Author Archive

Julie W.S.

Moving Customers, Moving Companies: The Need for Change Agents

Julie W.S.
4.10.2013
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What obstacles stand in an organization’s way as they try to act on customer insights? How can they advance from being reporters to change agents within their own companies?MORE…

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Maligned but Motivated: A Day in the Life of a Mobile Millennial

3.21.2013
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Julie W.S.

“Why do millennials have such a bad reputation?” a millennial plaintively asked in a recent mobile ethnography project that we ran on behalf of the Advertising Research Foundation for the Re:think 2013 conference just winding up. “I just read another …MORE…

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Feeling Better? How Emotional Insight Drives Innovation

Julie W.S.
1.24.2013
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Flu season notwithstanding, we all know how to feel well. As human beings with limbic systems, we generate and manage an abundance of feelings during every waking moment and while we’re asleep. But as marketers and researchers, our challenge is …MORE…

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The Language of the Heart: Telling stories that are emotionally accurate and immediately actionable

10.9.2012
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Julie W.S.

Some clichés are so over-used that we tend to lose sight of their meaning. But it really is true that, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and not just because people are too busy to read anymore. Pictures are so valuable …MORE…

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Dehyping Emerging Market Research: Communities, Social Media Analytics, Mobile, and Gamification [Video]

Julie W.S.
6.22.2012
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Yesterday afternoon, GreenBook’s Leonard Murphy and I sat down with some colleagues to discuss “what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s just talk” in the world of emerging market research tools and techniques. It was the very first Communispace UNwebinar, meaning that instead of a forty-slide Powerpoint deck and predetermined talk track, we polled the audience about their thoughts on emerging consumer insights techniques and used field data to kickstart an open conversation. The result was a lively – and at times – provocative discussion that explored new market research methods from online communities and social media analytics to mobile and gamification.MORE…

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Invested: Engaging hearts and minds through Prediction Markets

5.24.2012
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Julie W.S.

It’s not surprising that companies engaged in new product development feel the need to test the likely success of an idea before fully investing in its development and rollout. Hence the ongoing popularity of concept test and purchase intent surveys. But as any victim of a telephone or online survey can testify, answering numerous questions about your likelihood to do or buy something is not only tedious, but questionably accurate, even when responding in all good faith.

That’s why at Communispace, we have been actively exploring ways to incorporate some principles of “gamification” into the concept development, refinement, and testing that’s done in our private, online communities.MORE…

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Micro is the New Macro [Video]

Julie W.S.
4.26.2012
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In the past year or so, we’ve been witnessing the convergence of several trends – a shift in online behavior, where users of social media tend to be gravitating toward micro-social networks and smaller, more socially curated sites; the rise of micro-lending, micro-giving, and localism; the growth and innovation occurring in qualitative market research; the higher levels of participation and quality in smaller-scale forms of research; the pruning of “friends” in social networks and tightening of privacy controls, and other phenomena. While disparate in their form, they are all manifestations of a few basic principles:MORE…

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Follow the (Thought) Leader

3.14.2012
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Julie W.S.

“Thought leader” is a moniker that’s applied all too loosely these days (e.g. “Ryan Seacrest is a thought leader in the Text-to-Vote space.”) But sometimes it’s applied to someone like Leonard Murphy, who is the real deal.

I first heard Lenny speak at the exceptionally well-designed Market Research in the Mobile World conference that he co-sponsored with the Merlien Institute and led last summer in Atlanta. He was like Katie Couric or Charlie Rose at their best, able to ask a really penetrating question—more than once if necessary—while maintaining a cordial and safe environment for discussion.MORE…

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