Innovating to Keep up with the Ever-changing Consumer

Nielsen’s Steve Hasker addressed attendees at Consumer 360 in Orlando with a focus on how technology evolution and consumer demand has challenged marketers to keep up.

Companies and executives across all industries hold different beliefs on the primary drivers of innovation, but according to Hasker, for consumer-facing companies, the most important driver of innovation is an ability to secure a unique and comprehensive understanding of the consumer.

“Consumer behavior is the driver of innovation,” said Hasker. “In order to innovate you have to understand the consumer, and in order to understand the consumer you need to be world class in research, insights and analytics.”

Hasker laid out three trends driving today’s need for innovation, and with it, a need to continue to improve research, insights and analytics surrounding these consumers and their behaviors.

Social Media – “In seven short years, every aspect of consumer behavior has changed as a result of social media,” Hasker said. By giving examples of how user-generated content is fundamentally changing behavior among younger generations of consumers, Hasker demonstrated how social media is changing the way programs are discovered, how people communicate and how products are purchased.
Explosion in Multiplatform Media Usage – As TV viewership grows alongside video use across mobile devices, tablets and other platforms, distribution of content is becoming increasingly fragmented as users continue to multitask. “If you don’t understand cross platform consumer, you’re at a disadvantage,” said Hasker. “Marketing plans have to reflect the different ways consumers are getting content. Understanding this behavior helps empower brands to better understand their consumers.”
Changing Sources of Global Growth – The demographics driving growth are ever-changing in an increasingly global world where technology is advancing across borders and groups of people, and brands face continuous challenges in understanding which demographics are growing and how, in order to innovate in the ways consumers demand.

Car Talk: Bob Lutz and Malcolm Gladwell Talk Innovation, Branding and Bean Counters

June 22, 2011
At the closing main room event at Consumer 360 in Orlando, which focused on innovation and branding, Fortune’s Adam Lashnisky moderated a discussion between, Bob Lutz, retired Vice Chairman of GM, and author Malcolm Gladwell. Using Lutz’s book “Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business,” as a jumping off point, the duo discussed the tension between the creative types that value the consumer’s emotional response and the bean counters who tend to focus on cost and the bottom line.

Lutz recalled that problems at GM increased when finance was moved to the same space as operations and began to overshadow the engineering and operational departments. In perhaps the snappiest line of the session, Gladwell floated the idea of a “bean counter island” where finance departments of every company could be kept far away from the innovation teams.

Lutz and Gladwell were in agreement more often than not, especially when it came to branding and customer value. Lutz noted that many cars in the luxury category were basically constructed of the same material as lower priced vehicles, but the true differentiator was brand value and perceived customer value. That “intangible thing” (as Gladwell called it) that separates brands tends to be the domain of the creative and Lutz agreed, noting that when you want to elicit an emotional response with the buyer, that’s where you defer to the creative types. The emotional distinction is also notable when it comes to research. Lutz relayed anecdotes of GM research, downplaying instances where they asked consumers about their preferences and favoring research that measured consumer responses against the competition. The visceral response of a consumer, especially when it came to perceived price, was incredibly valuable, and often the most accurate according to Lutz.

When Multicultural is the Culture

When Multicultural is the Culture
June 23, 2011
The 2010 Census confirmed something Nielsen has been noting for some time: multicultural consumers are rapidly becoming the majority in the United States and their buying power is significant. Understanding their purchasing and media habits is the next big challenge/opportunity facing marketers and brands today. Taking a deep dive into data and trends within the African American, Asian American and Hispanic communities, Nielsen’s Claudia Pardo laid out compelling statistics and a demographic framework shaping the future. It’s clear that marketers and brands will be forced to rethink their perspective — and their share of spend — when it comes to multicultural groups.

“Can anyone in the room honestly say they’re doing everything they can to satisfy the consumption needs of this population?” Pardo asked attendees. “The demographic growth of these groups is simply becoming too great to ignore.” The good news, noted Pardo, is that multicultural groups are actually more loyal to brands and there’s an opportunity to win a consumer for life.

Steve Jobs Macworld 1998 Keynote (Part 2)

Macworld Boston 1997-Full Version

Here is the full version of the 1997 Boston Macworld expo where we see Steve Jobs for the first time since returning to work for Apple after being gone since 1985. This was a very historic time for Apple because they were almost bankrupt at the time, so Steve announces a temporary partnership with Microsoft to a very hostile crowd. Bill Gates also makes an appearance.