Auckland: Tuesday 24 March, 2009 (sold out*)

Professor Edward McQuarrie is the Associate Dean for Assessment in the Leavey School of Business and Professor in the Department of Marketing at Santa Clara University. Considered to be a leading VOC expert, McQuarrie is also the author of two ground breaking books on the subject including Customer Visits: Building a Better Market Focus and The Market Research Toolbox: A Concise Guide for Beginners.

His research interests include implementation of a market focus, qualitative research, and technology strategy, on the one hand, and advertising research on the other. He has published articles in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Customer Psychology, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Marketing Management, Marketing Research, Journal of the Market Research Society, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and others. His depth of knowledge in the topic area is reflected in support from the Marketing Science Institute among others.

Professor McQuarrie has twelve years of experience moderating focus groups for Burke Marketing Research of Cincinnati, has consulted for a variety of technology firms, and has taught seminars on Effective Customer Visits, Managing Focus Group Research, Marketing Research Methods, and similar topics for Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, Digital Equipment, Apple Computer, Compaq Computer, Informix, Sybase, Varian Associates, Cadence Design, and others.

Read the article from Unlimited Magazine, April 2008 - Listen up! The art of customer visits.
Prof Edward McQuarrie promotes organisational leadership, not 'followship', to creat product features that meet customer needs.

* The ABC's of customer visits - when to do them, how many are enough, how to assemble the team, how to ask the right questions and how to report out the key findings

* How to understand what customers can (and cannot) tell you - stop wasting time on questions that don't work and identify questions that will yield real insight!

* Analytical tools to link the Voice of the Customer to product design and key business decisions

* How to gain the organizational buy-in required for a successful customer visit program

* Why a cross-functional team approach for customer visits is a MUST and how to prepare these teams for success

Managers and Directors of New Product Development, Engineering, R&D, Product Management, Marketing, Technology, Quality, Business Development, Strategic Planning and any position with responsibilities related to identifying and responding to customer needs and market developments.

The customer visit technique was developed to meet the special needs of industrial and B2B markets. Specific industries that will gain the most benefit from this seminar include: computers, electronics, industrial equipment & supplies, medical devices, financial services, hospital supplies, and building infrastructure.

* Where Customer Visits Fit in the Market Research Toolbox
* Planning a Program of Customer Visits
* Selecting Which Customers to Visit
* Designing a Discussion Guide
* The Art of Constructing Good Questions
* Honing Your Interview Skills
* Analyzing Customer Visit Data
* Wrap-up and Action Items

1. When to do customer visits, when to do focus groups, and when it's better to engage in some other kind of market research entirely.

2. What it takes to gain organizational buy-in and how to do it.

3. How to calculate how many customers, across which segments, you need to visit in order to collect actionable data.

4. The importance of assembling a cross-functional team to conduct customer visits and how to prepare these teams to succeed.

5. How to design a discussion guide to maximize the effectiveness of a series of customer visits - know what topics to include and how to sequence them.

6. What customers can tell you (and what they can't) - learn how to construct questions that uncover real insights.

7. How to assess the economic value of a proposed solution in the eyes of the customer.

8. That customer visits can serve dual purposes, both to gather customer input and build relationships.

9. Interview techniques that will help you identify needs that customers cannot vocalize - and know when and how to probe further.

10. Analytical tools for linking the Voice of the Customer to product design and key business decisions.

Ed is returning due to popular demand. This course was fully subscribed when run in July 2007 and February 2008.

Registration & Information

Standard Rate: $850 + GST pp
Group Rate: $680 + GST pp (3 or more people) = 20% discount.

Register your interest for Ed's next visit to NZ

Ed is returning due to popular demand. This course was fully subscribed when run in July 2007 and February 2008.
MARCH 2009 WORKSHOP - SOLD OUT

For more information contact Sandra Lukey, email sandra@smartnet.co.nz; phone (03) 374 6753 ddi or (03) 3667 874.

"This workshop is a must attend event for innovators who want to be market driven".

Dr Richard Mander

"Most product development is driven from a technology perspective. About 15 years ago Ed McQuarrie taught us how to run a customer visit program at Apple. Since then I've seen Ed's process applied successfully on many projects at Microsoft, Apple, Palm and in much smaller startups. Ed McQuarrie is a world authority and this is a great opportunity fot NZ companies".

Dr Richard Mander