Posts by Alter Agents
Brands Take Note: Boycotts are No Joke
Consumers are voting based on their beliefs through boycotts and social media activism. This power is real, and brands should take note of the influence of politics on shopping behavior. Rebecca Brooks covers this issue in detail in a recent article on MediaPost, where she gives brands some ideas of how to put a proactive plan…
Read MoreLottery & Gaming Research Redefined: How to Meet New Consumers on Their Own Turf
“The following article was first published in the January/February 2018 issue of NASPL’s Insights magazine, and is reproduced here with permission. Copyright North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. All rights reserved.” For the original article, please visit page 16: https://www.nasplmatrix.org/insights?i=70 At my market research firm, we specialize in finding out just what makes the…
Read MoreWorried About Your Millennial Strategy? Calm Down
Millennials may not be as mysterious as you think…at least that’s what a Millennial at Alter Agents – Mike Dickerson – had to say in his recent article on MarketingProfs blog. MarketingProfs is a hub with tools for the modern marketer and regularly shares expert strategies – like Mike’s – to help their participants take marketing…
Read MoreWhat Consumer Purchase Behavior Says About the Latest Retail War
Phil Dance recently wrote for leading retail publication, Progressive Grocer, weighing in on what market research is telling us about the Wal-Mart vs. Amazon battle. Widely covered in the news media, Amazon’s recent deal with Whole Foods pushed this competition to a new level. Both giants are scrambling to provide the necessary mix of online and…
Read MoreBrands Need to Start Asking: Who Am I?
Alter Agents Mike Dickerson recently contributed an article for the Business2Community blog contending that brands need to start adapting to consumer demands. The first step? “Know Yourself.” The article, entitled “When Everything Else is Changing, Know Yourself: Brands Adapting to Consumer Demands”, provides insight into brand success in a marketplace where an ever-shifting consumer landscape is…
Read MoreNo More Wobbly Wheels
As tech embraces the food industry and the food industry embraces tech, consumers will be the real winners in this battle. As tech embraces the food industry and the food industry embraces tech, consumers will be the real winners in this battle. Over the last several years as these industries have collided, several startups have…
Read MoreHow to Craft the Perfect Personalization Campaign for Shopper Promiscuity
Use this formula to personalize your marketing and keep shoppers coming back. One morning I did what I do on many weekday mornings: I opened up the Starbucks app on my phone and put in my regular order, a venti cold brew. The app knows me, or at least knows who I am as a…
Read MoreConsumer Insights as Alignment with Customer Needs
We often think of our customer’s relationship to our product category in isolation, removing crucial outside influences that may shape purchasing behavior. Consumer preferences are a bit more complicated. As retailers, marketers, and brand managers, we often think of our customer’s relationship to our product category in isolation, removing crucial outside influences that may shape…
Read MoreGearing Up for Year’s Most ‘Anxious’ Holiday
Supermarkets are well positioned to make the most of Valentine’s Day. Some say you can’t put a price tag on love, but each year the National Retail Federation (NRF) does an annual study to do just that, and last year love cost the U.S. $19.7B with year-over-year growth. This makes love the second biggest U.S.…
Read MoreIf the Questions Don’t Matter to Your Customers, the Insights Won’t Matter to Your Business
…the Insights Won’t Matter to Your Business If the short survey is still asking consumers questions that don’t matter to them, then the answers will still be distorted by our respondents’ boredom. What can we do as researchers to improve the situation? Many of us in market research, especially those in methodologist and data science…
Read MorePutting Shoppers First in Your Research
Market research can benefit from thinking in terms of brand alignment rather than brand loyalty argues Alter Agents’ Mike Dickerson. With a vast amount of information at their fingertips, consumers are now willing to switch brand allegiance in unprecedented ways. Shoppers have come to expect new and better in all categories, and they are willing to follow through…
Read MoreThe Decline of Black Friday is a Victory for Consumer Focus
“As the pull of Black Friday as a shopping event fades, it gives us as marketers an opportunity to reflect on what holiday shopping means to consumers.” It’s that time of year again: no, not Thanksgiving, Black Friday! The annual shopping-bonanza that produces both $5 TV deals and local news stories about over-eager customers trampling…
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