Learn One Thing. Have Fun. Meet One Person.

Many of us are regulars at the weekly 29-minute industry event I refer to as ‘the Jamin Tuesday Series.’ For over a year now, Doug Keith and I continue to recruit, prep and introduce speakers for these weekly events. The goal of the meetings is to learn one thing, have fun and meet at least one person. This networking event has grown and changed, but one constant remains…we learn one thing for 7-9 minutes. Then we break into groups for another 18 minutes to meet one another, answer a key question and to have some fun as we brainstorm together.

One of the Tuesdays in July, in that 7-9 minute set up portion of the meeting, I spoke about the changes to the industry. To be fair, even before the pandemic, the industry had already begun to change. In September 2020, the Top 50 Market Research & Data Analytics, sized our market at $29.6B globally. Yet, through the pandemic, the Insights Association, ESOMAR, and other industry groups continue to collaborate and re-draw the outline of the industry. Melanie Courtright, CEO of Insights Association, presented industry data provided by Outsell Inc. in partnership with ESOMAR that talked about the ~$89.9B industry (US Comprising $47B of that). Kristin Luck, President of ESOMAR presents the slide saying that our industry is “larger than the $70B global coffee market.” Additionally, Pat Comer, President of Lucid, created this view of our industry (below). It is a ‘Where’s Waldo’ view that truly reflects the sheer number of amazing companies in our industry.

As the Insights Industry re-defines our expanded Industry context, consultants, job seekers, and research companies have to reflect on this context in order to differentiate and to be memorable.

So, for the 18-minute breakout sessions in the series, I posed the single question “Who are you? The question could be interpreted as “who is your company in this context?” or “what is your personal brand?” (for job seekers or consultants in the industry).

In the breakout rooms, we discussed just that: who we all are. With 4-6 people in each breakout room, it gave time for the smaller group to discuss the key question. For me, I’ve been reflecting on a few ideas that were brought up in my breakout room:

• Consultants, such as colleague Lisa Horwich, have found that specializing “B2B Researcher” vs generalizing “Researcher” has helped their businesses to take off because narrower positioning is more understandable and memorable. Is hyper-targeting the key for future success?
• Job seekers, like participant Jonah Lichtman, are spending time focusing on categorizing themselves for the time-starved recruiters by saying they seek a position as a “Research Associate” or ”Sales Associate.“ In Jonah’s case, Research Associate.
• Res-Tech companies (research tech) spoke about the power and features of their platform and ecosystem, DIY/DIFU (do it yourself/do it for you) service models, agility, scalability, democratized data availability, and speed. Res-tech companies spoke about their power/features. This area of the industry has been booming, and our industry should look to this for the future of what clients want/need, and strategize how best to fold this into their business model, or further differentiate themselves from the pack.
• CMB is a Relationship/Consulting company, and differentiates itself on research acumen, consultation, full-service custom and tailored design, rock solid service/execution, advanced analytics, storytelling deliverables, and activations.

Though half of the year is over, now more than ever it’s critical to remain relevant in a market that is constantly evolving. Knowing who you are whether it be your personal brand or company is essential to success. To learn more about how CMB can help you with your relevancy, contact us for more information.

What is the Jamin Series?

• The goal of the meeting: Learn one thing. Make one friend. Have fun.
• The 29-minute format: Intro 3 minutes; a speaker talks for 7-9 minutes and asks a question. Next, everyone moves to breakout rooms for ~18 minutes to introduce themselves and discuss the question. 2-minute recap by one of the 70+ attendees.

Join us every (or any) Tuesday at 11am PT/2pm ET. Add this link to your calendar: https://zoom.us/j/304919847?pwd=NGtEWnBHaXVTTVUza1h4Zk82SEZmUT09.