Thursday, April 24, 2014

Though it is below surface , most learning happens here : Unconscious mind

Today i was fortunate to get enlightened on the concept of 'foundation of marketing strategy by understanding consumers". The lecture was delivered by Jerry Olson Professor Emeritus, who is the
is a founding partner of Olson Zaltman Associates and Professor Emeritus of Marketing at Penn State University.


One of the unique things that i learned from the professor is that human unconscious mind hold so much information, that this information can help firms make and decide on competitive strategy. In marketing deep insights are needed. This insights are captured from the sampled people by giving them set of images and then they are asked some generic questions.

Based on the response a pattern is tried to be built using the patented ZMET tools and other methods. Interesting as it sounds, future managers of my class were enthusiastics in throwing diverse question to the professor whose model is one of the most successful. Though the competitors are trying to replicate the model, they are not yet been successful in replicating the exact model. 

The word that probably i will research more in coming days is metaphorsis analysis and how if it can be used to modify my questinaire in some of the upcoming projects. Overall the session left us inqistive and we hoped we had got more time to spend with the professor. 

The case studies on how one company rebranded its marketing strategy just before the product launch based on the results of prof olson and his team OR how the architects of hospital redesigned the ambience to make their comfortable place are perfect examples of some of the successful outcome of this models. Having worked with most of the biggest brands using the expertise of associates/partners from across the globe, the professor and his team are doing a great job in extracting deep marketing insigts for the industry.

Once the results are out from the research, they look simple. However it is due to this patented framework that most research have been able to meet its desired outcome and prove its usage across different verticals of industry. Wikipedia has a nice read on ZMET methodlogy at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaltman_metaphor_elicitation_technique.

You can also see the work done by the professors company at http://www.olsonzaltman.com/

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