NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GfK’s John Wittenbraker (Global Director of Innovation, Brand and Customer Experience) will host a workshop at this week’s Insurance Industry Customer Experience Symposium. His session will focus on the concept of relational intelligence and its relevance to marketers today.

The symposium is being held today and tomorrow at the American Management Association Executive Conference Center in New York City,

The GfK workshop, “Using Relational Intelligence to Build Stronger Brands,” will challenge traditional views held by brand managers towards consumers. By embracing concepts such as relational intelligence and the human nature of customer-brand relationships (CBR), companies can build stronger longterm connections with consumers.

The symposium’s theme, “Creating an Entirely Differentiated Insurance Customer Experience,” targets insurance carrier c-suite members, insurance leaders, and teams in charge of customer experience management. Less than 100 attendees are expected, providing an intimate setting for connecting with GfK’s innovative thought leaders.

“As much as managers claim credit for profitable relationships, they rarely look inward to learn why relationships evolve as they do and sometimes break down,” said Wittenbraker. “If brand relationship management is to be effective, tractable systems sensitive to relationship portfolio dynamics are needed.”

Wittenbraker also co-authored the Symposium pre-reading article, “Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships,” which was notably published in the July/August Harvard Business Review earlier this year.

About GfK

GfK is one of the world’s leading research companies, with around 13,000 experts working to discover new insights into the way people live, think and shop, in over 100 markets, every day. GfK is constantly innovating and using the latest technologies and the smartest methodologies to give its clients the clearest understanding of the most important people in the world: their customers. In 2012, GfK’s sales amounted to €1.51 billion.

To find out more, visit www.gfk.com/us or follow GfK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GfK_en.