Unilever marches from market research to the "I Function"

This event report outlines why Unilever, the FMCG giant, is moving beyond old models of market research to embrace the "I Function".

Unilever marches from market research to the "I Function"

Geoffrey PrecourtWarc

Marie Wolfe, director of research innovation/consumer and market insights at Unilever, didn't pull any punches in her address to The Market Research Event (TMRE), a conference held by the Institute for International Research (IIR) in Boca Raton, Florida.

"It's time to re-launch the industry," she insisted. "Market research emphasizes the process and not the potential of what we can do to transform our businesses and our world."

Wolfe even had an analogy to support this contention: "Runners spend a lot of time in the gym perfecting their quads,...

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