reinvention? Genevieve Gonzalez-Turner, Senior Manager, Research, and Insights at The Wonderful Company took us on the journey of how their team created a more holistic picture of measuring brand health by connecting the dots between self-stated attitudes, behavioral data, sales, and macro trends for FIJI Water.
Three Key Takeaways:
Importance of integrating behavioral and attitudinal data to see the full picture
Power of leveraging researchers with different areas of data expertise
Importance of thinking like an investigative journalist in a research role
Interested in learning about W5’s approach to Strategic Brand Tracking? Click here!
AI is here to stay, embrace it
There were numerous sessions on AI, as expected. From understanding the pros and cons, to demos by AI companies, the topic was inescapable. As Ray Fischer of aha! said, “AI is here to stay, embrace it.”
We know AI can slash analysis time by over 50%—an advantage that's hard to ignore as workloads increase while personnel and budgets diminish.
At W5, we think of AI as our executive assistant. It enables us to be more efficient and effective, providing a springboard of summaries and thought starters. But executive assistants do not run companies. They are ultimately led by CEOs responsible for connecting analysis to business objectives and providing the big picture insights AI may not offer.
We’ll continue to keep a pulse on all things AI and we’re excited to see it evolve and contribute to market research.
What’s next?
Did you attend Quirk’s Dallas? If so, drop your favorite sessions in the comments.
Heading to Quirk’s Chicago or New York? So are we! Drop us a line and let’s connect.