J. Walker Smith is the Knowledge Lead for the global consulting and strategy practices of Kantar. Walker has been described by Fortune as “one of America’s leading analysts on consumer trends.” He is co-author of four highly regarded books, a conference keynote speaker, a blogger, a columnist and a former public radio commentator. He is a 2021 inductee into the Market Research Council Hall of Fame and the 2020 recipient of the American Marketing Association’s Charles Coolidge Parlin Award for outstanding contributions to the field of market research. He is a 2012 inductee into the North Carolina Journalism and Media Hall of Fame. In 2014 and 2015, he won the WPP Atticus Award for Strategy and in 2013 for Consumer Insights. Walker holds a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Consumer Opinions Are Mushy in
Planning & Buying Insider on
07/30/2025
Consumers do not care as much as marketers do about brands and advertising. Asking detailed questions about things not central to people's lives runs the risk of generating mushy data.
- Convenience Rules in
Planning & Buying Insider on
07/16/2025
Convenience trumps everything. No matter how innovative or cheap a brand may be, if it's not easy to use it will fail. More importantly, convenience is the secret sauce for success. Because
convenience rules.
- Trend-Followers, Not Trend-Setters in
Planning & Buying Insider on
07/02/2025
Marketing struggles when it tries to be a trend-setter. We can sell culture -- and sell it well -- but marketing can rarely if ever can create culture, and certainly not create it out of whole cloth.
- Central To The Value Proposition in
Planning & Buying Insider on
06/18/2025
There is always something new and improved in advertising and marketing, but only rarely do these fads and inventions go to the heart of a brand's value proposition.
- Demographics Matter Most in
Planning & Buying Insider on
05/21/2025
For all the talk of futures, macro forces, trends and market dynamics, demographics matter most. There are many external factors shaping market conditions, but they are all conditional on
demographics. Everything derives from household needs which are themselves rooted in the demographics of household structure.
- Reference Points Line Up Everything in
Planning & Buying Insider on
05/07/2025
Reference points line up everything. It is impossible to assess our situations in the world in the absolute. We need reference points: something against which we can compare our situations to see if
they're good or bad, worse or better, proper or improper.
- Trust Comes From An Alignment Of Interests in
Planning & Buying Insider on
04/22/2025
Trust is everything. And nothing. Even brands and institutions that are deeply mistrusted can still succeed. Which is precisely the way of the world these days. Everything is mistrusted, yet
everything still works, at least well enough.
- Marketing Is Not An Exact Science in
Planning & Buying Insider on
03/26/2025
For the most part, though, marketing can get by perfectly well with imprecision. All that matters is knowing whether one choice is better than another. It doesn't matter how much better or how much
worse. It's yes or no, on or off, launch or shelve, the current or the new. A big enough chance of success or not. Above the threshold of action or below.
- Marketing Is About Wants, Not Needs in
Planning & Buying Insider on
03/12/2025
I can hear you gasping, but bear with me. Unless consumers want something, it doesn't matter whether they need it or not. They won't buy it. Wants, not needs, motivate purchasing.
- Clutter Is People's First Impression Of Marketing in
Planning & Buying Insider on
02/26/2025
Consumers have no gripe with marketing, especially not with ads. Consumers like ads. What they dislike is clutter.