QRCA VIEWS Podcast

Naomi Henderson opened RIVA in 1981 and is its CEO, directing policy and procedures for two divisions: Research and Training. She is co-founder of the RIVA Training Institute, where she serves as a Master Trainer writing curriculum for public and custom courses and fulfilling her dream to leave the industry in better shape than when she entered, by training researchers in the art and science of rigorous qualitative research techniques. Naomi has been a researcher since 1964, and has led more that 5,500 focus groups and interviewed more than 60,000 people in groups or individually and is a nationally recognized Master Moderator. She is most responsible for the well earned phrase sought after by moderators and potential clients alike: “RIVA Trained Moderator”.

Naomi holds a M. Ed. and a B.S. in Education and Psychology from American University. She is a licensed practitioner of NeuroLinguistic Programming [NLP] – a tool that accelerates the collection of behavioral data. As well, she is a certified Master Coach and has earned certificates of completion from Synectics, and the Creative Problem Solving Institute. She is a guest lecturer at George Washington University, Georgetown University and Hood College.

She writes a quarterly column, “Reflections,” for the American Marketing Association Journal of Marketing Research. She is also a frequent contributor to Quirk’s Market Research Journal on issues related to qualitative research. She has been quoted in American Demographics, Forbes and the New York Times. Appearances on TV include CBS Evening News, PBS Health Week, and NBC Dateline.

Finally, she is the author of a new book, titled Secrets of A Master Moderator.

She is interviewed here by QRCA VIEWS Business Matters Editor Kay Corry Aubrey.

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Bill Abrams is President and founder of   dedicated to ethnographic marketing research since 1983.  Housecalls has conducted ethnography for many Fortune 500 companies, including food and beverages, personal care, computer, household, financial, oil and gas, insurance, battery, camera and retail categories.

Bill is co-chair of the ethnography SIG for the Qualitative Research Consultant’s Association. He is the author of The Observational Research Handbook – Understanding How Consumers Live With Your Product. He has written a number of articles for various marketing research publications, and has spoken at various research conventions and meetings. He has appeared on national, French and Canadian TV, in The New York Times Magazine and a variety of other publications. He has taught at Columbia Graduate School of Business, and at the University of Illinois.

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Dorie Clark is a strategy consultant who has worked with clients including the National Park Service, the Ford Foundation, Yale University, and Google. Clark served as the New Hampshire Communications Director for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign and the Press Secretary for former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s race for Massachusetts governor. She has been published in the Harvard Business Review and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and BNET, the business division of CBS Interactive. Prior to her work as a communications specialist, Clark was a staff writer for the Boston Phoenix, covering local politics and policy and winning two New England Press Association awards. She was also a regular contributor to the Boston Globe, Boston magazine, and Commonwealth magazine.

Clark is as an adjunct professor of government and communications at Emerson College, Tufts University, and Suffolk University, and is a frequent media commentator on New England Cable News, WGBH, and other outlets. A member of the LeadBoston Class of 2009, she is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College and Harvard Divinity School. She is the former Vice-President of East Somerville Main Streets, and serves on the Board of Overseers for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Board of Visitors for Fenway Health. Learn more – and access hundreds of free podcasts and articles – at dorieclark.com.

She is interviewed here by QRCA VIEWS Business Matters Editor Kay Corry Aubrey.

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Liz Van Patten is a veteran qualitative research consultant with more than 25 years’ experience discovering insights for dozens of client companies, advertising agencies, government and industry groups.

As head of her own qualitative research consultancy since 1987, Liz has provided customized, highly professional qualitative research services to dozens of Fortune 500 companies. Her business philosophy relies on building partnerships with clients and managing research investigations with creativity and flexibility.

Through her newest venture, Liz designs and executes domestic and international online qualitative research projects and online insight communities in financial services, Internet,
e-commerce, CPG, retailing, pharmaceutical/health care, energy and other industries.
Liz is particularly skilled in branding research, and has worked closely with leading branding consultancies managing qualitative research for brand identity projects across a wide range of product and service categories.

Currently serving on the QRCA Board of Directors, Liz also received the 2008 QRCA President’s Award for her work producing QRCA Qcasts, monthly webinars targeting client users of qualitative research. Liz is a popular conference and webinar speaker about online qualitative research topics.

In 2008 she co-founded See Me Speak Communications, a consultancy devoted to helping research professionals improve the development, design and delivery of in-person and remote presentations. For more information visit www.seemespeakcomm.com
Contact Liz at Lvanpatten@aol.com

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Co-Directors of the consultancy, BrandVisioning, these senior level creative directors have brought their intuitive brand of creativity to global businesses around the world. Among other techniques, they specialize in the use of hypnosis focus groups for deep dives into consumer brand perceptions. They’ve strategized and created some of the industry’s most memorable campaigns: The Best Part of Waking Up … for Folgers coffee. It’s Your Life. Feed it Right… for Slim-Fast. Moms like you choose Jif…for P&G. We Fit America for Fruit of the Loom. They’ve worked their magic for Disney, Duncan Hines, Kool-Aid, Olive Garden, Dove chocolates, Post cereals, Land O’ Lakes, The Egg Board, Fresh cosmetics and so many more. With heart and soul, and delicious ‘eat the screen’ visuals, their work connects people to brands, and brands to their people. They are interviewed in this latest podcast by QRCA’s own Sharon Livingston, Ph.D.

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Ilise Benun is an author, consultant, national speaker, founder of Marketing Mentor and co-producer of the Creative Freelancer Conference. She is on a mission to teach people who work for themselves how to take control of their business and get the work they want, which she does through one-on-one, as well as group, mentoring.

She speaks around the country to trade associations such as the UPA, Her books include “Stop Pushing Me Around: A Workplace Guide for the Timid, Shy and Less Assertive,” “The Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing,” and her latest, The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money: How to Think About It, How to Talk About It and How To Manage It (HOW Design Books, Spring 2011). Sign up for her Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor at: http://www.marketing-mentortips.com

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Bill Hartman is the Director of Research at Essential – a product, interaction, and service design consultancy in Boston. Bill has a broad background in user-centered design and has led multi-disciplinary programs in a range of industries. He has a particular interest in ethnographic research and collaborative design methods as means to humanize technology in compelling and differentiated ways.

Bill’s design research and strategy work has helped providers of devices, systems, and services better serve the needs of their businesses as well as end users. His recent work has included building products, medical devices, web portals, mobile applications, online communities, materials-handling systems, consumer electronics, and pro-audio equipment.

Bill speaks at design and innovation conferences and is an adjunct lecturer at Bentley University in Waltham, MA. Prior to starting the design research group at Essential, Bill worked as an independent consultant, was a Vice President of Product Development at Fitch Worldwide, and was a Director in the user experience group at Scient/Razorfish. Bill is a graduate of Davidson College (A.B.) and the Institute of Design/Illinois Institute of Technology (M.Des.).

He is interviewed here by QRCA VIEWS Business Matters Editor, Kay Corry Aubrey.

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Sean Campbell and Scott Swigart are the co-owners of the Oregon-based company, Cascade Insights. Together, they have built two different businesses over the past 10 years, in the broad arena of technology industry- focused marketing and consulting.
Their first business, founded in 1999, was a technical consultancy whose clients included some of the largest companies in the software and hardware fields. While building 3 Leaf, Sean and Scott also wrote three books on best practices in the technology industry, two of which were published by Microsoft Press and one by Intel. After growing and developing the company over six years, Sean and Scott sold it and founded Cascade Insights.
Cascade Insights, founded in 2006, focuses on providing competitive intelligence, qualitative market research, and strategic marketing services to clients in the hardware and software industries so that they can more effectively assess, compete with and beat the competition. Most recently, they have written Going Beyond Google: Gathering Internet Intelligence.

They are interviewed here by QRCA VIEWS Podcast Editor, David Van Nuys, PhD, .

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Mary Ellen Bates is both the beauty and brains behind Bates Information Services, where she provides strategic business research for business professionals and knowledge workers. Before launching her business in 1991, she worked for many years as a corporate librarian. She never developed the quiet Librarian Voice, however.

Mary Ellen offers strategic business coaching to new and long-time info-entrepreneurs, and is the author of six books, including Building & Running a Successful Research Business (Information Today, 2nd edition, 2010). She is also a frequent keynote speaker. She, her partner, her dogs and (soon) her bees live in the boondocks of Colorado. You can reach her at 303 772 7095 or through her many virtual existences.
email: mbates@batesinfo.com

web: BatesInfo.com
blog: LibrarianOfFortune.com
Twitter: mebs
LinkedIn: maryellenbates
Facebook: maryellenbates

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Andrew Ballenthin is a marketing consultant and president of Sol Solutions with 18 years experience in this field. Having worked with corporations like Harley Davidson, Labatt, Quebecor, Volvo Group, Sharp Electronics, UPS and Texaco Andrew enjoys the challenges of complex growth plans. His 10+ years in digital marketing and work with small businesses have enabled him to apply flexible branding, integrated marketing and growth programs in this space too.

Over the past two years Andrew has spent over 2,500 hours working with social media from a marketing and business perspective. One of Andrew’s key insights in this field is that the biggest hindrance to success in social media for businesses is the failure to apply good marketing and peer networking practices. He is interviewed here by QRCA VIEWS Business Matters Editor, Kay Corry Aubrey.

Follow Andrew on Twitter – www.twitter.com/solsolutions
Andrew’s Latest News – www.communitymarketing.typepad.com
Andrew’s International Network – www.linkedin.com/in/andrewballenthin
New! Andrew’s Facebook – http://groups.to/socialmediamonetization

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