The rules that previously shaped the industry have been torn apart by digital disruption. So TRA managing director Andrew Lewis looks to rewrite the playbook.
Browsing: Andrew Lewis
Products don’t exist in a vacuum. And the circumstances they’re experienced in play a much bigger role than we realise, says Andrew Lewis.
TRA broke the champagne on its fancy new office in Britomart this year (and developer Peter Cooper called “the best fit out in the precinct”). And it’s about to do it again, this time in Wellington.
The difference between consumers’ claimed behaviour and actual behaviour is often vast. And while marketers like to have concrete data to make plans, Andrew Lewis thinks they need to become better at observing customer behaviour.
Marketers have so many tools available to them to target customers and personalise communications. But they still need to bear in mind how people arrive at the front door in the first place, says Andrew Lewis.
At a time when he is being coaxed into commercial activities through nostalgia, TRA managing director Andrew Lewis reflects on why it’s important for brands to attach their experiences to consumers’ memories.
One of the persistent public views that exists around marketing and advertising is that these industries are great manipulators of us all, creating in us silly desires and passing fancies that divert us from a virtuous life path and empty our wallets with the skill of a pickpocket. And when one looks at something like the furore created by Lewis Road Creamery around chocolate milk, it’s pretty easy to see how people might start musing on this. But the truth is that we are a much less Machiavellian lot than our fancy milk would suggest.
TRA has always positioned itself as one of the cool kids of its sector and its previous High St office looked more like a trendy agency than a dowdy research company. It’s taken that even further with its new office in Britomart, which developer Peter Cooper has pronounced “as the best fit out in the precinct”. And it’s bringing a few new clients along with it after winning the Spark, Toyota and Te Wananga o Aotearoa research accounts.
You might not think there are too many similarities between treating syphilis and differentiating brands, but you’d be wrong, says Andrew Lewis, because it illustrates the importance of combining theory with practice.
Like beards and Jennifer Lawrence, customer centricity is having a bit of a ‘moment’ currently. But in this rapidly changing nation, we’re not listening hard enough to what customers actually want, says Andrew Lewis.
Incremental innovation might actually be hindering, not helping growth, says Andrew Lewis. So brands need to start acting like entrepreneurs if they want to find those breakthrough insights.
During the global financial crisis, the amount spent on research in New Zealand declined significantly, and the industry has struggled to gain back that ground after the recovery. But The Research Agency has grown at around 120 percent per year since it launched in 2007 and it has big ambitions to maintain that. Managing director Andrew Lewis discusses the reasons behind the company’s recent rebrand to TRA, the importance of embracing different disciplines, and why consumers need to be brought into the heart of the business.
Andrew Lewis thinks that despite 50 years of research, practice, learning and refinement, we are still pretty rubbish at creating great brands that genuinely connect with people. And he thinks the secret to rectifying this might lie in the teachings of Stanislavski.
In an age where product information is readily available, Andrew Lewis says brand advertising is losing its efficacy in directing consumers’ choices—and it may even be making brands irrelevant.
Whether it’s trips to Cuba or brands and businesses, memory trumps experience in the human brain, says Andrew Lewis. So you need to design your services with that in mind.
Viewership of broadcast TV is declining here and around the world. And, in correlation, some consumers appear to have largely checked out of advertising altogether, writes Andrew Lewis. So a reliance on brand-led communications to drive engagement will be found wanting.
Those in this industry often suffer from the ‘Curse of Knowledge’, says Andrew Lewis. So it’s important to get outside ourselves to understand the everyday consumer.
To be a great brand, consumers simply need to get a sense of the personality though its actions, rather than have it delivered fully formed, says Andrew Lewis.
Who are brands really talking to on social media? The converted, says The Research Agency’s Andrew Lewis.
The consumer may always be right. But let’s stop pretending consumers know what they’re doing, writes The Research Agency’s Andrew Lewis.
Digitally connected consumers in New Zealand use wireless and mobile technology to make their lives easier and save time, shows the latest report from Nielsen. But other studies show technology hasn’t made life easier or more fulfilling at a fundamental level. PLUS: an infographic on the state of digital play in New Zealand.
People don’t really understand the things they buy, says Andrew Lewis. And that’s the way
they seem to like it.
While the research industry as a whole shrinks, The Research Agency continues to grow, with new staff, new clients and a few awards in 2012. Main brains Andrew Lewis, Amber Coulter and Connon Bray speak up.
We live in a world of information overload, says Andrew Lewis. And as consumers start entering ‘The Age of the Cull’, brands that enhance life through digital connections are the only ones likely to survive.
Colmar Brunton has just released some survey results that show 60 percent of New Zealanders follow a brand on social media and more than two thirds think a social media presence adds to the brand’s appeal. But what those consumers say when they’re talking to those brands is another, very different question. So we thought we’d republish a column by The Research Agency’s Andrew Lewis that ran in the last issue of NZ Marketing and detailed the interesting results of a survey on how people interact with brands on social media.
Much like That Difficult Second Album Syndrome, it’s very hard for companies to keep up the growth required to make it back onto the Deloitte Fast 50 list. But, perhaps not surprisingly considering it now works with big clients like IAG, ASB, Volkswagen, Frucor, NZ Lotteries and Vodafone, Auckland boutique The Research Agency managed to do that this year, ranked as the 42nd fastest growing company in New Zealand after taking 29th position in 2010. Here’s what tickled the fancies—and got the goats—of its two partners Andrew Lewis and Amber Coulter.