Cinzia Marchetti

Humanizing marketing research: a bright future ahead

In the increasingly data-heavy environment, several challengies have impacted the marketing research function in these last 10 years and has put in the spotlight the role, the authority, the intellectual leadership of the job in Companies of any size. First of all, the technological revolution is bringing and will continue offering several breakthrough innovation to our set of methodologies&tools, paving the way to new competence and skills development: neuro science & AI, big data analytics, predictive markets, agile insights to mention the most relevant. Secondly, the quality and depth of the insights guiding business decisions cannot rely on existing consumer&shopper expertise anymore, and have to successfully execute new data integration. Last but not least, developing an acute understanding of how data streams relate to each other require bot granular analytical capability and holistic level of interpretation. All these events and implications are not putting our job at risk! On the contrary they are creating a brilliant opportunity to ride the evolution towards a new marketing research era: where the key concept driving us ahead should be humanization. Let’s focus on cultivating new profiles in our teams upskilling our staff; let’s overcome data points overload and develop new actionable pattern of understanding; most of all, let’s boost brain intense added value to empower business decision not based just on visceral attitude or hard empiricism; let’s pursue the right combination of cognitive, emotional and intuitive sense of the results when delivering them. The new world of big data and agile approaches will be the stage of marketing research renaissance, if we will be able to become excellent cultural interpreter not just data scientist – and dig, develop, visualize from simple numbers sharp, inspiring stories to the benefit of our Marketeers.

PROFILE

A highly experienced manager in Market Research, with a proven track record in love mark multinational companies. At the beginning of her carier she worked at Lavazza, then becoming the International Research Manager for Europe and US, helping the brand to grow and to expand through a better understanding of its consumers. After 7 years at Lavazza, she moved to Unilever where, as Head of Market Research, she was part of the Household Cleaners European Innovation Center. Since 1999 Cinzia works at Barilla as Director of Consumer Insights at Global level, function that she renamed as “Market & People” department, under the vision that a global big brand like the ones managed at Barilla should break the boundaries among the different people’s being as consumers, citizens, employees and shoppers. Extremely passionate about innovation and cultural change, finding new perspectives in the ways of understanding behaviours to the benefit of business opportunities is what rewards her the most. This, providing the company with the best innovation tools possible and the marketing with robust&sharp insights. She graduated in Semiotics in 1988.