In an episode of Mad Men, the Execs at Sterling Cooper Advertising round up a herd of eager secretaries to test out a new line of lipsticks for Belle Jolie, a cosmetics company. What’s surprising today is how many companies still use the same approach as advertising agencies from the 1960’s. Burning time and money on research designed for a different era. Continue reading

Good integrated marketing communications target major touch points or influence opportunities with customers. In other words you need to go and communicate where your customers are. Continue reading

It’s amazing how many great ideas fall flat and how the unexpected things become winners. High-velocity testing means you get a prototype of the product to market early and get real customer insights. Continue reading

Product Managers must excel in three areas - Sensing, Seizing and Transforming - if they want to design innovative new products that customers will love. These are the three habits of highly a successful Product Manager. Continue reading

There are five reasons why Apple, Coca Cola, Google, Nike, Cisco, and Mercedes Benz consistently rank amongst the Best Global Brands. And yet a poor experience with customer service or bad communications can leave people with negative feelings about a brand. Continue reading

What's behind the next Sci-Fi blockbuster, the words for a hit new song, a global social network, or improved heath and education in the developing world? The answer is ideas. Ideation is the process of generating, exploring, and evaluating new ideas that can give your business a competitive advantage. Continue reading

Bad customer service makes you feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. You go round-and-round without a resolution. When designing products, customer service is an afterthought for many companies. But what research has revealed is that customer service experiences become etched on peoples' minds and are big reasons why they kept on coming back. Continue reading

In the book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell writes about people with "expertise outside of the ordinary." Outliers can be thought of as extreme users. People ahead-of-the-curve who define trends, patterns and popular culture. When developing new products, they are vital for customer research, since they have a disproportionate influence on technology, fashion and social behavior. Continue reading