Nicole Lenord (left) and Samantha Parker

More than 70 people, including clients, staff and trade press, assembled at the Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli in early April for The Leading Edge’s third client conference. The number of clients in attendance had doubled since the first event was held about 18 months ago, says TLE managing director Derek Leddie. The purpose of the event was to demonstrate how market research has led to significant return on investment in the marketplace. TLE researchers and their clients jointly presented five case studies, profiling very different research projects, methods and impacts.

Jane Huxley, director of the enterprise partner group at Microsoft and Lyndall Spooner from TLE spoke about the company’s customer satisfaction survey research that facilitated a major conceptual shift in its channel partner strategy. The research showed an 18-percentage point improvement in customer loyalty and the partner pipeline has since grown by 340 percent.

Nicole Lenord from TLE joined Samantha Parker, general manager of marketing at David Jones, on stage to discuss how research helped the retailer win over a hostile community after it acquired John Martins in Adelaide.

Cheryl Hayman, marketing director at George Weston Food’s Baking Division and Kristin Hickey from TLE explained how a new approach to research had helped expand the retail value of the Tip Top brand by $22 million in six months.

Lynette Constable, head of insights and planning at the Coca Cola Company, and Karen Phillips at TLE talked about choice modelling (see cover story), while the final paper was presented by David Thomason, general manager of marketing at Meat and Livestock Australia and TLE’s Philamae, who spoke about the use of neuro-psychology in research to maximise lamb’s brand positioning.

Related articles:
Choice modelling: the method more are choosing
Opportunities for research in the boardroom, but will the researcher get in the door?
TLE adds a little colour
TLE launches Whetstone
The Leading Edge starts with staff retention

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