GreenBook Future List Spotlight: Lauren Murphy

Outside of insights, what are your passions and interests?

I’m interested in anything that gets me outdoors. This ranges from exploring my city and enjoying brunch al fresco to running and biking in my neighborhood to birding and hiking in local parks. I’m not hugely competitive, but I love challenging myself and have completed a few sprint triathlons and an adventure race. I’d love to do the New York Marathon one day when large gatherings are possible again and look forward to a return to traveling and exploring new places.

When I’m forced indoors by weather or a global pandemic, I lean to puzzles, arts & crafts, and video games to keep me occupied.

 

What’s a fun fact about yourself that would surprise people to know?

I’ve spent a lot of time working with animals. In my early 20’s I worked as a part-time educator at a Zoo and had the opportunity to get up close and personal with animals like Giant Pandas and Komodo Dragons. In my life as an academic researcher, I studied the evolution and development of emotion processing and decision making, using eye tracking to compare how chimpanzees, baby monkeys, baby humans, and trauma-exposed teens and adults view social and emotional cues. This type of research is important to our general understanding of cognition but also impacts how researchers measure and treat mood disorders like depression and anxiety.

 

Since starting your career in MRX, what would you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

Making the GRIT Future List! As someone that left academia three years ago, unsure exactly how market research would receive my brand of thinking, this feels like a huge achievement. As a psychologist, I know the science behind imposter syndrome, but that knowledge doesn’t prevent any of us from feeling it! To make the GRIT Future list is hugely validating for myself and for others from non-traditional MRX backgrounds who can bring fresh ideas to the way we understand consumer behavior. However, no matter how hard you push as an individual, your ideas must be welcomed and championed by your peers and colleagues, and I credit the supportive, innovative thinkers at LRW, a Material Company, for encouraging me to keep pushing.

 

What are three skills you believe to be crucial to succeed in market research and why?

Empathy: one of the best ways to serve our clients is to put ourselves into their shoes to deeply understand what’s important to their brand, but also what’s important to them as individuals – who their stakeholders are, how this research will impact their reputation and self-image. It’s also important to put ourselves into the mindset of the consumer and consider how deeply – if at all – they may be thinking about their decisions and how decision-making factors are likely to differ across demographics.

Creativity: there’s a psychological term called “functional fixedness” that describes the tendency to use known tools and solutions in the same way we’ve always used them and missing novel applications. By pushing ourselves to think outside the box, we can help our clients solve their most challenging research problems.

Perspective: while we often design research to solve proximal research questions, we need to keep in mind the ultimate objectives of enabling brands to better meet their customers needs.

 

What do you think the key characteristics or qualities of a leader are? How does this play into MRX?

We’re all familiar with the idea that leaders should lead by action rather than by instruction, but I think it goes a little further. Leaders should model the behaviors and qualities they hope to inspire but also clearly articulate the thinking and motivations that led them to action. We take the same approach to understanding our consumers, as similar actions may be motivated by very different thought processes, beliefs, and emotions. Sharing the thought processes as well as the outcomes that result from those processes allows us to better understand the needs of others and help each other accomplish our goals.

 

If you could change one thing about insights, what would it be?

If I could change one thing, I would loosen the hold that traditional KPI’s have on the industry. While having a yardstick to measure performance against is essential, there are many ways available to us now to evolve that yardstick into something multi-dimensional that more effectively reflects a brands performance. Our understanding of consumer decision-making has deepened, and we should consider measures like brand identification, emotional and fundamental needs, and habits and routines as opportunities to better understand what’s driving behavior. For example, tracking shifts in the strength or rigidity of existing product habits may show up in the data sooner than shifts in consideration or preference.

 

What challenges do you see facing newer MRX professionals as technology advances?

Mobile survey taking has been increasing at a dramatic rate, and the technologies available in mobile devices are only beginning to be harnessed. Rather than treat mobile devices as mini-computers, we need to rethink the way that we can use these powerful devices to learn about consumer behavior. Understanding how consumers interact with, think about, and behave when using mobile devices will open up new opportunities. In addition, given that many consumers keep their devices on hand most of the day, they provide the opportunity for more in-the-moment research that removes some of the memory and cognitive burdens that may cloud traditional insights.