Diversify. Discover. Design the Vision.
The theme of the 2021 QRCA conference was Diversify. Discover. Design the Vision. We were beyond excited to attend the first-ever, FULLY VIRTUAL QRCA annual conference. It was easy to attend as the conference organizers blocked content and activities into four-hour blocks and spread activities over five days. The conference shared practical methods, tools and lessons from within the qualitative field specifically and market research in general. The goal of the event was to inspire new thinking about best practices from outside our community and offer our attendees challenging, fresh perspectives. Our internal qualitative team members were in attendance to learn and grow our own best practices.
The conference kicked off with a keynote address from Tonise Paul, the Chairman of Energy BBDO and a Director of BBDO Worldwide. She talked about how, throughout history, LISTENING has been a key piece advice from all the great philosophers and modern visionaries. Both qualitatively and quantitatively; we need to think about how we are transforming consumer research from data collection to absorbing and reflecting what consumers are actually telling us. Great leaders and great brands can’t lead if their people don’t feel heard. At InsightsNow, we believe in the power of the human voices we research and is woven through our culture and the methodologies we develop. Uncovering not just how consumers feel about a particular brand or service but uncovering the emotional and behavior impacts to decision making is at the crux of everything we do here.
A highly buzz-worthy marketing research topic is also usability and Kayte, the new Director for our innovation Center, found unique value in the various UX sessions held throughout the week and how they relate back to our recently relaunched on-demand insights platform. Topics for this discipline included UX continuing to be a trending theme in marketing research for understanding the intersections of usability, customer experience, and customer service experience. As an industry, we define UX in more than 100 different ways! It’s important to align on what UX is (and isn’t) to ensure applicable and meaningful research experiences and identifying the moments that matter. Branding consistencies across the functions are important in establishing high consumer (or client) satisfaction and growth.
In addition to learning, Kayte also held a roundtable session about “How Social is Your Research?” where she shared more information with fellow industry colleagues about when, how, and why to consider social intelligence as a component to qualitative research methodologies. As a concept, social media intelligence research is observing and analyzing conversations that consumers are naturally saying, NOT a moderated online conversation living on social media platforms. Feel free to reach out to Kayte if you want to learn more about this topic and our Innovation Center.
While each day at the virtual conference last week had an outstanding keynote; we ended the week with an interactive session led by Mallory Combemale from the Inheritance Project where attendees did a deep dive into their own belief systems that make each one of us, us. It was a fascinating discovery process that spoke highly to the societal shifts we are seeing take place in terms of diversity and inclusion—and understanding our own influences that root in our individual 5 Cs to our Identities: Country, Creed, Culture, Color, and Class. It was the perfect send off to reignite our passions for uncovering consumer truths and behaviors.
We are looking forward to ReImagining Research at the 2022 QRCA Annual Conference!
