Nokia is back for me

Yesterday I picked up a new phone - a Nokia E71. It is fantastic and it has been 6-7years since I have had a Nokia. I have had the phone for 24 hours and have worked out 90% of what I need to know.

In the early days of mobile phones I was extremely brand loyal and loved Nokia phones. I would not consider anything else. Somehow i ended up trialing lots of different phones and PDA's, Samsung and HTC mainly, between 2000 to present. I think tried something different because everyone seemed to have a Nokia and it was nice to be a bit different. I was not however really happy with any of these phones.

How things have changed in 2009. When I needed a new phone, i was advised to get a new HTC, IPhone or Blackberry. Something about these phones didn;t feel right for me and I decided to go back to Nokia. Why? I think it is because this phone was not common and every person you see has a blackberry or new Iphone.

So back with Nokia, its a little different than the pack but its a great handset (so far)

Who is tinkering to get the engine right?

I recently read in the UK based RESEARCH magazine that WPP Boss Martin Sorrell, described his groups Insight capability as one of their "engines of growth". Good news for the research profession if he is right which I suspect he is. It will only work however researchers (both part of WPP and everyone else) are able to deliver the insight in an engaging format, suitable for business in 2009 and beyond.

In the same magazine, there was an article titled "Research Skills must evolve with consumers", from the Advertising Research Foundations, Chief Research Officer, Joel Rubinson. He challenged the research industry to learn and incorporate a new set of skills to gain insight from consumers online. Hearing the unexpected and paying attention to the new vocab were mentioned. His view said that insights gathered from Social Media sources need to be merged and integrated with insights gained from more traditional research data collection methods.

We have a big job to do to ensure we are being trained to do this to ensure the growth engine is well tuned. When I look at training being offered by most professional societies now, i see more of the same courses that have been present for 20 years. We need to invest now. Any thoughts on what we can do?

Precious Time

check out my May contribution to Research News entitled "Time is precious so stand up for it"

http://www.amsrs.com.au/index.cfm?a=detail&id=3206&eid=161

Lets not waste time, there is too much in the world to do, see and experience!

99 Design Brief

Hey designers, here's the photos of me I was talking about in the brief. Also here is the banner of Colmar Brunton and it's associated colours.

Cheers,

Aussie Researcher

daily clutter buster

i am finding that it is easier to get responses from senior people or people you see infrequently by using linkedIn vs traditional email (i think it is a facinating fact that we can now refer to email as traditional). why is this so?

Maybe its the spam filter updates!

Could it be that LinkedIn is relatively new for many or are people concerned about getting a poor reputation on LinkedIn or maybe worse, a recommendation rejection? I think many people including me are struggling to keep up with the daily email deluge, holding emails in drafts for later when you have time to think. i deal with 150+ emails a day and probably only 2-3 issues to deal with in linked in.

I am becoming a big fan of linked in, although starting to find the LinkedIn groups contact too frequent. What do you think ?

Check out my April article in Research News, the brilliant monthly magazine of the AMSRS. The article is entitled "The C word that is here to stay"

http://www.amsrs.com.au/index.cfm?a=detail&id=3181&eid=160

C of course is for collaboration. I think that when times are tough, collaboration becomes more important than ever. Do you agree?

Will business ever be the same again?

I presented at a AMI breakfast seminar this week, talking about Australian consumer sentiment and its impact on the recession. The key metric in all of this is to track how confident people are in keeping their job. When there is a growing number of people that are most concerned with losing their job, they are more conservative in their spending.

Link

When things level out, which brands will be the ones that win?

What role do you want to play?

See my article in the March 09 Research News.

Link

We all have a job to do right now to talk about the important of investment in market and social research. So what are you doing about it?

linkedIn i like it

I have not been sure about LinkedIn for a while now. People ask to connect to me and I always accept, i have been asked to answer short suveys using linked in and it is interesting that you can be linked to people from all around the world. Last month, i contacted on of my contacts and set up a meeting in Sydney. I felt brave but it worked a treat. I was able to schedule a coffee with a really useful contact at reasonably short notice and i am confident it will result in us both receiving business. Barack Obama is the only name i recognise in the top50 linkedIn people - so its not about celebrity or how famous you are. Linked, connection, will it make business easier or less personal?

Reshaping the game in 2009

check out my presidents report for February in Research News.

Link

Let me know if you agree or have a different view