(Secondhand Thoughts on the Coming Year in Market Research)
You'd be surprised how much you can learn while handing out t-shirts. 
Here we are, just a few hours after the close of the The Market Research Event 2010, and sitting in the airport TGI Fridays (nothing like a homey little mom and pop joint to really bring out San Diego's local flavor) reflecting on the week's topics, presenters, and exhibitors; musing about the implications of this year's focus areas on the future of market research.
Our week at TMRE, one of the largest market-research-focused conferences in the world and one which has proven to be a fairly good indicator of the "state of the union" of MR in years past, was largely spent at our Seek booth trying to create a comfortable atmosphere and listening to corporate consumer insights managers talk about their everyday challenges. (We are, in that way, a little bit like shrinks, but with cooler t-shirts). As a result, we always miss most of the presentations, save for the keynotes and a scattering of the breakout sessions, and have to catch up with the video/audio recordings after the fact. While this does rob us of the chance to learn key messages from each presenter, it affords us the unique opportunity to poll the recipients on what stuck and what felt most accurate and relevant to their work.
And thus, we give you these four things most overheard at TMRE; those topics and themes which were most resonant, most remembered, and most recalled by the consumer insights professionals we spoke to (though we encourage you to check out the Twitter feeds #mrx and #TMRE for really fantastic firsthand accounts of the presentations):
1. The Digital Lifestyle is Screwing Up Everything (and Thank God).
This year's mainstage kickoff was preceded by a series of symposium sessions which invited attendees to come a day early to learn and talk about specific focus areas of import to them. The focus area we heard the most about (by far) was the Social Media and Community Research Symposium, which seemed to do as much to startle attendees as it did to intrigue them. With eyes wide and pulses quickened, those who attended this track (as well as the dozen or so mid-week breakouts focused on the impact of the digital lifestyle) were stricken with how profoundly market research is changing in light of users and consumers who can offer feedback instantaneously from the palms of their hands, who talk more intimately about the details of their lives in status updates than they do in person, and who have little compunction about making or breaking a brand based on the collective feedback of their fellow Twitterati. Consumer insights pros are now beyond the "holy $@$*" moment of seeing the tidal wave of change coming, and are now actively embracing it by seeking the best tools to cut through the clutter, listen in on the conversation, and find the drops of golden relevant insight in the fire hose of digital information.
2. Good Research Must Reveal Emotion, Not Just Opinion.
Perhaps most succinctly enveloped in Dan Hill's keynote on the power of true emotional insight in driving marketing and market change (but certainly a major point of emphasis for Dan Hill and Jonah Lehrer as well), this year's attendees were heavily impressed with the belief that raw feeling, not just logical processing, drives decision-making. As such, the attendees we talked to felt more motivated than ever to use both qualitative and quantitative research in tandem to truly understand emotional drivers, lifestyle drivers and belief-system drivers in the coming year, and to push well beyond segmentation and targeting that puts heavy emphasis on end-choice in favor of those which ask the question "how did their feelings and mindstates get them there?"
3. Conscious Thought Is the Tip of the Iceberg.
Perhaps it was a speaker schedule heavy with neurology-researchers and social scientists, but much of the chatter coming our way this year focused on the importance of listening keenly and watching closely enough to find the subconscious truth behind conscious behaviors. Certainly this premise is nothing new to market research (after all, some qual researchers have been famously hypnotizing respondents since the 1980's in the hopes of digging up the subconscious), but the idea seems to be re-emerging as a response to the glut of data being shared, processed, analyzed, and spit out as "sentiment" in the social media world. There is no doubt that quantitative social media analysis is a powerful and essential new tool in the market research tool belt, but this year's response seems to include a collective cry to find out what respondents don't KNOW they are thinking and doing, and therefore would have a hard time writing about. An ideological companion to #2 above, we expect a heavier focus this year (and beyond) on the DEEPER WHY, and to see market research consumers increasingly dissatisfied with a liminal approach to learning.
4. Targeting is About Tracking, Not Shepherding.
The digital lifestyle means people are leaving "trails" of behavior in footprints pressed in digital communication, and market research is becoming about following those footprints to tell the whole story of their movements and then reaching them in just the right moment on their path, not about trying to push a wide group to a shared place and reach them all at once. With a renewed focus on understanding the individual and in tandem with the above notes on depth-motivation behind decisions, consumer insights professionals are asking their researchers to follow the prints, track the path, and help them identify just the right time and place to share a focused, targeted, and singular message.
(By the way, in case you're more interested in the "handing out t-shirts" part of this story than the "future of market research" part; we have some really cool new Seek tees image above. Let us know if you want one!)
By Justin Masterson & Renee Murphy
justin@seekresearch.com & renee@seekresearch.com
