15
May

Spotlight: A&U to Drive Brand Growth

Posted by: w5admin in: Blog , market research , study , Uncategorized No Comments on Spotlight: A&U to Drive Brand Growth

Attitude & Usage Research: Gauge your competitive positioning within the marketplace to strengthen current and future campaigns. Click to learn more.

A leading producer of fruit-based foods and their advertising agency sought to understand consumers’ attitudes, purchasing behaviors, consumption, and preferences in the category. Insights into the marketing category, the client’s brand, and touchpoints were desired to inform growth strategies and creative development.

APPROACH

W5 leveraged past consumer segmentation and category behavior research conducted for the client to identify appropriate consumers for the robust survey. W5 collaborated closely with the client and agency to develop an in-depth online survey exploring consumers’ category engagement.

RESULTS

Study insights highlighted consumers’ category priorities, how the client’s product areas fit in, and the brand’s positioning in the marketplace. SWOT Analysis featuring strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats was conducted, founded upon a rich array of category insights. Opportunities emerged for branding, marketing, packaging, and product innovation, showcasing the long-term value of a comprehensive category data set in guiding future direction. The client gained comprehensive insight into the category and the advertising agency received clear direction for future branding and creative development.

08
May

Flaw of Thrones

Posted by: w5admin in: Blog , culture , Media , Uncategorized No Comments on Flaw of Thrones

There has been a familiar buzz around the W5 office lately. The wildly popular HBO series Game of Thrones is airing their final episodes, and we here at W5 are full of opinions. Though one won’t get into discussing who should or shouldn’t sit on the Iron Throne. Let’s talk about the importance of detail, a trait arguably missing from this season, highlighted by the appearance of a modern paper coffee cup in the middle of a grand feast.

Game of Thrones is the brainchild of author George R.R. Martin from his book series A Song of Ice and Fire. Martin spent decades meticulously crafting his story centered in the complex and textured realm called Westeros. The books had been the show’s backbone up until three seasons ago, when they ran out of content. Tasked with blazing their own path, the showrunners have been playing loose with the storytelling and character development. Many fans are starting to see the strings.

Continuity is King

Continuity is how people make sense of the world. Simply, 1 + 1 must always equal 2, if not, then why does anything matter? When telling a story, the audience should be invested in the presentation and able to sequentially navigate the moments. A glaring issue in the path may cause the audience’s confidence in the story to spiral. Much like in research, if there is a hole or error in the data, the entire presentation becomes suspect. The goal is to keep the audience’s attention, deliver your message, and cover all your bases.

“Does Daenerys take 2% or almond milk in her Earl Grey? Inquiring minds want to know!”

Pointing Fingers

Projects of this magnitude rely on the minds and talents of many people, there is not a single person at fault, but teams of professionals. Despite the number of eyes on screen and off the cup went unnoticed. Even the Script Supervisor who is solely responsible for continuity missed this pesky paper cup. Had the editor or post team noticed, they could have simply removed or covered it up digitally.

The lapse in judgement is a great reminder about the importance of teamwork and looking beyond one’s specialized focus. If you see something, say something. Having specialists does not guarantee flawlessness. Imagine, the audio engineer noticed the cup before rolling, but decided not to say anything because “It’s not my job, surely the director, set design, or even craft services will notice.”  

There is Only One Thing We Say to Errors: Not Today

We are only human; mistakes will happen and there is the proof resting around 17:50 in episode “The Last of the Starks.” May this blimp be a reminder to always have your work reviewed by many eyes before going out. Reviewers may catch obvious mistakes that go overlooked. If the message you are trying to get across is important, it’s worth a second, third, or fifth look.

01
May

WHO RUNS THE WORLD? GIRLS!

Posted by: w5admin in: Uncategorized No Comments on WHO RUNS THE WORLD? GIRLS!

For its 19th year, Coachella enlisted its first black female headliner—Beyoncé to slay the stage and perform for over 100,000 music festival attendees and millions of streaming viewers. One year later, Beyoncé reminds us her work ethic is unmatched, dropping her new Netflix original, Homecoming, featuring her groundbreaking Coachella performance in addition to some behind-the-scenes clips. In these brief, but powerful moments, viewers get an authentic lens into Beyoncé’s life, thoughts, and challenges—as a woman, minority, mother, and professional. Her journey and determination are universally inspirational. However, as a woman of color, Homecoming served as a much-needed source of empowerment. Here are a few inspirational takeaways following Beyoncé’s Homecoming:

You Can Have It All

Throughout Homecoming, Beyoncé speaks to the tactful balance of work and motherhood. For many working moms, I can imagine a sense of camaraderie as she details her experience. In one behind-the-scenes clip, we see new mom Beyoncé as she tries to cope with her new body—covering her post-partum pooch while struggling to catch her breath during rehearsal. A strikingly different view compared to the picture-perfect mother we’re used to seeing. She acknowledged the challenges she had to overcome, working before she was mentally or physically ready. At one point she confesses, “My mind was not there. My mind wanted to be with my children.” Unfortunately, her words are not uncommon. As seen in our blog post on Women’s Day, only 12 percent of women in the private sector have access to any sort of paid maternity leave and 25 percent of women are forced to return to work within two weeks of giving birth to support their families. Nevertheless, Beyoncé exemplifies the phrase power through, as she still manages to successfully complete six months of rigorous rehearsals, abide by a strict low-calorie diet, manage over 200 dancers and performers—all while tending to her three young children. Beyoncé showed us that with #girlpower and ample determination, you can have it all.

Know Your Worth

Unfortunately, the pay discrepancy among men and women in the US is still prevalent. Those most affected by the pay gap are black and Hispanic women—earning 67% to 58% of what men earn. In a recent McKinsey report, data shows the promotion rate to manager is the lowest for black women compared to any race and gender. For every 100 men promoted to manager, just 60 black women are promoted. However, there is hope and reason to be inspired. Beyoncé, and her $500 million net-worth, provides a winning model for success as she reportedly walked away from her Coachella performance with an $8 million check. Wow! However, her brilliance shines through when evaluating the streams of income following the event. Attaining a $60 million partnership with Netflix, selling her live performance tracks to all major streaming platforms, and releasing new Homecoming-branded apparel, Beyoncé creates additional opportunities to pay herself. Ranked as the fastest growing subgroup of entrepreneurs in the US, it appears women of color are taking notes and taking action to create additional streams of revenue that may mitigate potential pay discrepancies. The quest to equal pay is still ongoing, but Beyoncé illustrates the importance of knowing your true worth, even if that means cultivating your own additional generators of revenue.

Stay True To Yourself

Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles-Lawson, shared her initial concerns about her daughter’s Coachella performance—worried the audience would not “get” it. Following the controversy of the Super Bowl, her concerns were valid. Beyoncé responded, “I have worked very hard to get to the point where I have a true voice, and at this point in my life and my career, I have a responsibility to do what’s best for the world and not what is most popular.” Oftentimes, I see women of color undergo the unique experience of working in a space as both a race and gender minority. With women of color representing only 4% of C- level positions in the US (falling behind white men 68% and white women 19%), adapting and blending in majority white spaces is sometimes less intimidating than remaining individualist. However, Beyoncé embodies what is means to stay true to oneself by fueling confidence and empowerment for those who need it. Giving an unapologetic ode to black culture, body inclusivity, and female strength Beyoncé took a professional risk and remained steadfast in who she is and what she believes. Brava!

25
Apr

The Evolution of Co-Living

Posted by: Tom Daly in: Uncategorized No Comments on The Evolution of Co-Living

I’ve lived in large cities including New York City and Boston, as well as smaller but densely populated places like Worcester, MA, Charleston, SC, and Durham, NC. I feel comfortable in places where I can walk to dinner or a movie―call me an ‘urbanite.’

As we all know, living in cities, especially larger ones, is financially challenging nowadays. I’ve juggled roommates and was lucky enough to eventually share the financial burden with my girlfriend, then fiancé, now wife, along the way. We went from co-renters, to signing a lease, then a mortgage, and now home ownership. This, for many, has been the traditional path. But that’s starting to change, as schedules, commitments, and overall attitudes evolve about what cohabitating means in today’s world.

Cohabitation is quickly morphing into Co-living in many urban settings. With co-living you don’t really know the people with whom you’re sharing your home space. With cohabitating, one usually goes through an interview for a room in someone’s place to see if there’s a fit; with co-living, the arrangement is more transactional, with one renting a private room in a quasi-dorm-like setting, where common spaces such as kitchens, living areas, and laundry are shared. 

Co-living it up!

Co-living is quickly evolving from its pragmatic roots in high-rent cities with newly arriving college grads and people who’ve yet settled into a community into more permanent digs. Common is a firm that currently operates in a half-dozen U.S. cities, often with multiple locations in each. Its mantra is “private rooms within beautiful shared suites in friendly homes.” Everything is inclusive, including modern furniture, household staples, even weekly cleaning―all one needs is to fill out a form online and lay down a deposit.

While many of Common’s homes are located within traditional “hipster-centric” up-and-coming locales, which makes sense given the demo/psychographic for such living and current mass rehabilitation of such neighborhoods, co-living is quickly evolving beyond typical millennial nomads traversing the gig economy. Co-living personal spaces are getting larger, and even family friendly, as the Millennial cohort ages.

The Collective, a U.K.-based pioneer in the space currently operates the world’s largest purpose-built co-living development in the world, has already set up shop in Manhattan’s Murray Hill. A non-descript New York neighborhood, it is arguably one of the more mundane areas of greater Manhattan. And that’s the point, it’s a place in which to live, not “live it up.” Units are up to three bedrooms, family friendly, and possess some of the amenities of traditional co-living such as shared rooms and services, but also offer more personal autonomy for those seeking co-living as a service, as opposed to a lifestyle. On deck is a much more ambitious nearly half-billion dollar multi-purpose co-living project slated for Broadway Triangle, in Brooklyn replete with workshops, seminars, and performances alongside a restaurant, bar, and art gallery.

Kin, of both the U.K. and Australia, is doing much the same in smaller U.K. and Down Under markets, but nevertheless allows for private bathrooms and kitchens―with the assumption couples and families may need a bit more personal space.

While cost savings are initially the main driver piquing consumer interest, I believe the real benefits reflect human behavior and overall well-being. Kin promotes co-living as “contributing to a more well-intentioned life,” where meaningful relationships are cultivated through “shared experience at home.” The Collective seeks to “build a world that’s more alive, more together, and more collaborative.” All in all, the theory is that by bringing people closer together, with exposure to new people and ideas, they are inspired to do more with what they learn.

It all makes sense to me. While co-living may not appeal to everyone, it’s an emerging lifestyle taking hold in today’s larger cities. If the economic, social, and psychic benefits continue to play out, the practice may grow beyond tier one cities, and take hold with other demographics with similarly rapid shifting needs, i.e., a Boomer alternative to Florida living, or even newly arrived peoples from other countries seeking to reside in the U.S.

Whatever evolves, the effects on consumer behaviors will be great as food, transportation, entertainment, and learning behaviors are likely to be altered. Even the concept of what constitutes familial units may need to be redefined, ever so porous as they may become. For a marketing researcher who focuses on better understanding consumer behavior, interesting times are ahead!

19
Apr

Seeking Human Experiences

Posted by: Tristan Shook in: Uncategorized No Comments on Seeking Human Experiences

In recent years, shopper insights teams and agency partners have worked to adapt to shifting retail patterns, namely the rise of online shopping driven by its increased speed and convenience.

While the convenience of online shopping hasn’t worn off, perhaps the novelty has.

A recent PwC study showed that 82% want more human interaction in the future. Also, 73% of all people point to customer experience as an important factor in purchasing decisions. (Link)

Agencies and brands will need to focus on more than just visual merchandising to deliver a brand experience at retail. They will have to meet the elevated expectations of speed and convenience while delivering on a customer experience that is human and elevates the brand and product.

How do you get there? What are the first steps you can take to solving for this?

(1) Explore best practice brand experiences across categories

(2) Understand the thresholds for automation, speed of service, and convenience in your category… in other words when does the lack of a fulfilling customer and brand experience lead to diminishing returns on convenience factors or worse, simply refusing purchase?

17
Apr

Generation Next: The Intersection of Tech + Consumers at Quirks

Posted by: Kathy Justice in: advertising , branding , Conference , culture , emerging technology , market research No Comments on Generation Next: The Intersection of Tech + Consumers at Quirks

W5 attended the last of this year’s three Quirks events, this time held at Navy Pier in Chicago. It was full of the standard long days, catching up with people, and giveaways.  The authors of this post: Martin Molloy, Qualitative Practice Partner, and Kathy Justice, Qualitative Senior Consultant, were happy to be in attendance.

As part of the W5 qualitative research team, we were both keen on weighing the value of new research technology with traditional qualitative methods and research values. Could virtual shelf sets, consumer observation via smart home technology, and text interviews replace more traditional ethnographic and interview techniques?  Well, yes and no. These tools are incredibly beneficial in letting us connect with consumers in their daily lives and allow for more natural, empathetic conversations. But, they do not replace the heart of qualitative research – consumer stories – in a world where it seems the big trend is faster and shorter insights, delivered at the speed of a text, there is a craving for deeper, richer consumer feedback.


Virtual Reality might help consumers visualize a shelf space, product, or concept, but can it give us insight into their lives?

In a nutshell, brands and market research suppliers are figuring out what W5 has known for a while – consumer stories matter. Consumers are more than the sum of their parts, demographics, household income, purchasing behaviors, etc. There is an inherent story behind how people live and think. They may not always neatly match a marketer’s vision or the desire of a market researcher to make sense of the universe, but the stories are there nonetheless.

One session that emphasized this point was Susan Fader’s Narrative Economics. Instead of looking at behavior or demographics, Susan encouraged researchers and clients to consider how individuals view themselves as a means of identifying and sorting them into groups. The idea that region, age, income, and a handful of other demographics alone make up one’s identify doesn’t always work. Connections via the Internet and general societal changes have made it just as likely that consumers view their people as others with similar tastes, lifestyles, attitudes, and/or behaviors. A cohort of similar consumers could be grouped by shared interests spanning a wide variety of communities from gaming to cosplay to sexual or political identities. As a result, when researchers sit down with a group of consumers who appear the same on the surface, they shouldn’t be surprised if attitudes and opinions vary widely.

Additionally, Susan said too often brands focus on their category and how they see it instead of how the consumer sees it. Do your consumers think of a food by flavors and brands or do they see different products having different jobs based on the time of day or their moods? Unlocking these ideas could be the answer to driving growth and innovation as brands look for new spaces as competition ramps up, whether you are asking them in-person or via video chat.

02
Apr

Grow Your Brand with Seeds of Insight

Posted by: Amy Castelda in: advertising , branding , knowledge , market research , study No Comments on Grow Your Brand with Seeds of Insight

Spring is upon us and at W5 we welcome letting go of the old and embracing the new. We welcome growth to inspire our business solutions and support our clients grow their market share.

To commemorate spring, we want to share some seeds of inspiration to inspire you and your team as you look to continue to grow your business and brands in 2019.

Growing Membership and Brand Awareness

Partnered with a F500 client to segment the healthcare exchange marketplace and identify key motivations and drivers that defined members. Insights inspired authentic messaging to connect with the current member base while driving membership growth and brand awareness in new markets.

Growing Brand Engagement

Leveraged consumer journeys for a premium apparel brand to identify opportunities and barriers when purchasing at retail and online. Findings informed refinement of the brand’s communication strategies, online presence, and in-store displays to grow engagement and sales across both channels.

Share of Wallet Growth

Worked with a Mexican restaurant chain to understand where and how to differentiate the brand and menu offerings. Strategy fueled a new communications strategy and menu redesign to grow share of wallet among existing guests and encourage trial with new audiences.

Growing Subscriptions

Conducted exploratory research for a national publication to better understand Millennial moms’ content needs and expectations. Research inspired a reformulation of the publication’s editorial mission and approach to channel-specific content development and curation to grow readership and subscriptions.

Growing a Product Portfolio

Executed groups for an emerging food brand to identify concepts to pursue or eliminate, fueling go-to-market strategies for winning concepts to support portfolio growth.

To learn more about how to Grow with W5, drop us a line. In the meantime, enjoy the flowers blooming and birds chirping. Spring is upon us!

29
Mar

Where we fit: Ratings and Reviews

Posted by: Ian McDiarmid in: Blog , culture , emerging technology , internet , knowledge , market research , technology , web innovation No Comments on Where we fit: Ratings and Reviews

In “Where we fit” we explore the shifting role of people in the marketplace. In this post we discuss how the ratings and reviews can obscure their most important feature: the people that write them.

Review Warfare

When I lived in Philadelphia there was a little neighborhood pocket with two competing Indian restaurants and I was thinking about eating at one of them. It boasted  a healthy 4.1/5 stars, but curiously seemed to only have ratings at the extremes—five stars or just one. The five star reviews extolled the virtues of the restaurant, with the kinds of keywords that really resonate with a city-dwelling millennial like “authentic,” “delicious,” and “fresh.” Looking at the one star reviews, you might think they were talking about a different restaurant, with suspiciously many calling out the “frozen” curries and dishes that “taste like paint.”

I ultimately chose to eat there (4.1 can’t be wrong!) and mentioned the weird reviews to my server. Turns out this restaurant and its nearby competitor were engaged in cyber warfare of sorts. Periodically one would wage a negative review campaign against the other, churning out only slightly different versions of the “paint” and “frozen” accusations. The other would respond by mobilizing their own task force to neg their competitors while padding their own reviews with positive comments. Very few of the reviews in either direction were real.

Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em

Reviews have become a near-ubiquitous reference for consumers across practically all categories. Reviews are about trust—they offer reassurance about the quality of things we buy. Given a world where choices abound and practically anyone can sell anything of any quality online, the popularity of reviews makes sense. Consumers want to know they can trust a product or experience will deliver and reviews can take a very complicated array of experiences with a product or service and distill them into a single, easily compared and understood number. But as the restaurant example shows, that number has become divorced from reality. And it’s not just with restaurants.

Whenever W5 talks to consumers about how they evaluate a potential purchase, the typical answer is, “I always check the reviews, but you can’t really trust reviews these days.” They know the many reasons why as well, citing people are more likely to leave reviews when they are upset with a product or experience or companies incentivize or otherwise “juice” their review stats to stay competitive. Consulting firms exist solely to manage the online reputations (read: reviews) of their clients, generating positive reviews while responding to, or outright hiding, negative ones. Reviews are no longer a window into a product, they are product in and of themselves. How can we save reviews?

Putting people back into reviews

If we want to salvage reviews, we must refocus our attention on what exactly they do—communicate a subjective experience. In a big-data world reviews claim to offer objectivity, in the form of a single aggregate rating, to what is inherently a subjective experience: using and enjoying a product. This whole transformation of experiences into a single number can be useful from a population perspective, but it doesn’t account for the vast differences in expectations and needs that play a huge role in shaping those experiences with a product. Consumers do not just want to know what is said about a project; they want to know who said it and why.

The author of the review, with their own personal goals and expectations, is almost as important as the review itself. If a consumer wants to know if they will like something, the average of everyone else’s experiences will tell them very little. They get far more use and guidance hearing the experience of someone with expectations and needs similar to their own. A paragraph from a mom about how her new table holds up to her messy children is far more informative to another mother than a 3.8 rating on the manufacturer’s website, no matter how many ratings it is averaging together.

Subjectivity in reviews should be embraced, not obscured. Rather than erasing the people behind the reviews by focusing on aggregating ratings and generating as many reviews as possible, business should focus on drawing attention to those people. Give customers reviews by people with whom they can identify. Tell people what moms specifically think of a product or which coffee maker college students prefer. Doing so helps consumers authentically relate to feedback and fosters the trust that reviews were meant to provide.

19
Mar

The Market Research Guide to Winning Your NCAA Bracket

Posted by: Jonathan Morris in: Uncategorized No Comments on The Market Research Guide to Winning Your NCAA Bracket

Here at W5 we love basketball, especially college basketball. We’re situated right in the middle of Tobacco Road in Durham, North Carolina about five minutes from Duke University.

Chances are if you work at W5 you have strong loyalties to one of three teams, the NC State Wolfpack (better luck next year!), the North Carolina Tar Heels, or the Duke Blue Devils. We’ve been following our teams throughout the season, through the ups and downs, the big wins and the tough losses (for the sake of office politics I’ll forgo any jabs here), and it’s all been building to March.

While we wouldn’t call ourselves basketball experts we do know a thing or two about market research, and we’re going to use our knowledge to understand how to dominate our March Madness Brackets this year.

  • Follow the Stories: There’s plenty of stories circulating prior to March Madness, and our work at W5 always highlights the importance of stories. Make sure to do your research about what’s happening in each team’s locker room to understand what’s going on prior to tip-off. Here’s a few stories you should know before making your bracket:
    • Murray State rolled through its conference tournament and is going to face Marquette, a team that lost its last four conference games before losing in its conference semi-finals. Murray State has a sensational sophomore guard in Ja Morant, the type of player who can seriously take over a game.
    • LSU is embroiled in scandal as its coach is currently suspended for recruiting violations and will have a tough time against a solid Yale team.
    • Anyone who’s been watching college basketball can see that Florida State has been playing great. They finished with a 27-7 record in the heavy-hitting ACC and then continued on to defeat Virginia and make the ACC Finals against Duke. The eye test holds with Florida State and the narrative fits, this team is ready to make a run.
  • Trust the Data: Everybody loves a good tournament upset. That’s half the reason we tune in. But as much as we love these upsets, the data tells us they’re rare. W5 loves studying behavioral science, and research shows us that outstanding, historic moments like Virginia’s loss to UMBC or Duke’s loss to Mercer are overemphasized in our memories and in reality games like these rarely happen. One seeds win first-round matchups 99.3% of the time and number 2 seeds win them 94.1%. You can safely advance these teams with confidence they’ll be playing in the second round.
  • Blend the Approach: W5 specializes in combining quantitative and qualitative data to produce insights and results, and it’s important to do the same when creating your bracket. Quantitative analysis doesn’t always tell the whole story and qualitative research alone can miss the statistical reliability that underscores quantitative studies.
    • Look For: Teams showing strong qualitative and quantitative results such as Texas Tech who tout America’s best defense, per ESPN Analytics, and sport a national Coach of the Year contender in Chris Beard, a man who will have the strategy and knowledge needed to lead his team.
    • Watch Out For: Teams such as Wofford who have the 12th best offense in the country, per KenPom rankings, but the 63rd best defense. One off night of shooting could end a tournament run for them quickly.
  • Leverage Past Insights: Past tournament history can tell us a lot about how we should expect teams to perform this year. W5 knows if we ignore past research we build an incomplete picture of the future. That’s why it’s important we reference past tournament results to find patterns and trends. Looking at records from 1985-2018 we see a few conferences stand out right away, namely the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, and SEC, all with over 50% win rates across hundreds of games. Teams from these conferences are playing against strong competition throughout the season, and their conference tournaments are a high-pressure practice round for the Big Dance.
    • Look For: Top teams from these conferences, including Virginia, Kansas State, Purdue, and Tennessee to handily win in the opening rounds.
    • Watch Out For: High-ranked teams in less competitive conferences that won’t stand up to the challenge of playing in later rounds. Teams such as Nevada who play in the Mountain West Conference (33.3% historical win rate) and Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference (also 33.3% historical win rate) have great records and high seeds but have historically done poorly once reaching the tournament.
  • Pick a team: Just a disclaimer this probably isn’t your best strategy if you’re purely focused on winning, but fun is a big deal here at W5 and nothing is more fun than picking a team and letting it ride. Every year I pick my alma mater to go all the way. It’s only worked for me once, but man what a year it was. Pick a team, go all in on them, and act like life and death depended on every one of their games and it’ll make for a memorable March Madness.
12
Mar

A First Timer’s Perspective on The Quirk’s Event

Posted by: w5admin in: Blog , branding , Conference , market research , Uncategorized No Comments on A First Timer’s Perspective on The Quirk’s Event

As a newcomer to the marketing research industry, I was both excited and nervous to attend The Quirk’s Event for the first time. On the first day, I felt an initial surge of shock, as I realized just how massive the conference was. However, my shock was soon overshadowed by curiosity when I began to study the endless rows of company booth displays. How does one company stand out from the rest? What message was each company trying to convey? The answers varied drastically. Some used technology to lure wanderers—setting up interactive touch screens or video walls. Others focused on swag and gamification—ranging from a simple spin wheel to a full-on basketball arcade game, eager to spark conversation with competitive hopefuls following their play-to-win experience. In comparison, our booth was definitely more traditional. Some would dare say “old school.” Technology tucked away and printed collateral on display—we didn’t dangle the same “bright” and “shiny” allure as our neighbors. We chose to simply focus on our work and the people behind it. This is who we are. This is what we do. In a room full of companies striving to be “innovators” and “disrupters,” our claim to fame was and always has been the genesis of what started it all—research.

Of course, as a curator, our brand voice and positioning strategies are not foreign to me. Our work and people have been the quintessence of W5’s brand for over sixteen years. However, The Quirk’s Event provided an opportunity to see our strategy in action. No longer studying our clients behind a computer screen, through CTR’s or social engagement stats, I saw first-hand how we won in the minds of consumers. Of course, there were attendees, on the hunt for bright and shiny things, who simply walked past our display. But often times, we were greeted with a curious look paired with a smile followed by “Who is W5?”

In addition to fostering several marketing “aha” moments, The Quirk’s Event had many educational sessions I’ve incorporated into the armoire of my professional development. As a company who values thought leadership, we jumped at the opportunity to present. Partnering with our client, Rise Against Hunger, we shared insight regarding how our segmentation study is leveraged to help Rise Against Hunger end world hunger by 2030 #2030isPossible.

With close to 100 sessions, guests had their fair share of options. One of my favorite sessions, besides ours, came from 20|20 Research, entitled Decoding Disruption: Understanding Consumer Expectations for a Brand. They spoke to the importance of keeping tabs on small disruptions. They didn’t teach guests how to become big disrupters. Instead, we were told to focus on meeting consumers’ new and evolving expectations that resulted from big disruptions. A “how to keep up with the Jones” playbook.

Prior to attending The Quirk’s Event, I remember being concerned that as marketer for a marketing research firm, I wouldn’t fit in amongst a sea of researchers and anthropologists. However, now I view things from a more polished and experienced perspective. I was able to watch and study how clients engaged with our booth display and within our session, and bring back my own set of thoughts and recommendations for next year. I walked away with great insight on insights professionals. Looks like marketing and market research go hand in hand. Who knew?!

left to right: Keanna Warmsley (Client Relations Consultant), Gemi Hartojo (Client), Andy Willard (Partner), Amy Castelda (Partner)
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