Sept. 24, 2008 

Over the years TRC conferences have given practitioners information they need to get maximum value from their research dollars. We continue this tradition in 2008, with a significant change. This conference will be a collaborative effort between TRC and Rice University with presentations from both parties. It is a unique opportunity to bring together the most recent developments in academia and practice for the benefit of corporate researchers and marketers.  

As always, our conferences will spend less time on numbers and equations, and more time on how common but powerful statistical techniques can best be applied to everyday research. The sessions will emphasize real research examples and encourage interactive discussions about best practices.

We also see our conference as an opportunity to help the less fortunate among us. Toward that end the entire conference fee ($395) will be donated to Philabundance,the largest hunger relief organization in the Philadelphia area. Over the years they have been a great source of support for the needy and in these difficult economic times their task becomes even more critical. We are proud to partner with them and contribute to this worthy cause.   

In keeping with our Conference Series tradition, the event will be held at the Union League located in the heart of Philadelphia. The Union League was founded in 1862 to support the policies of Abraham Lincoln and our sessions will, in fact, be held in the Lincoln Room under the watchful gaze of a large statue of the 16th President.  The building is a classic, built in 1865 and is listed in the National Historic Register. The Union League is less than a 5 minute drive from Amtrak’s 30th Street Station and about a 20 minute drive from the Philadelphia airport. There are two large parking garages located right next to the building. Driving directions and maps can be found on the Union League website.        

http://www.philabundance.org/
http://www.unionleague.org/index.php
http://www.jonesgsm.rice.edu/jonesgsm/Default.asp

Agenda

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Registration/Breakfast: 9:30am - 10am

Introduction: Richard Raquet, President, TRC

Session 1 – Maximizing the Value of Research

In order to maximize the value derived from research, several areas of the research process can be explored – most notably design, analysis and reporting. This session will focus on each of these areas specifically and look at ways in which answers can be generated and distributed to aid in the service of maximum businesses impact.

Design/Data – Traditional (Surveys, Experiments), Non-Traditional (Markets, Database)
Analysis – Traditional (Regression), Non-Traditional (Linkage)
Reporting – Traditional (Static), Non-Traditional (Web-based Dynamic)

Session 2 – Financial Impact of Customer Satisfaction Programs

Most companies realize that customer satisfaction improvements are beneficial, but quantifying these improvements in financial metrics may not be easy. This session will focus on the impact of customer satisfaction programs on the financial performance of companies. Using case studies and results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index at the University of Michigan, this session will discuss how companies can assess the return on “satisfaction investments” at the customer, firm, and industry level and thereby focus on optimizing rather than maximizing satisfaction.

Lunch (Provided)

Session 3 – Impact of Customer Satisfaction Surveys on Respondents      

Recent research has shown that responding to survey questions can have substantial effect on a participant’s subsequent behavior. Such effects are broad-based, influencing a variety of relational customer behaviors, and are persistent, occurring for up to a year after participation in a single survey. In this talk, we will review research demonstrating this effect for purchase intentions and customer satisfaction surveys, and explain the underlying reasons why it occurs. On the basis of these findings, marketing research can be re-conceptualized as an investment into a customer relationship with a net positive return on spending rather than just a cost center to generate customer insights. We will discuss how marketing researchers can benefit from this effect in depth.
 
Discussion

Concluding Comments: 3:00pm, Richard Raquet, President, TRC

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Speakers

Rajan Sambandam, Chief Research Officer, TRC

As CRO, Rajan oversees all aspects of the research and analytical activities at TRC. He has extensive experience in data analysis and has expertise in using both traditional and advanced analytical techniques. Over more than a decade, he has worked with companies spanning dozens of industries and possessed of unique problems. Rajan’s research has been presented at several conferences and has been published in both academic and practitioner-oriented venues. He is the principal presenter at the TRC Market Research Conference Series (since 1999), an annual event aimed at discussing traditional and advanced methodologies for key driver analysis, new product development and segmentation. He writes the Insightology blog on www.trchome.com. Rajan graduated with a Ph.D. in marketing from the State University of New York at Buffalo and has an undergraduate degree in engineering.

Vikas Mittal, Professor of Marketing, Rice University

Vikas is the J. Hugh Liedtke professor of Management-Marketing at the Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University. He is widely published in all the top marketing and psychology journals and he is one of the country’s leading researchers in the area of customer satisfaction and its impact on financial performance of the firm. He brings a practitioner’s perspective to academia having consulted with a number of firms and having worked at TRC early in his career. Among the various awards he has won for his research, the William F. O’Dell Award for making the most significant, long-term contribution to the theory, methodology, and practice of marketing stands out. Previously he held the Thomas Marshall Chair in Marketing at the Katz Graduate School of Management at the University of Pittsburgh, and prior to that was at the Kellog Graduate School at Northwestern University.     

Paul Dholakia, Associate Professor of Marketing, Rice University

Paul’s research interests lie in studying motivational psychology of consumers as it relates to customer satisfaction and decision-making and online marketing issues such as virtual communities and online auctions. He is a leading expert in the area of understanding the impact of customer satisfaction surveys on respondents. He has published in a number of marketing and management journals (including Journal of Marketing Research, Harvard Business Review and Marketing Science), and consults with firms in financial services, energy, health-care and other industries. Paul has a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Operations Research from Ohio State University.