	Would you like to see more value gained from consumer insights done? A recent report entitled, “The Consumer’s Voice–Can Your Company Hear It?,” offers some tips and strategies for gaining more value from the consumer insights work your company supports. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) conducted this benchmarking study in the spring of 2009 to analyze best practices and gaps in companies’ capabilities for doing consumer insights. Forty global companies participated in the initiative. Presented in this report are drivers that impact the effectiveness of consumer insights in an organization. Additionally, awareness is brought to some obstructions that often prevent consumer insights from truly becoming a source of competitive advantage in the marketplace. BCG’s full 30+ page report is worth the read. But if you’re looking for something more “bite-sized,” check out Brianna Sylver’s latest blog post on the topic. She talks in detail about two ways that she often sees companies obstructing their ability to hear their customers: failure to find balance in the amount of money spent on tactical, reactive research versus strategic-focused studies and the tendency for companies to treat consumer insights as an “order taking” function versus embracing it as a source of competitive advantage. To read the entire study presented by the Boston Consulting Group, click here. If you’d like some help figuring out how your own market research department should be structured to gain more value from the consumer insights you've done or are doing, contact Sylver Consulting.

Strategy	Trends	Research
A New Pricing Plan to Lure ‘Dormant’ Customers Offering variable pricing plans can dramatically alter customer-purchasing patterns. Learn what pricing plan structures are available and how this approach can skyrocket sales. Ten Red Flags for Innovation There’s no one formula for creating great innovations. Yet these are some red flags and pitfalls to be mindful of, that if ignored can seriously impact your company’s likelihood for success.	The New Consumer Frugality Consumer spending habits are changing. Retailers must be cognizant of how these habits impact their sales pipeline and react accordingly or risk losing competitive edge. Diabetes is No Fun, but It Can Be a Game Bayer created a handheld gaming device to reinforce and reward kids for doing blood glucose testing, after doing research to fully understand common barriers to compliance amongst this target demographic.	Brand Mapping as a Consumer Insights Tool Discover how brand mapping offers new insights to consumer behavior and how those insights can be a useful tool in fostering consumer engagement with your product or service. 5 Reasons Your Marketing Plan Will Include Location in 2011 Social Location Sharing is making a huge splash in the social media world. Learn 5 reasons why it will certainly become cemented in marketing strategies over the next 18 months.

Sylver Consulting is an international innovation research and strategy firm. Our results extend beyond traditional market research in that the process we employ, Design Ethnography, seeks to not only offer a picture of who customers are, but to define intersections between their needs and your business' priorities and capabilities. For more information about our company, please call or write us. We'd love to hear from you! 1-312-239-0346 • info@sylverconsulting.com

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