The subtle theme of this year’s Market Research Event was cross-pollination or how market research influences and is influenced by other disciplines.  Daniel Yankelovich explicitly made this point during his keynote address about the interplay between social scientists and market researchers.  Yankelovich argued that the real breakthroughs in behavioral research over the past 40 years have originated from market researchers.  Since social scientists are academics, they are not enthusiastic about recognizing work from for-profit researchers whose primary objective is to figure out how to sell more of a product/service.

Steven Leavitt continued the cross-pollination theme more subtly during his discussion of his work on Freakonomics.  His research partner was an anthropologist/sociologist.  Both disciplines informed the research methodology and results analysis — creating a stronger work.  Organizationally, companies are using cross-functional teams to develop and launch products, believing that the soup to nuts approach is more productive and efficient than silos. 

Hopefully, next year’s Event will continue this intriguing theme and offer more examples of how market researchers can learn from other disciplines.

Posted by Samantha