Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The
Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com
Views in Person
Since my last two conference presentations in October and November,
I have been asked if I would consider coming to individual companies to
share my views on consumer research. The basic answer is "yes" but I don't
plan to do as much as I have in the past. During the past year besides
the two conferences, I presented at one convention, three universities
and seven individual companies, basically one a month.
Topics included the following:
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Researching Research -- a summary of a 15-year program designed to understand
the weak areas of consumer research and the root causes.
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Keeping the Pipeline Full -- an overview of areas and methods for exploration
of new opportunities.
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Packaging -- the Most Neglected Feature of a Brand Ten -- Personalities
of a Package
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The Not-So-Common Consumer Research Test Methods
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Highly Effective companies and You -- an approach to enhancing your personal
value in the company.
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Customer Research -- it is not just for companies that make and sell things
a view on enhancing relationships
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Ten-Step approach from Idea Generation to Market
The last question usually asked deals with "How much do you charge?" For
the past few years, very little. There are two approaches to the cost.
First, you pay my wife's and my expenses and there will be no bill. The
second is when I come alone, you pay my expenses and I will give you the
name of a charity. You send a check to the charity and you decide how much.
This could change depending on a lot of things (IRS included) but that
is how it stands at the present.
There is a third option, for instance, during the past year, Sorensen
covered my expenses for two of the universities and Elrick & Lavidge
covered the expenses for the third.
If anyone is interested, give me a call. So far for 1998 I have two
universities, one convention and two companies scheduled. As you can judge
from the payment schedule, income is not a motive. My motive is to stimulate
thinking about how we, in our profession, might improve our effectiveness.