"Make sure that we get a good regional representation." That has often been the charge from the marketing manager to the insights director. There has been a belief that different cuisines, climates, and experiences would have an impact on attitudes and tastes that could affect how consumers react to new products. So, we would be certain to conduct focus groups in markets in three different regions or that quotas were set to assure the sample represented the East, South, Midwest, and West equally. This was simply good research practice.

One of the biggest flashes of insight I had about the grocery was the realization that it could be just like the jewelry store.

I was walking through a grocery store with a woman as she shopped. We weren't even calling this a "shop-along" yet. She put something in her cart. I remember it being a jar of mustard. I looked at her, and she knew what I was thinking. "This is a little present for myself. No one else in the house really likes it." She paused for a moment. "I really like getting presents. You can't buy a new pair of earrings every day, after all."

Walt Dickie had done a very nice job of knitting together the trends in the adoption of various electronic devices. Certainly PCs are flattening out and will eventually decline. And, I agree there will be a time when virtually every cell phone is a SmartPhone. Walt also plots a curve that predicts exponential growth in the tablet/e-reader market, but backs off from the implications. "I've gone with a growth curve that can't be right in the long term - it has to flatten out - but might be okay in the short term."

I am not so sure.

The Marketing Research Event was buzzing with excitement and anticipation. What tales would we hear, what knowledge would we uncover, what trends would take center stage? And, in the end, on what new paths would we, as researchers, venture?

Insight development via storytelling and storytelling through data visualization were very much in the air. Many a session encouraged us, like Dorothy, to follow the yellow brick road toward our own Emerald City where insights break the confines of numbers and quotes and live within visually compelling stories.

By Walt Dickie, Executive Vice President

Tuesday's election is being hailed as "The Triumph of the Nerds." Barack Obama won the presidential election, but Nate Silver won the war over how we understand the world.

The traditional pundits were on TV, in the papers and blogs, interpreting what they were hearing and feeling. Peggy Noonan:

By Walt Dickie, Executive Vice President

In June, The Pew Foundation published some very interesting data on cellphone based internet use that packs some worrisome implications for a lot of online marketing research.