At last week’s BMA Annual Conference in Chicago a large majority of the speakers addressed true customer insight as an important part of a successful marketing organization. Even going so far as saying that not getting customer insights is irresponsible.

Change is happening fast in the energy sector: While global energy use skyrockets (especially in developing regions), the cost of renewables—particularly solar and wind power—is declining while both natural gas and crude oil production is expanding.

There’s a lot to learn from the construction industry – one so vital to our economy and yet so vulnerable to economic cycles. So here’s the question of the month: How do we plan when the future is murky at best?

Learn how the HVACR industry is dealing with the regulations and standards imposed regionally, nationally and globally.

Learn about Godfrey insights that can help you understand 6 misconceptions that B2B marketers tend to make when communicating with the “Mind of the Engineer”.

Take a look at the construction industry landscape in some of the major worldwide regions; see what advertising channels have been effective and what is potentially in store.

I remember watching Terminator 2: Judgment Day when I was a kid. I was 10 or 11 years old, visiting my family in the Dominican Republic, absolutely amazed at the story playing before me (even if I were too young to fully understand it). What a concept. Computers that can think. Learn. Reason. It got me thinking. Will computing power ever grow to these levels?

When specifying commercial building projects, it’s a team effort among architects, designers, engineers, and contractors. They will work with the building owner or facility manager to reach the best solution for the project. It’s important to understand how each party works together, and what their concerns are, in order to reach each audience with the right message.

A very common reality among B2B marketers is that their annual marketing plan is closely tied to their fiscal year budget. Read about how you can make informed decisions about B2B marketing budget allocations and marketing strategy using the data you have and pairing it with customer insight.

B2B marketing insight can go beyond ordinary researching of facts and figures and become a high-tech eavesdropping situation, “listening in” and experiencing the conversations of your customers and prospects. Based on an actual Godfrey project, here are six ways to get a better handle – through social media – on what customers and prospects are really thinking.

Valuable lessons can be learned by B2B marketers on the power of individual interviews from the Joe Smith Collection recently donated to The Library of Congress. The Smith collection includes 238 hours of poignant, revealing interviews of virtually every rock and entertainment star of the era.

Today’s technology has so utterly changed the world of B2B insight that any organization can develop insight experts on marketing topics. This (hopefully) humorous post highlights the differences between insight efforts today and yesterday.

B2B marketers are sometimes in a quandary about the validity of qualitative research, including, in-depth interview methodology. This post will be helpful in explaining how in-depth interviewing can produce valid results and may be a better alternative to traditional focus groups for deeper, richer insight.

This blog covers understandings and agreements, or social contract that should exist between an interviewer and respondent for a positive outcome and to an honor an implicit professional code of ethics.

More and more, we see B2B salespeople embracing social media to meet their personal sales targets. Marketing teams could learn a lot from salespeople (or their social media activities), just by asking a few questions (and spending some quality time surfing social media sites).

In an interesting sequel to last year’s B2B research success story, primary research saves a client from a potentially damaging error in perceiving their audience.

Part four of a four-part series to help B2B marketers understand more about this powerful qualitative research methodology and the “how tos” of conducting, analyzing and reporting. This blog covers how to effectively analyze and report insights gleaned from depth interviews for B2B marketers.

Creating effective surveys for B2B research is both a science and an art. The key is to engage the respondent, encourage well-thought-out answers, and – regardless of the medium used for the survey – keep respondents from “mailing it in.”

Part three of a four-part series to help B2B marketers understand more about this powerful qualitative research methodology and the “how to’s” of conducting in-depth interviews. This blog covers how to effectively plan and conduct in-depth interviews for B2B marketers.

As 2012 B2B marketing planning should be in full-swing, I find myself internally rationalizing the necessity of early planning. A topical analogy seems evident as the 2012 Presidential Election is one year from today.

Are you willing to hear what your customers have to say, knowing some of it could be ugly? Does the way you interact with them reflect their needs – or your frustrations? And most importantly, are you prepared to respond – really respond – to the insight, and set your own milestones or benchmarks for improvement?

If the objective is to appeal to the audience, then why do so many B2B companies approach communications like a bad first date--only talking about themselves? There is a better way.

Many companies don’t think twice about dropping tens (sometimes hundreds) of thousands on focus groups while simultaneously ignoring a golden opportunity staring them in the face with social media.

Part two of a four-part series to help B2B marketers understand more about this powerful qualitative research methodology and the “how to’s” of conducting in-depth interviews. This blog covers advantages of in-depth interview methodology over traditional focus group for B2B marketing research.

Part one of a four-part series to help B2B marketers understand more about this powerful qualitative research methodology and the “how to’s” of conducting in-depth interviews.

Have you been considering the need for a mobile app, or better yet, a mobile website? Here are some thoughts and statistics that could change the way you look at your audience and their interactions with mobile devices.

The changing landscape of interactive marketing, social media and digital technology challenges marketers to become proficient in these new areas of advertising in a relatively short time. But, as busy, working professionals, how do we find the time to learn about them?

Today, decision-makers include Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y (or Millennials) and now Gen U. Each demographic is unique. Delivering messages and information using appropriate channels is becoming more complex and challenging. Gaining insight into our audiences is critical if we hope to reach prime decision-makers.

A recent study released by the Pew Research Center found that 65 percent of adults who spend time on the Internet are using social networking sites. What does this mean for B2B marketers?

Recently I stumbled upon an article about education in the New York Times online archives. It’s a wonderful resource for market research – a treasure trove of 13 million articles going back to 1851.

The article was entitled, "To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test".

Highly regulated companies inherently require more confidentiality/privacy than most. These companies often ask how they can confidently engage in social media, given all the red tape – or what seems like red tape. Here are five initial thoughts to consider.

Online secondary research can provide credible support to insight you may already have about your customers, markets and industries…and most of it is FREE!

Skewed survey results, due to preconceived ideas, can be built right into the wording of questions. Here are 6 tips for avoiding this pitfall.

Do you ever hear this around your office: “Research is too expensive. And anyway, we know who our customers are.” We recently completed a project that proved how, in B2B marketing, a little insight leads to a better strategy, which drives a better creative solution. And it isn’t as difficult, time-consuming or expensive as you might think. 

An old-time baseball player once said, “If you have any questions, just go ahead and ask. Of course, be careful who you ask.”

Jerry Thomas, CEO of Decision Analyst, a leading international research firm and friend of Godfrey, distilled some great guidelines about when and where it is appropriate to use qualitative research.

The basic building block for co-creation in marketing or business endeavors is asking questions: i.e. research. Asking the right questions of ALL key stakeholders who will be involved or benefit from the solution.

Done properly, primary B2B research can set up, not just a “win-win,” but a “win-win-win,” benefiting a company, their customers and their end users, the consumers.

It used to be good enough to say, “We know who our customers are.” But now, it is important to challenge assumptions and make the effort to find out more about your customers. Technology has changed the game completely.

I remember earlier in my ad career working on a national B2C account. I was new to this piece of business and responsible for in-store promotions and packaging. The client understood the value of research and was very thorough. Attending focus groups and reviewing research data with us was common.

Secondary research can be very helpful. But do you know where the information comes from? If not, beware hidden agendas and biased results.

You may be wondering how to integrate infographics with your B2B brand. Recently I stumbled upon an excellent example of a statistical infographic that is a perfect representation of what to do and what not to do all at the same time when creating a viral B2B campaign.

Stratifying can enhance the precision of a sample estimate without increasing the sample size. In other words, you can get the same level of precision by either drawing a larger random sample, or by using a well-thought-through stratified random sample of a smaller size.

Social Media is all around us. Smart B2B marketers recognize that through social connections, information that is shared (good and bad), can impact the thoughts, attitudes and beliefs of individuals and groups.

It seems that everywhere you look on the web, more and more statistics and studies about the use of social media arise – so much so, that you can find secondary research to support essentially any claim you want to make.

It is that time of year, summer is behind us, fall has arrived with pumpkin flavored everything, football, and 2011 planning. As we work with clients to help form marketing communications strategies or allocate marketing budgets, now is the time we recommend including research into the budget.

Has your product or service offering changed or evolved? Does your new offerings appeal to a broader audience than your existing customer base? Do you know who your new prospects are? To reach new prospects, do you need to leverage new channels of distribution and communication? B2B Research may be the surest way to get answers to these questions.

In an interesting academic study titled: Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day inferred from Twitter, researchers at Northeastern University and Harvard University, studied over 300 million tweets (Sep 2006 - Aug 2009) collected  represented as density-preserving cartograms (nice graphics).

Many folks (me included) are not thrilled with AT&T iPhone service. Have I bashed AT&T? Yes. Did I buy into the general premise that there was general dissatisfaction with their service? Yes. Why?

There is a new iPhone, Google is taking over the world and you just spent fifteen minutes updating your status, re-tweeting, checking in and getting a jump on your email before you got to the office. It shouldn’t be news that your marketing mix should consider mobile.

I can't overemphasize the importance of writing good objectives for a successful research outcome. It is the cornerstone of tackling a research project.

Before you cut into your marketing budget or scrap all plans for conducting research, ask yourself this question:
Is insight into an industry’s perception of your company, competitors, prospects and clients something you can afford to pass up?

It's easy to find resources to help when you need to come up with a creative idea. But what about those times when you have the perfect idea but aren't sure what to do next?

If you’re considering a quantitative B2B research study, there are two key areas to keep in mind when determining sample size: desired reliability of the results and the budget. Obtaining a good sample can be a the single largest line item cost in a B2B marketing study.