A recent article in the Wall Street Journal observed that a recent trend in offices seems to an increasing use of whiteboard space, as well as visual props like sticky notes and construction paper during team meetings. Companies are pushing their employees to put down their smartphones and tablets, and instead draw out their thoughts the old-fashioned way.

With newly-popular products like IdeaPaint, which can be painted on most surfaces to create custom whiteboard space, practically every part of an office floor could be written on. And, if our always scribbled-on (often indecipherably so) whiteboards at the Corporate Executive Board are any indication, your colleagues will love the freedom to sketch out ideas wherever they please.

The theory is that allowing people to doodle freely has many beneficial effects. It not only fosters creativity by helping people get their ideas down right when they spark, but also eases communication between colleagues and conveys emotions to make ideas stick. As a universal language to fall back on during a meeting, doodling can help surpass barriers such as differences in language and technical familiarity.

Looking for other creative ways to achieve these same results? Take a look at some of the best practices we’ve uncovered:

• P&G and Amway’s Gust-Busting Experiences: P&G and Amway each developed multi-sensory, realistic, and interactive sessions with business partners to create powerful learning moments that allow them to internalize new ideas.
• H.J. Heinz Co.’s Interest-Provoking Tactics:  Heinz pulled together a series of engaging interview and pop culture videos in their presentations to easily communicate their insights and ensure that they will stick in executives’ minds.
• Corning’s Hypothesis-Based Research Process: Corning fostered idea generation by creating a team of market researchers and R&D scientists, and encouraging them hypothesize novel ideas and insights as early and often as possible without waiting for data to come in.

Related Resources:

• Engineer Learning Moments
• Communication Skills Development
• Insight Generation Toolkit
• How to Teach a Know-It-All
• Don’t Try to Overpower Other Info Sources, Co-Opt Them

Now that spring is here, I’ve been heading outside to enjoy the fresh air, blooming flowers, and newly-green trees (FYI – D.C.’s famous cherry blossom trees had their third-earliest peak bloom last week!). For those of us living in suburbia, springtime also comes with fun activities like lawn-mowing, spring cleaning, and a general dusting-off of things left alone during the winter. This might involve taking stock of a yard and driving to the hardware store for some quick fixes. Other folks begin by first checking out what the neighbors are up to for ideas.

Much like attempting a home DIY project without the right blueprints, tools or inspiration, restructuring an organization can be painful and frustrating. To alleviate these struggles, the Market Research Executive Board provides a handy set of organization profiles as a benchmarking tool, useful for seeing how other teams are structured within the same industry, team size or business model.

While our original profile collection has been popular, we are always looking to keep them current and as interesting for members as possible. For this reason, I am excited to announce that our latest research project will be to create a new set of organization profiles. In particular, we hope to depict in greater detail how companies are arranging regional and global research units, particularly as market research departments become more globalized.

The more companies that participate in this project, the more valuable these profiles will be to anyone using them. We encourage you to be included by taking our survey. Like our original profile collection, all company names will be hidden; the profiles are available simply to give members an anonymous peek into their neighbor’s yard and see what the possibilities are.

As we compile our new profiles over the coming months, we’ll keep you updated on what we’re finding. As always, we would love to hear any feedback, particularly on what you’d like to see in the upcoming collection, so free to email us or leave a comment below!

Segmentation studies are all too often a nightmare for market research departments. Mismatched stakeholder expectations, high costs, difficult to measure ROI, etc., can cause sleepless nights for already overwhelmed researchers.

Now, try conducting a segmentation study with all these problems in mind – but without any demographic or attitudinal data. Sounds impossible, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, many market researchers trying to segment their online audiences share this dilemma. The concealed nature of the Internet – where anonymity reigns and privacy is valued – means that little personal information is available unless visitors provide authentication information. Since most websites do not require visitors to log-in, lack of data is a major obstacle.

The good news is, there are workarounds. Online segmentation may never look exactly like traditional segmentation but when done effectively, it can still be useful for any companies operating in the online space. The availability of free web analytics tools such as Google Analytics makes behavioral data accessible to all web teams at a basic level. With some know-how and creativity, even limited behavioral information can yield interesting insights.

MREB Members, learn more about how to effectively segment online consumers here.

For additional resources, read our research brief on integrating data analytics with market research or our full study on operationalizing segmentation studies.

If it’s not L’Oreal aiming to double its sales in Brazil by 2015, it’s Volkswagen planning to build a $2 billion facility.  Countless multinational corporations have been gearing up to take advantage of the millions of newly-empowered Brazilian consumers in the market. For many, Brazil is the new frontier and quite frankly, a strategy for growth during a weak economy in the U.S. and Europe.

Researchers should be aware of the quirks of conducting projects in Brazil versus other countries. Specialists on the country explain, for example, that with the enormous variation in geography, climate, wealth distribution, and ethnic makeup, Brazil often seems like many countries in one.

Recently, the rapid expansion of the middle class has forced researchers to think deeply about how best to reach out to these newcomers. As consumers, they tend towards novelty and buying on credit, but are often inexperienced in purchasing decisions and product-testing.

Here are three key points that a recent MREB research study uncovered:

• Results skew positive – Since 2003, a whopping 35.5 million people have moved into Brazil’s middle class, many of whom are purchasing large-ticket items for the first time ever. Experts warn that survey results tend to skew positively as many Brazilians lack the context to rate products accurately and are too polite to strongly criticize. Researchers can compensate by measuring responses against a baseline.
• Online panels still lacking – Even as millions of Brazilians move into the digital space, market researchers still complain about sub-par online panel quality. Lack of widespread broadband access also contributes to making online market research a less-than-popular choice of method. Face-to-face and telephone interviews continue to be the most effective though admittedly more expensive, methodologies to choose.
• High up-front costs – Experienced market researchers warn about the sticker shock of conducting research in Brazil. Interestingly, these costs have less to do with currency and more to do with sky-high interest rates and taxes, leading to expensive working capital and costs of labor.

MREB members, learn more about market research in Brazil in our newly published research brief. For those interested in other emerging markets, stay tuned for our work on Russia, China and India.

For additional resources, check out our work on Supporting Global Business Needs, Manage Dispersed or Virtual Research Teams, and Manage Offshore Research Teams.