Forrester's Next Big Idea

The Forrester forums are generally content-rich events featuring top-notch keynotes by Forrester analysts and highly influential business leaders. The Consumer Forum, held October 28-29 in Dallas, TX, did not disappoint. In fact, almost all presenters provided valuable insight, best practices and/or big ideas that should shape how marketers think about and communicate with their customers.

The Day One highlight was most certainly James McQuivey, (@jamesmcquivey) whose presentation, Satisfy Consumers for the Next Decade and Beyond, introduced the next Forrester Big Idea: People share a set of universal needs - connection, uniqueness, comfort and variety; satisfy those needs with convenience and you will win.

McQuivey believes that if you know your customers' need profile - and how it can vary over time - along with your company's Convenience Quotient - a single score that expresses your products/services' benefits minus barriers to adoption - you can prepare your brand for the future.

McQuivey gave a perfect example of convenience- the digital camera. Adoption rates climbed exponentially once barriers - price, availability, ways to print - were eliminated (Approx. 70% of US Households now have a digital camera, according to Forrester's North American Technographics Benchmark Survey). Convenience = benefits - barriers.

In the near future, Forrester will be developing consumer need profiles and more importantly, will report how those profiles vary, especially in a time of economic uncertainty. They'll also measure brands' Convenience Quotients to help companies understand how they compare to competitors and/or different ways of meeting the same need.

To keep up with James McQuivey - and to read his thoughts on the future of consumers - check out his blog, OmniVideo.

And check back in with me for more posts on the Forrester Consumer Forum.