Strategic Planning Director
Kent Stones
After graduating from business college in 1982, Kent spent eight years in customer service and pharmaceutical sales before discovering his true calling—consumer research. After completing a grueling year-and-a-half of graduate school, he’s applied his craft to understanding the B-to-B world of chemical sales; new product development and customer satisfaction modeling in pharmaceuticals; leading a multidisciplinary research team at a major mutual fund company; introducing rapid prototyping methods in a new business design team; running his own research company; and lastly, finding where he was meant to be at Callahan Creek, where he digs into why consumers do the things they do. Some of the companies he’s worked with over the years are Dow Chemical, Marion Laboratories, Abbott Laboratories, Heineken, American Century, Tropicana, Coca-Cola, Miller Beer, MBNA, CommunityAmerica and Children’s Mercy Hospital.
Kent studies the social sciences, anthropology, cognitive science and documentary filmmaking processes to make sense of the myriad structures behind what drives us. He loves to tell a great story and is so energetic about learning consumer behavior, his passion is contagious.
Blog Posts by Kent Stones
Digital assistance that doesn't wait for you to ask for help
Last week I shared a perspective about digital assistants and how I believe these are going to change how we interact with companies - and in a big way. There is another side to this “assistance”...
read moreDon't let the digital assistant revolution pass you by
Think mobile devices have had a big impact on our lives? Get ready for that impact to move up the scale to enormous.
read moreNewsletters by Kent Stones
Weather the storm when competitors innovate
One of the biggest challenges any marketer faces is knowing how swiftly or strongly to react when the competition introduces something new. This article will provide you with a simple framework for how to respond to innovation and the disruption it can cause for your business.
read moreWhat specialty brands can learn from art
I had the privilege recently of helping a local non-profit art center think about their brand and develop a strategy for increasing the support and use of their facility. They were facing a significant problem: despite their 35 years of service to the community, funding sources and participation were not...
read moreWhitepapers by Kent Stones
Why specialty brands must deliver an incredible shopping experience
A primary reason people continue to spend money on specialty brands is the psychological payoff they get, described by economists as “psychic income.” And in today’s environment of comparison shopping and careful spending, shoppers won't spend time or money on a specialty brand if the entire shopping experience doesn't deliver on this psychic “buzz."
Understanding the psychic income your brand delivers is not just nice to know, it's something you must know.
Read about three critical areas that influence psychic income and thought starters for designing a shopper marketing strategy.
read more
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