Welcome to the #IIEX Europe Conference Series 2019. Recorded live in Amsterdam, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Matthias Kampmann, Head of Strategic Cooperations at quantilope.

This Episode’s Sponsor: 

GreenBook

Contact Matthias Online: 

LinkedIn

quantilope

[00:00]

Matthias today is joining me live from IIeX’s floor in Amsterdam. What do you think about the show so far?

[00:10]

Oh, it’s pretty great actually. Very international, I’ve been looking forward to this. Glad to be here.

[00:15]

Quantilope is the name of your company, tell us a little bit about it.

[00:18]

Yes, Quantilope has been founded four years ago as a startup in Hamburg. We are now at 70 people actually. We’ve just finished our series A funding and are expanding through the year. What we are actually doing is we are removing gut feel from all business decisions.

What does that mean? We are doing an agile way of working with market research by automating all the market research methods that are out there basically. For example, conjoined methods, mixative methods. All the hardcore statistical, geeky stuff let’s say.

[00:53]

Are you automating the analytic side of it or the whole project?

[01:00]

Yes, we’re basically in end to end platforms. You can start the project right within our app and then go do the survey within the app, program the survey, do all the field work within the app and then do your analysis part. In the end, if you like you can even do it in a dashboard and show it around. Yes, it’s fully end to end.

[01:20]

Is it web based, meaning desktop based, or mobile?

[01:26]

Yes, it’s only web based. You can absolutely participate on all your devices, but the experience for the researcher, it is web based.

[01:33]

Give me an example of a customer story, when they engaged with you.

[01:42]

For example, there are some companies that are starting to do more product tests, for example. Product tests usually take a lot of time and money and effort to do. What we are now enabling clients to do is have a product test, either bring their own product test to our platform or use one of our predefined templates. Then they can very quickly, in a matter of one or two days, really do a product test, then iterate on that.

[02:10]

It is a little bit like Zappi, isn’t it?

[02:15]

It’s a bit like Zappi in the sense that we’ve also got a tool store, but we do enable a lot of customization. You don’t have to use one of the templates. If you like you can do a whole new project, do your own tools so you are very flexible within the platform.

[02:34]

That makes a lot of sense. You said you’re A round?

[02:34]

Yes.

[02:35]

Congratulations on that.

[02:36]

Thank you.

[02:37]

That’s very difficult to do. Then, North America is where you’re headed next.

[02:41]

Yes, that’s basically one of the big plans, big reveals for 2019. We just opened our office in New York. Five of our people, sadly from Germany left us, for the US, for greener pastures I’m guessing.

[02:54]

You’re in Manhattan.

[02:56]

Oh, yes. We are right on Broadway, to be honest.

[02:59]

That’s great.

[02:59]

It sounds good, right?

[03:00]

Yes, it does. Actually it is good. It’s the right place to be.

[03:04]

I hope so, yes.

[03:05]

Yes, for sure. Any plans to move to the West Coast?

[03:07]

No, not at the moment. We’ll just get a feel on the American market because it obviously is quite different from the German market where we are best. Yes, just testing the waters now and see where we go.

[03:18]

Awesome, how exciting! Well, congratulations on your success.

[03:22]

Thank you.

[03:22]

If someone wants to get in contact with you, how would they do that?

[03:24]

Oh, they can best go to our website. That’s Quantilope.com and basically get in contact with us right there. Leave your email, use a chatbot, whatever you like.

[03:36]

That’s Quant-I-L-O-P-E. com. Quantilope.com. Thanks so much for being on the Happy Market Researcher’s Podcast, and hope you have a great time at IIeX.

Welcome to the #IIEX Europe Conference Series 2019. Recorded live in Amsterdam, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Maria Soroka, Managing Director, Europe, at Fastuna.

This Episode’s Sponsor:

GreenBook

Contact Maria Online:

LinkedIn

Fastuna

[00:03]

IIeX, we are live today in the trade show floor. This is the second day halfway through it actually. I’m sorry. Did you give me a business card?

[00:13]

I didn’t bring my business card. I should have.

[00:15]

Make sure I get one though.

[00:17]

Yes, I will. I will just bring my business card.

[00:20]

I’m here with Maria at Fastuna. Thank you very much for being on the Happy Market Research Podcast.

[00:27]

Thank you for inviting me. It’s really exciting for me.

[00:30]

You presented yesterday at the pitch competition?

[00:34]

Yes.

[00:34]

Tell me how it went. What’d you talk about?

[00:37]

I talked about my company. It’s not just my company, our company. The new startup, we launched just a year ago in Russia, and it’s been skyrocketing so far.

[00:48]

Congratulations.

[00:49]

Thank you. This year we are launching into Europe, and that’s why we’re here.

[00:53]

Tell me about the business. What do you guys do?

[00:55]

We are doing fully automated market research. Our unique selling proposition, we do believe we are targeting non-researchers. The platform is so simple that even a non-researcher can use it. You just log in, upload your stimuli, like let’s say product idea, just click the button launch, and then you get the results in just a few hours.

[01:22]

That’s spectacular.

[01:24]

Yes. It’s really handy when you run some brainstorming sessions, support and innovation, development or brand development like creative advertising and so on. Really the two that empower people, multifunctional teams within fast moving agile organizations to connect them in regularly ways to consumers.

[01:48]

You have specific product types then or survey types design?

[01:52]

Yes.

[01:52]

What are some of the more popular survey types that customers are using?

[01:55]

The most popular ones are around product idea at the early exploratory stage where you can upload stimuli like drawings or photos of the prototypes, for example, or any ideas of the services, that will be good visualization for consumers. There are a lot of ideas that we task around advertise in the really early stage before they go into proper link test, for example. It’s also very popular for visuals, video and a lot of clients do promo ideas because it’s really quick and cost-efficient share for your promo ideas as well.

[02:36]

You’ve been in the market research space for a while, right?

[02:39]

Twenty years.

[02:40]

You’re not old enough for that. During that time we’ve seen a lot of trends and changes and things like that in this space. Automation is clearly the word of the day in 2019. There’s no question about it. That’s what we’re going to be talking about for the rest of the year. I think on a go forward basis, I actually believe that automation is the new online survey. It is that disruptive? Right?

[03:06]

Yes. I agree with you, automation is like now this buzz word that everyone uses. What we discovered with Fastuna that simple automation is great, but it’s not enough. What we’re trying to make with the platform is add our specific magic ingredient, which is called simplicity. Basically, once you get everything automated what you want to do with your product to me to make it so intuitive, so easy to use. Basically, people feel really excited after they used it. We work with this wow factor.

[03:47]

I think if I was going to start a company right now it would be called Integrated Insights. I think that’s going to be where we end as an industry is insights integrated into the workflows of the brands across the organization with hopefully market research being the parent or the owner of best practices with those software solutions.

[04:19]

This is exactly this, because that was the message I was presented last week at the clerks and that was my message. If you imagine the big organization undergoing the huge transformation. What usually now they do, they try to create those multifunctional teams that can make their own decisions. However, what’s always unfortunately still happening is that they still don’t have enough product, processes and tools in place that can empower them to make this decision. This is exactly when you can use this automated simple services. They don’t need to run to market researcher. The market researcher can really be a help for those teams to guide them and be a strategic advisor rather than execute the projects, run the projects.

[05:18]

Market research can, one, help from a larger initiative perspective, so not really getting bogged down with a micro decisions that need to be made. Two, that market research can help add the value of the now what and so what of research. Making sure that insights are being consumed in a useful way and then it’s actually impacting and making change. If someone wants to get in contact with you, how would they do that?

[05:48]

Can you say it again?

[05:49]

If someone wants to get in contact with you at Fastuna, how would they do that?

[05:54]

You need to type www.fastuna.com. Fastuna is fast, una, but it’s actually combination of two words. Fast and tuna, which is one of the quickest fish in the ocean, with just one T. Then you go into the contacts and you see my name there and my colleagues there.

[06:16]

It’s Maria.

[06:17]

Yes.

[06:19]

My guest today, Maria at Fastuna. Thanks for being on the Happy Market Research Podcast.

[06:28]

Thank you, Jamin.

Welcome to the #IIEX Europe Conference Series 2019. Recorded live in Amsterdam, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Lucy Davison, Managing Director at Keen as Mustard Marketing.

This Episode’s Sponsor:

GreenBook

Contact Lucy Online:

LinkedIn

Keen as Mustard

[00:02]

Lucy Davison, Keen as Mustard. You and I have operated in the same circles and never met in person, which is a travesty.

[00:10]

It is.

[00:11]

Hello.

[00:11]

Hello.

[00:12]

Now, you’re getting ready to speak here, at IIeX, in just a few minutes.

[00:16]

I certainly am.

[00:18]

What is it you’re talking about?

[00:20]

It’s the great internal communication experiment, which was an experiment that we carried out with Coca-Cola. It’s all about getting engagement with insights from broader stakeholders within the Coca-Cola community. The problem the client at Coke had was that they had set up some wonderful systems, and libraries, and searchable platforms and they were doing a lot of wonderful work, but getting engagement from people outside the core stakeholders… We’re not talking about the brand manager of the Monckton guys, who was saying, “Can I launch my campaign?” We’re talking about accounts. We’re talking a broader operational audience, and they’re getting no traction. Now, those people need to understand and know about insights. They need to know about the work of the insights team because they can use that in their day-to-day job. But they were not engaging at all. So, we carried out an experiment to find out which type of communications could have most impact with that audience. We’ve since then started doing ongoing newsletters and infographics with Coca Cola and to deliver that.

[01:22]

By type, is it a mix of video, print word, audio?

[01:27]

Absolutely. Actually audio, funnily enough, wasn’t one. But what we did was a baseline, which was a simple HTML plain text email, so nothing else in it, just everything you need to know written in a text. We did a newsletter, which was a link through to the platform, S&I Connect, with more detail on it. We did video interviews, we did animated videos of the data and the results. We did an infographic. We did PowerPoint as well, because when you do benchmark… Because at the moment, they’re emailing PowerPoint, which I think is the case in most companies. We needed a benchmark to see what kind of impact that had, and we found that emailing PowerPoint was a complete waste of time.

[02:08]

This is going to be an exciting topic.

[02:09]

I hope so.

[02:09]

I have a funny story on that point, or relevant, maybe not funny. A chief insights officer for a major hospital network, they were trying to institute employee engagement with the data. The idea is that, “We have patient satisfaction data. We need to improve patient satisfaction. How can we get our employees to care about the reports?” Because they were forwarding PowerPoints or slides or PDFs of charts. She did a video, it was, “Give me 120 seconds,” kind of a thing. She just plowed through the content, and it was very well received and got a lot of attention, organizationally.

[02:53]

If you’re doing 280 individual research projects a year, and you’ve got three or four major trackers going on, you need to be able to institute this on an ongoing basis. We did two-minute video interviews with people talking about their project. We also did the animated stuff, as well. It was really interesting tracking what got the most traction. In fact, the face-to-face stuff… When you could send around those face-to-face interviews, those talking heads, as we call them, that had massive impact because people could see the person who was looking after the project. They could then feel more familiar with them and more likely to go back and ask them more and to find out more information. It was really key, and that was a useful way of doing it.

[03:29]

I can’t even remember off-hand, how long ago. It was a long time ago, I want to say about seven years ago, a major study with eBay. It was eBay and Amazon, and it was comparing and contrasting the two businesses. After producing the report… This was a full-service report that I helped put together, a side project, for free, just for clarity. The data wasn’t impactful. It was just charts, graphs, this-versus-that. We took recordings of respondents actually saying their verbatims, their open-ends. It made it all the way up to the board room, and I have the quote from one of the board members that said— This is a major company that spends millions of dollars on consumer research every year. They said, “This is the first time we’ve actually had the voice of the consumer in the boardroom.”

[04:20]

Boardroom. Yes, that the impact video, which is absolutely superb, and I totally buy that. I have to say that I don’t think we should take away from the storytelling within the individual reports anyway, because what we’re trying to do is drive people to the platforms. You’ve got your lake, we need people to go sailing. It’s getting people into the boat that is the problem. At the moment, we have a lot of the information. We have a lot of the systems and the platforms, but what we don’t have is the ability to get people into those boats and have them go sailing.

[04:50]

That’s a great analogy, and you’re seeing that bridge being the video element.

[04:55]

Not just video, no. You’ll have to come watch the presentation (laughter) to find out what was the winner.

[05:00]

I will definitely do that. Then you’re going to have to do a subsequent interview probably, to tell us what’s going on because this isn’t going to aire for a couple weeks.

[05:08]

Okay.

[05:08]

But… (Laughs.)  

[05:10]

I’m fine with that.

[05:11]

Awesome. Really quickly, Keen as Mustard, tell us about what the business is.

[05:16]

We’re a marketing firm, and we work exclusively within data and insights. We work with tech companies, we work with end-clients. We help them communicate their insights, and we do a lot of PR. We do a lot of content marketing, and we’re just about communicating insights, no matter what. That’s our mission.

[05:39]

I get you for one more minute. If you were a startup research company, and you had only… because you’re boot-strapped… you had only $20,000 to spend, only, in your first year. You’ve got to make this count. What would you do in marketing?

[06:00]

I’d definitely try and get on a platform. I’d be trying to get on a platform here, IIeX, or an SMR or one of the local events. I would definitely be trying to do some content that was new, original. I’d preferably be spending that money on actually doing some research on research, or something to prove the value of what my service offer was. I would be pitching that to the platforms. Then I would be using that to not only get contacts, so networking and database building, but also to get PR and exposure and awareness. That, I think, would be the most beneficial thing to do.

[06:31]

Yes, I was talking with— I won’t tell you which company, because this was off-the-record conversation, but one of the fastest-growing research technology companies in the last three years. Their CRO and I were talking, and he’s like, “IIeX…” In those days, it was Atlanta. He says, “It cost me $20,000 to give a speech, but I get in front of 600 buyers.” He said, “There’s just not a better ROI, when you think about the lifetime value of those 600 prospects.”

[07:01]

Absolutely, but you don’t even need to pay because you can go to… If you pitch to events like SMR, if you’ve got really good content—

[07:08]

It’s going to get picked up.

[07:09]

Then you can go up… You get on the platform for free. Obviously, you’re not going to be there pitching because you’re going to be presenting really nice, interesting insight from your study from whatever it is you’ve developed. By doing that, you’re going to be winning people over and getting people onboard.

[07:26]

That point you just raised, I glossed over it. I just want to make sure it’s crystallized, and that is, you add value when you speak, you don’t pitch. But a byproduct of adding value is a relationship. Relationships are where we do business.

[07:39]

Absolutely, and it’s all about building those relationships.

[07:42]

My guest today, Lucy Davison, Keen as Mustard. Thank you so much for being on the Happy Market Research Podcast.

[07:49]

It was a pleasure, thank you.

[07:50]

Good luck in your talk.

[07:51]

Cheers.

Welcome to the #IIEX Europe Conference Series 2019. Recorded live in Amsterdam, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Kristian Smith, Co-Founder and Strategy Director at GlobaLexicon

This Episode’s Sponsor:

GreenBook

Contact Kristian Online:

Linkedin

GlobaLexicon

[00:02]

We are live at IIeX Amsterdam. My guest today is Kristian Smith with GlobaLexicon. Kristian, thanks for joining me on the Happy Market Research podcast.

[00:12]

Thank you very much, great to be here.

[00:15]

Tell me a little bit about GlobaLexicon.

[00:19]

GlobaLexicon’s the biggest specialist market research focused translation agency. Operating worldwide with some very big clients, great portfolio focused on quality, have been doing very well over the last years.

[00:38]

How long has GlobaLexicon been around?

[00:39]

Two thousand four, but the first two, three years were probably in the second bedroom. Then you moved to a shared office of one, two, three. Probably over the last six years is really where we’ve put on the gas.

[00:55]

That’s the right way to do it though, isn’t it? Bootstrap the company, get to know the industry, product market fit.

[01:03]

Yes.

[01:03]

You’ve been there for eight years now.

[01:06]

Yes, so probably eight years, and then full-time essentially the last four, I would say.

[01:11]

Congratulations on that.

[01:13]

Yes, thanks. We have about 85 employees, so pretty good growth and good referrals as far as new business.

[01:22]

Maybe you could tell us a little bit why companies are choosing to use you guys over some of the competition, because there are a couple other companies out there.

[01:29]

Our key differentiator is we focus quite a lot on the quality aspect. Pricing is competitive, but possibly a little bit above. We focus very much on quality. We have an in-house linguist team, which most of our direct competitors, in fact probably all of our direct competitors, don’t have, in-house QA team versus using interns to quality check your material. Then that comes right up to the PM teams, who then have all of the notes, what we call delivery notes, that go right from the linguist team to the QA team, to the PMs and then out to the client. It’s very client focused. “Hey, we’ve noticed on question five, you’ve used this word, but we would suggest actually, in this market, changing it to this, and therefore the translation would be this instead of this.” There’s a lot of that kind of consultative service.

[02:24]

Language is so complex, because a lot of the communication is set in context. The words that we use in English to describe things versus Japanese, referencing the tea company behind me. That context, oftentimes I think, is overlooked or lost in translations for market research.

[02:54]

Yes.

[02:55]

It sounds like one of the things that you guys are doing is providing that lens for translation.

[03:02]

Yes, and it’s really, “What is that question trying to ask? What is the preceding question? Where are they trying to go with the research?” Which the team really pays attention to. Eighty-five percent of the revenue is market research, so the team is really focused on that for stuff.

[03:18]

That’s really interesting because market research is, in its own right, a language.

[03:23]

Right.

[03:25]

In a lot of ways, you’ve got to be fluent in lots of different…

[03:27]

Yes.

[03:29]

That’s great.

[03:29]

It’s going well.

[03:30]

If someone wants to get in contact with you, how would they do that?

[03:33]

Quote at globalexicon, G-L-O-B-A-L-E-X-I-C-O-N, dot com, and then the team picks it up. We go from there.

[03:44]

Of course, Kristian’s information will be in the show notes for this episode. How’s IIeX going for you so far?

[03:52]

I had an early flight. My son’s birthday was yesterday, so I stayed with him all day yesterday, and then left at 6:45. It looks very well attended, lots of good energy it seems, so looking forward to getting out there.

[04:06]

Good, I hope it’s a successful show for you. Thanks for joining me on the Happy Market Research podcast.

[04:10]

Thanks very much.

Welcome to the #IIEX Europe Conference Series 2019. Recorded live in Amsterdam, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Jenny Karubian, CEO at Ready to Launch Research.

This Episode’s Sponsor:

GreenBook

Contact Jenny Online:

LinkedIn

Ready to Launch Research

[00:02]

My guest today is Jenny Karubian. She’s based out of Los Angeles, California, which is like my backyard being in Fresno, of course. Ethnography research and strategy. Pretty good, right? IIeX Live Amsterdam, pretty good location. (Laughs.) She’s nodding. Tell me a little bit about your business.

[00:32]

An agency called Ready to Launch Research. We’re based in Los Angeles. We have a team of six of us. We primarily do all things qual, focus groups, interviews, ethnography, that’s something we really are passionate about at our agency, and a lot of hybrid studies. Most studies have some form of an online component as well as an in-person component, we’re doing a lot of that.

[00:57]

Tell me about a favorite project.

[01:01]

A favorite project!

[01:03]

Yes, a favorite, a stand-out project for you.

[01:07]

I did some non-profit research last year for an organization that wanted to talk to mothers about infant health. It was parents who had infants that had pretty severe illnesses. We traveled all over the country, we did this in six different cities and we met some really amazing moms all over the country dealing with a whole host of problems, things that ranged from partial infant deafness to conjoined twins. It varied a lot. And just learning about how parents really put their kids first in so many ways that it’s so nuanced and instinctual as well in how they work through these infant health issues so early on.

[02:00]

Was this done in a focus group facility or in-home interviews?

[02:04]

These were all in-home interviews, especially because parents of children of illnesses have a lot of difficulties traveling so we had to bring it to them. We tended to be in more remote areas, we did this in Idaho, Utah, and some pretty rural parts of Texas. Then we did some stuff in New York City which is a very different experience for people who are in a city versus people who are out in more rural American. It was very interesting to do in-homes in rural America because that’s not similar to what we typically do which tends to be more around the city. That’s where market research tends to happen most of the time.

[02:43]

Was there an “aha moment” in the findings that happened?

I’m thinking about the context of the insights. Focus group facilities are fairly sterile. Going into that home is much more intimate.

[02:56]

One of the big “aha moments” was how closely linked people’s financial well-being was linked to their child’s well-being. Even though everybody was putting the same amount of effort regardless of where they were, we could really see a lot of differences between people who were living clearly below the poverty line in middle America, versus people who are a bit more well off and living in Manhattan. Looking at how someone lives in their home is the quickest way to understand where they are in the social landscape of things, that was really clear to us by going into their homes.

[03:40]

It’s super interesting. It’s almost like that’s a sole other variable.

I did a study with Into It 100 years ago (laughs), where we had people take pictures of their desks that they worked at, then they would send us all of the pictures of their desks. It was really fun because it was a lot less about the desk and a lot more about all the stuff that was around it as it turns out.

[04:08]

Like what?

[04:09]

In that case, it was, they had a whiteboard or a corkboard. This helped. I’m not kidding when I say it was 100 years ago. (Laughter.) Corkboard! Anyway. It’s made of cork.

[04:22]

I’ve seen them before. (Laughter.) It might’ve been in a museum, but—

[04:25]

Yes, it might’ve been, exactly. Anyway, messy, that was an interesting part too. We had a bunch of transactional data on those businesses because this was in conjunction… Well, it was Into It, you know who Into It is, and it was all about board, et cetera, and some of it was self-reported, but you would see the relationship between the success of the business and… It wasn’t quite this clear, it was strongly correlated, and the messy factor of the stuff around, not on, but around in their office. Yes, it was a super interesting setting—

[05:01]

Were the messy people more or less successful?

[05:04]

I’m not going to say. Sorry.

My point though is that the broader view and actually being in-home, even though we weren’t technically in-home, the picture of the home was the key insight of that whole research. It’s funny that we’re talking about it now 20 years later, whatever… Yes, it’s about 20 years later.

That’s a standout research takeaway, and I have no idea what the charts and graphs where or all the hundreds of hours that went against the project, none of that. I still have pictures in my mind that stood out that we used in the presentation.

My point is that I feel like qualitative work is vital for our industry and we absolutely have to… Technology is creating this… Backing up, surveys are really conversations at scale, I need to do 1,000 surveys. Now with AI, qualitative can be done at scale to an extent, but you can’t replace the ethnography.

[06:28]

No, and it’s interesting. I worked on an ethnographic project that was with bicultural Hispanics in the US, our sample size was nine people. About a year later, another study came out that was a quant study, same topic, a sample of 5,000, different agencies did it. When I compared the findings side by side, we had learned the exact same things.

[06:53]

Really?

[06:53]

Yes.

[06:54]

That surprises me!

[06:55]

It was amazing, that was a huge moment for me because the studies knew nothing of each other, and to look at them side-by-side and to realize that from really getting into depth with people… Our in-homes were very intense. They were four hours long, an hour and a half were spent with the respondents’ closest friends at a place of their choosing, part was in-home and part was out at a restaurant or bar— Mainly restaurants and coffee shops. Very intensive four hours.

Then, this other study was a 20-minute survey, given all over the country, your national sample of 5,000 people, to see that you can reach the same insights through different scales was very significant to me.

Also, where we really came with the findings, a lot of times with ethnography, it’s not just about going to the homes and doing the research, it’s about spending the time to analyze the data. We had done a full day debrief with that. Our debrief was a solid eight hours of having the entire research team in a room, organizing our thoughts, putting together the themes. I don’t think that the research would’ve been the same without it, because not everybody can be at every in-home, there had to be that share out, and that share out had to be very intensive to the point that almost I couldn’t remember which ones I had done versus the ones that I had learned about because everything had been so shared and so emphasized.

As far as doing the ethnography, anytime there’s a very nuanced kind of project where we don’t know the answers right away, that’s the opportunity for ethnography.

[08:46]

That whole discoverability, you don’t know what you don’t know. Quant research just doesn’t pull that out.

[08:53]

No, it doesn’t. It’s great to follow with quant. Once you’ve done some kind of intensive ethnos, you can follow with it but—

[09:00]

It’s great to follow with qual after. It should play a regular part in the chorus of insights. It has to. Qualitative has to have that seed at the table if… You know the other part that would’ve been interes— They did a quant survey, you did your qualitative piece, do you have a sense of which one, and of course you’re biased, have a sense of which one may have impacted the organization bigger?

[09:30]

They were two different clients, two totally different clients. I had saw this other one at a conference, it was a conference presentation. As they were sharing out the insights, I thought, “Wow! This is amazing because we came up with the same stuff for a different client on our own.” But really it was more about understanding bicultural Hispanics as a subculture and that was driving different brands in different ways, really we had learned exactly the same things.

[10:03]

Ready to Launch, Jenny, thank you so much for being on Happy Market Research podcast.

[10:08]

Thank you.

Welcome to the #IIEX Europe Conference Series 2019. Recorded live in Amsterdam, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Jan van Puyvelde, Sales Director EMEA and APAC at discuss.io.

This Episode’s Sponsor:

GreenBook

Contact Jan Online:

Discuss.io

[00:03]

My guest is Jan with Discuss.io. What is your title at Discuss.io?

[00:06]

I am actually Sales Director for EMEA and APAC, so everything except the US.

[00:11]

We are here live today at IIeX in Amsterdam. How many times have you been to the show?

[00:16]

This the third time in a row. We are attending because many brands attend. It is a nice blend between agencies, brands and startup companies. For me as a sales director, obviously, I needed to start the sales from scratch with Discuss.io three years ago. This was the perfect opportunity to have the opportunity to talk with different global brands at the same time, and to ramp up the collaboration in a more strategic way. That’s why we are attending.

[00:47]

Third year, you guys have a booth. What do you think about the new booths?

[00:50]

Yes. It is slightly different, but I think that definitely, the booth we have today is much better than a table.

[00:58]

I agree I like it a lot more than the…

[01:00]

Exactly. It’s more convenient to talk because you can stand, or you can sit so it’s easy to talk for people.

[01:07]

I was really reluctant because I had not seen one before. I am so glad with it versus the traditional tables you see along the outskirts. I feel it is far superior for having a conversation.

[01:18]

Correct, I agree.

[01:19]

In your close quarters what makes it feel busier? Even if I am standing by myself, I don’t feel like I am by myself. As opposed to normally, at a table, there is this vast expanse of nobody.

[01:31]

Exactly, (laughs) I agree.

[01:33]

Discuss.io, you guys have had a tremendous amount of success since founding the business, right?

[01:41]

Correct.

[01:42]

Talk to us a little about what you guys are doing right now.

[01:45]

Right now, actually we’re online do-it-yourself Qual research platforms. We give the ability to connect with consumers in real time online. The major takeaway is actually that its time and cost-effective. This means that you can get respondents faster in front of you, in real time anywhere in the world and in a more cost-effective way. It’s just a matter of a couple hundreds of dollars, instead of spending thousands of dollars. That’s really the bottom line of the tool. It’s actually made for everyone. Incite people really like that its cost and time-saving. Marketing people really like it because it can have the ability to connect online with consumers, and pop that extra question and take it into feedback and product as they go. The product is evaluating constantly right. We have some new features in our product, but right now we see that more and more large brands are onboarding our solution. They really feel, and see, and experience the added value. That is the reason why they start rolling it out in more strategic ways of using it as a strategy rather than another methodology. That is what we are seeing happening now. With all the big brands, like the FMCG brands and other verticals right now.

[03:00]

You guys have tremendous scale, right?

[03:01]

Uh-huh.

[03:02]

Thinking about your early days, Unilever, I think, in the innovation department is where you got your footing. Of course, Unilever being a global brand that you had to be able to support research across the globe. Has that been a challenge to keep scaling?

[03:22]

It is obviously a challenge because you are just another kid on the block. You need to make the difference. That is also one of the reasons why onboard is the company to put the company on the map in the European Market because the European Market is an important test marketing research. I think we are doing a pretty good job here. Quite some traction in different verticals, not only FMCG but again once one company starts seeing the added value and they have track records where they have a customer’s journey. Where there is a proven fact that they save not hundreds but millions of dollars by using our tool. Others are looking as well and it is more easy for us in some ways to onboard them as well.

[04:07]

Market research is a fairly unique space to exist in, right?

[04:15]

Correct.

[04:16]

Are you seeing your customers primarily centered in market research? Or are you moving directly into marketing departments?

[04:25]

It depends. Our tool really is used for two purposes. It is that ad hoc research and the consumer connect. Let’s say the higher target, or the higher aim in the customer journey is really like if they want to roll out a consumer connect program, an empathy program, or a closeness program, whatever you want to call it. Then our agile, or we call it more pivoting tool becomes really interesting. There the added value pops because we can connect on a regular basis with consumers. Connecting on a regular basis means that also research people, incite people, but also the marketing departments, H.R. departments, even C-level departments take can take advantage of the tool. It can be used for anyone in the company in any division for any purpose. I think this is really interesting because if they sign up for a large annual contract anyone can use it, anyone can spend a bundle. This is what I really like, that it is not only focusing on a niche like you mentioned market research.

[05:24]

Are you finding that the use case is more in line with decisions that are being made? For example, thinking about people that are implementing changes to user journey or software or whatever. They have a question, right?

[05:46]

Mm-hmm.

[05:47]

That they need to answer, this versus that. Is that the ability to log into the platform, execute, as opposed to go through a proper market research process.

[05:58]

Exactly. By using our tool is just a matter of days instead of a matter of weeks. That’s what they really like. When they want to pull up that extra question, normally that takes a lot of time. First of all, it has to involve some sort of recruitment, and it has a high cost involved, and it is time-consuming. It is all about cutting these barriers and then by using our product they will be able to connect with consumers faster. When you can connect faster, means you can also go quicker to market in the end of the game. That is really where companies look at, to make it more time and cost efficient.

[06:36]

Amsterdam, of course, this is a spectacular city. This is my first time here. What is the one thing I should do?

[06:49]

One thing you should do? Last year we did, with our customers, the canal tour. That was pretty awesome. We rented a small boat and some potential customers and existing customers were on the boat tour. We had some drinks and some small snacks, and that was really cool.

[07:06]

You are the fifth person that has told me that. I think I’m definitely going to have to figure it out (laughs).

[07:11]

It must be true.

[07:12]

Yes, (laughs) it must be true. That’s right. Jan, Discuss.io, if someone wants to get in contact with you how would they do that?

[07:19]

We have a booth here, so people who are listening right now they can just visit us at the booth. If not, they can go to the website. I am on the website, they can drop a line, and we can get in contact. Or even better, we launched recently a code form, and this means that once you have a project in mind, even if it is just to get an estimation, you put the info in the landing page and you will immediately get an estimate.

[07:45]

I love that, and of course, the website is Discuss.io. Thank you so much for being on the Happy Market Research Podcast.

[07:57]

Thank you for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Welcome to the #IIEX Europe Conference Series 2019. Recorded live in Amsterdam, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Frank Hayden, COO at Op4G.

This Episode’s Sponsor:

GreenBook

Contact Frank Online: 

LinkedIn

Op4G

[00:01]

We are live today. I have got Frank Hayden, the CEO – COO, excuse me, right? For Op4G?

[00:12]

Op4G.

[00:12]

Op4G, sorry. Which sounds like a rapper sort of thing.

[00:18]

It can be to some people. (Laughs.) But in the market research space, we’re a—

[00:23]

You down with OP— Anyway.

[00:24]

Yes, Op4G is Opinions 4 Good and we work with nonprofits. From the food bank of San Francisco to American Red Cross to very local charitable groups. We do an outreach for them to have their members, their donors, volunteers and supporters to join our panel and with their participation of surveys, they have to put back a percentage to the nonprofit that brought them to us. We’re here today in Amsterdam rolling out our European business.

[01:06]

How are you guys different than Research For Good?

[01:10]

We’re different in the fact that we actually go out and make the relationship with the nonprofit, which means it’s a little bit stickier. They can go into our portal and see how many dollars that their research activities have generated for that nonprofit. Research For Good, you join their panel, and they do more of a river based sampling as well, mixing that in, which we’re different in that fact that we only work with nonprofits exclusively. With them, you can pick and choose who you want to join with. With us, you’re pretty much invited in. There’s no open recruitment.

[01:59]

That’s super interesting. How long have you been around? Has the business been around?

[02:05]

Eight years.

[02:09]

And you were early? A founder?

[02:11]

I was early in. They asked me to come in. I was with Greenfield, then Toluna, then sat out a year, and then they asked me to pretty much start the business from scratch.

[02:22]

It’s interesting having an invite-only approach because one of the biggest issues facing market research, in my opinion, is centered around data quality. I’m 22 years in the industry. CPIs continue to go down. We’ve hit the bottom of that, by the way. The actual amount of money or reward that goes to the respondent is relatively small. Again, in aggregate, not picking on any specific brands here or companies. It really is, for me, creating this moment of crisis. I do this exercise, in fact, I’m going to do it tomorrow when I speak here: “How many of you have taken a survey in the last six months for third-party companies?” I’m not talking about satisfaction on the last customer service interaction, I’m talking about outside solicitation of, “I’d like your opinion.” The answer is not very many people ever raise their hand to that question. And yet, there’s an order of, back of the napkin, about 1.4 million surveys that are done in North America every day. There are a lot of surveys that are being done, and I can’t figure out who’s doing all the surveys. You’ve got this inflection point of overall CPIs are really cheap and then you’ve got more demand for people to take surveys. It’s starting to really kind of hit this, in my opinion, I’m calling it a crisis, that’s probably overstating it, but it’s a material concern centered around data quality. How good is the actual data?

Just to finish the point, Remesh, I’m very good friends with Andrew, the founder, and Gary, his COO. They now have in their open-ended, moderated, chat-based discussions, they now ask a screening question which is, “What is your favorite color?” Sixty percent of the answers that they get back are, on average, are “I really like that” and “ASDF.” That’s the first question. (Laughs.) Right? That’s kind of the problem that we’re facing and so having an invite-only panel is interesting because, presumably, you’re inviting a real human being.

[05:00]

We are stepping back the pricing concessions you’ve seen in the market, we feel like we have not been participating in that, the reason being is because of our model we’re not allowed to present a dollar incentive knowing that the nonprofit is going to benefit, at minimum, 25 percent. That allows us to, unfortunately, good and bad, stay out of the bottom pricing, which we know the market’s been driven. Either then-clients or the panel spaces have kind of eroded each other. That has allowed us to find our space very up top.

Especially with B2B and healthcare, knowing that health and wellness are really very critical for the population. For the next 20 years, there’s ways how our method will work in this space because the incentive is real and it’s going to the respondent as well as the nonprofit. The quality is an utmost concern for us. People have initially marked us as, “Oh, you’re very altruistic,” and, “You’re do-gooders,” and we’re like, no, it’s actually trying to get the work done. As you know in research, it’s everybody wants it done yesterday and today. We feel like with our model it allows us to have a high standard of quality but yet also get the work done because it’s actually real money and there’s real contributions to a nonprofit.

[06:42]

My guest today has been Frank Hayden, the COO of Op4Good. Frank, thanks very much for being on the Happy Market Research podcast.

[06:53]

Thanks for having me. I’d like to say hello to Michael. Michael, I’m in the market for a new car. Michael McCreary, wherever you are, if you’re listening, please call me and see what’s in your inventory.

[07:07]

(Laughs.) That’s great.

[07:08]

Thank you for having me.

[07:09]

Of course. Really quick, what do you think about the show?

[07:13]

I’ve been here five years and this has been the largest attendee show in the five years I’ve been here, so, looking forward to the next two days.

[07:23]

It’s going to be fun.

[07:23]

We’re sponsoring the Research Club tonight for drinks, please join us.

[07:27]

Yes, I’m looking forward to being there.

[07:29]

Yes, it should be a great time.

[07:29]

Yes, thank you for that.

[07:30]

Yes. Thanks for having it.

Welcome to the #IIEX Europe Conference Series 2019. Recorded live in Amsterdam, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Florian Passlick, Research Consultant at eye square.

This Episode’s Sponsor: 

GreenBook

Contact Florian Online:

LinkedIn

eye square

[00:03]

My guest today is Florian. Thanks for being on the Happy Market Research Podcast.

[00:08]

Yes, sure. We are happy. Thanks.

[00:10]

Tell me a little bit about Eye Square.

[00:12]

We are a market research company based in Berlin, Germany, and our approach is to use implicit and explicit measures to get in touch with the full experience that users and consumers in the digital age have.

[00:28]

How long have you guys been around?

[00:30]

We’ve been around for 20 years this year. It’s our anniversary this year.

[00:34]

Congratulations.

[00:35]

Thanks so much.

[00:36]

Two decades is remarkable.

[00:37]

Yes, it’s pretty much a good thing to have, and we are happy, and we’re going to celebrate it.

[00:42]

As well you should.

[00:43]

I think it’s September or October this year, so I’m excited about that.

[00:46]

How is IIeX going?

[00:48]

It’s going very well so far. We’ve got a lot of interest, some interesting talks as well. It’s been a good venue for us this year definitely.

[00:55]

Who is an ideal customer for you? What type of buyer?

[01:01]

That’s a good question. I think buyer, that would be someone who knows what he wants, and who knows how to communicate his or her needs to us. I think that’s the thing we’re all looking for right now.

[01:17]

Are they corporate? Are your customers primarily in the corporate space, or are they in the agency space?

[01:23]

Both actually, but I would say the corporate space outweighs the agency space by somewhat.

[01:30]

In 20 years, 20 years is a long time. 2002 you were founded. Sorry, 1998. My bad, math. 99, because we’re at 19 now. My God, what’s happening?

[01:44]

(Laughs.) Yes, time’s flying.

[01:47]

Yes, both directions apparently in my brain. Anyway, a little embarrassing. There’s been a lot of change, right? There are a lot of disruptive technologies, markets have collapsed, economic markets. What are you seeing that’s trending right now in the market research space?

[02:07]

What we see at least at (02:09 unclear) is that it’s especially about e-commerce, so we see that there are a lot of people actually asking us about their virtual space and whether we can test for example shelf packaging and supermax shelves in virtual environments. What I also see is data. I think big data, that’s a big point, and also trying to gather the true experience, for example, users have on social media environments. What I sell a lot is, and approach me actually stress a lot too, it’s testing in natural environments. Not having some artificial space to present an (02:46 unclear) in or something like that. It’s about true experiences in context.

[02:51]

I love the in context piece. You are the third person now that has talked to me about this, and it is my favorite thing.

[02:56]

I think it’s the term of this year, and I think it’s a pretty valid if not the valid approach.

[03:01]

The in context is also I believe one of the hardest things to do at scale for researchers.

[03:07]

It is. I have a little gong going on. What we see is that, our customers at least are very happy that we can provide an in context approach, which means that we can do ad replacements for example on live Facebook, live YouTube, live Instagram, and they’re baffled by that somewhat, but also they’re happy because it’s just a reflection of what’s really happening out there, and so I think it is very valid, and it is the only true approach maybe.

[03:39]

Are your customers predominantly in Europe?

[03:44]

Not really. I think that’s one of the things that’s changed in the last few decades. We were pretty focused on the German market, but now we are expanding a lot. We have an office in China since two years. We have a lot of customers in the US market. We actually did a study last year. No, it’s one a half years ago already. We went to seven different countries including Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, the United States to do an in-home study to accompany participants to their homes and have them watch TV for an hour. We saw pretty interesting things across very big markets, across very different markets, and I think it was until now the most interesting study I was able to do.

[04:28]

My guest today has been Florian with Eye Square. If someone wants to get in contact with you, how would they do that?

[04:35]

They would go either to our website eye-square.com, or they can contact me at Passlick, P-A-S-S-L-I-C-K, @eye-square.com.

[04:45]

Perfect. Florian, thanks for being on the Happy Market Research Podcast.

[04:48]

Thanks so much.

[04:49]

Enjoy the rest of the show.

[04:50]

You too, thanks.

Welcome to the #IIEX Europe Conference Series 2019. Recorded live in Amsterdam, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Estrella Lopez Brea, Global Head of Consumer Connections at CPW.

This Episode’s Sponsor:

GreenBook

Contact Estrella Online:

LinkedIn

CPW

[00:02]

I have a special guest. You were a speaker earlier today, right?

[00:05]

Yes, I was.

[00:07]

Tell us a little bit about what it is that you spoke on.

[00:10]

I spoke this morning about the importance of large corporations to remain competitive in the marketplace, and the need to adjust their ways of working and doing innovation in order to remain competitive in this changing environment.

[00:27]

That’s a relevant subject.

[00:29]

Exactly.

[00:29]

You’ve been in market research for a long time?

[00:34]

Twenty years.

[00:35]

That’s impossible, by the way.

[00:37]

No, no (laughter). It is possible.

[00:40]

This is 22 years for me, which, again, seems crazy.

[00:45]

Time flies.

[00:46]

Yes. What did you do before market research?

[00:49]

All my career has been in market research.

[00:52]

Really?

[00:52]

Yes.

[00:53]

How did you wind up in market research?

[00:58]

To be honest, I’ve always loved getting to know people as humans and culture, their culture, their behaviors. Getting to understand where people were from, and what were they doing and why. That was a little bit in my background. When I got my first job in the U.S., in Chicago, I used to live in Chicago, in a pure market research agency, I was like, “Wow. I love it.” (Laughter.) Then I moved to the client side and have been working in different companies across the globe.

[01:35]

Where did you grow up?

[01:37]

In Spain. I’m originally from Spain.

[01:39]

What part?

[01:40]

From Madrid. I lived in the U.S., and then I went back to Spain. Now, I live in Switzerland.

[01:47]

Chicago’s very cold right now.

[01:52]

Very much indeed (laughter).

[01:54]

You’re lucky you’re not there.

[01:54]

Winters are hard.

[01:56]

Especially this winter oddly enough. What do your parents do?

[02:01]

That’s interesting. They’re not retired, but my dad used to be a lawyer and my mom used to be a VP in HR. A lot of human contact, too. That’s where I learned about the importance of empathy.

[02:22]

From your mom and then your dad. Lawyers, it’s very processed, right?

[02:27]

Yes.

[02:28]

You have the methodology connection there, don’t you?

[02:29]

I do. Yes, I do.

[02:32]

Remember the early days of market research, when you started… This is going to be an unfair question, I’m talking about 20 years ago. How much time was spent, in those early days, on the added value or the actual impact of the research versus the logistics of the research? Do you remember on a percentage basis? I know this is going to be a wrong answer no matter what, but—

[03:04]

I don’t know, but I—

[03:04]

Was it 25 percent? Five percent?

[03:07]

I don’t know if I can give you a number, but I can totally see that that has absolutely shifted from back then to how things are right now. How I live it right now, because in the company that I’m working under, there’s a huge change and shift in the way we are approaching consumer research. I don’t even like to call it consumer research. For me, it’s just insights. Gathering insights from consumers.

Before, it was all processed and validation. This was exactly what my presentation was about. We were a function that supported the lead function, which used to be marketing. Now, we’re just strategic partners and we have so much accountability for the impact that the whole function has in the organization that it has to meet. It has totally shifted, and it’s much more rewarding right now.

[04:06]

I agree. There’s not been a more exciting time in my career for market research than right now.

[04:11]

I agree, absolutely.

[04:14]

We have a seat at the table. Successful businesses know that Amazon didn’t accidentally win over the last 10 years. They’ve been using consumer data in order to drive business decisions, that and Google. You just picked the major brand that’s had success. Data has to be part and parcel in the decision-making process, which means that market research gets to play a pivotal—

[04:45]

Very big part.

[04:45]

At the board level.

[04:47]

Yes.

[04:48]

Yes, for sure.

[04:49]

Absolutely. In the organization and Cereal Partners Worldwide, our VP reports directly to the CEO. That’s because the CEO is so consumer-centric. That drives the whole organization to be centered around the consumer. That makes a huge difference.

[05:08]

It does.

[05:09]

These other organizations where it’s just a support function, where you have data for, what added value can do there?

[05:16]

Yes, exactly. You’re right. That CEO has got to drive the culture of the organization.

[05:23]

Yes.

[05:24]

If you’re going to be consumer-centric and ultimately successful, it has to start at the top. It can’t function any other way.

[05:31]

Exactly, yes.

[05:32]

It’s funny how it’s changing the way that businesses are… I’ll pick on McDonald’s because they’re my go-to example recently. They’re advertising high-value options for their consumers at the point of purchase as opposed to the more lucrative products, whether it’s four for two or whatever. What that’s doing is it’s creating this positive goodwill with the consumer who’s cash strapped, or whatever. That wins the long game as opposed to, “How much money can I eke out of that transaction at that point in time?” Seeing them as this exploitative view.

[06:22]

Absolutely. One of the things that I presented this morning is that part of the process in sometimes large corporations is that instead of having the consumer at the center at the beginning of the development journey, you have the business as the center. Business is important. You have to make money out of what you’re doing. If you start with a business need instead of with a consumer need you can accelerate and innovate fast, but that’s never going to work because there’s not a consumer need behind it. If you start with a consumer need and then try to make the business work around it, then that makes another level. That’s the mindset that we need to change in large corporations. As much as there’s a big opportunity for us to enter an opportunity, there’s an opportunity to make money in this area. Great. If there’s no consumer need, forget it.

[07:22]

Yes, exactly. It all centers around that wide space of the need. This is where I keep coming back to it. We need to have that fair trade or exchange so that the consumer feels like there’s a partnership with the brand.

[07:40]

Yes.

[07:42]

It’s a neat time. It’s just a neat time. I’m thrilled to see where our industry is going. The other part, are you seeing an emphasis on storytelling inside of the organization?

[07:52]

Also, yes. In our function, too, because we can have as much data as we want. If we’re not able to tell a story with it to impact the organization, then it’s worth nothing, too. Around the value of what we do. Around the function itself, much more focused, too.

We are advocates. What we learn has to be translated to our organization in a way that it’s simple and clear. You have to be able to tell a story, your elevator pitch. To answer what they want to hear, not what your story is. Before, we came with 100 slides with everything that we’ve learned. Who cares about that? (Laughs.)

[08:38]

They used to go into the library, the corporate library, which is a real thing you said exists. A body of knowledge and a library.

[08:45]

Now, meeting for 30 minutes. You have your CO there, your story to tell, you have 30 minutes. You have to be sharp, choose the battles that you want to pick and go and tell them in an interactive and engaging way or you’re done. Your credibility is lost (laughs).

[08:58]

That’s right. It’s a neat time. I don’t know if you heard this first speaker this morning. He was talking about how research is a learnable skill. Transferable is his word. Research is a transferable skill. You’ve got market research as the consumer mind, but you also have user experience or customer experience. You have data science, which is sitting in some corporations outside of market research. Are you seeing cooperation across the organization across those… I’ll call them… I don’t know that they’re three disciplines. They’re one discipline, but specific focuses. Are you seeing cooperation across your organization?

[09:55]

I’m seeing more and more. Also, we’re leaving this time where our function is being fluid. There’s no stiff box where a consumer research function sits. The power that we have to influence is not in our function itself, but in how we can connect the dots across the different functions to make a story or to build a compelling case. It’s not about just us as, “We’re bringing the insight.” There’s nothing like that. It’s, “How is what I’m doing connecting with what my colleagues here are doing and with what others are doing? Let’s build this net of insights that are retrofitting each other.” More than anything, we need to collaborate with each other, because the answer is not in one source.

[10:51]

Yes, exactly. That largely speaks to our view of diversity as well. People with different points of view and with different backgrounds, even to the point of gender and ethnicity, it goes to the broader… It creates a more complete lens to understand the current market and the consumer challenges, and how we can, as brands, address those particular issues that they have.

[11:18]

Absolutely.

[11:19]

You’ve been doing market research for a little while.

[11:22]

A little bit (laughter).

[11:24]

What do you see as a trend in the market research space right now?

[11:31]

Agility. The need of moving at another pace. Times are changing. What was valid before, the processes that you used to have, is not valid anymore. Having a project that goes to field, has a month of fielding and another three weeks to get the report back and then another two weeks to get the… That’s not working. That affects not only in the way we request our pieces of research but also in the way we innovate within the organization, in the way we’re building our communication. Everything needs to be much more agile.

To me, there are three words that I usually use to… The three criteria that I put as a tick in everything that I do. The same, I do with my team which are agility, collaboration, and consumer centricity. Everything that we do needs to have these three elements together.

[12:36]

It’s like a three-legged stool.

[12:37]

Yes. I feel that’s needed in order to… This element of being agile in the way we collaborate is not only about speed. It’s about flexibility to do things differently, to pivot. Things are changing every day, so we have to be a function that, more than anything, has the ability to move, to do things differently, to change the pace if needed. We need to respond to what’s coming. What was working yesterday is not necessarily working today.

[13:12]

Yes, that’s so true. You’re right about the, “As long as we’re set up to cope with the change, which is agility.” Then you’ve got the processes and the injection points of the consumer when the decisions are being made. That’s more of a skill or a cultural norm that has to exist. I love how you framed it. It’s got to start at the top.

[13:38]

Yes (laughs).

[13:38]

Go ahead. I’m sorry.

[13:41]

No. I was just going to say that, more than anything, when I look for skills in my team, I always say that soft skills are more important than hard skills. When I hire someone in my team, they need to have the basics. If they don’t have the flexibility, cooperation, ability to move fast, to change, to pivot, initiative and curiosity, you can know it all, you won’t be able to succeed in the way we are right now the organizations are working. If you have those skills, everything else can be learned.

[14:22]

Estrella, thank you so much for being on the Happy Market Research Podcast.

[14:26]

Thank you. It’s been a pleasure.

[14:27]

Time to get back to the show.

Welcome to the #IIEX Europe Conference Series 2019. Recorded live in Amsterdam, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Dorte Torpe Hansen, International Business Development Director at Strategir.

This Episode’s Sponsor: 

GreenBook

Contact Dorte Online: 

LinkedIn

Strategir

[00:01]

My guest today is Dorte from Strategir. I’m sure I botched that name. How are you doing, Dorte?

[00:09]

I’m good. Thank you, and you?

[00:11]

I’m doing very well. We are live at IIeX. How is the show going for you?

[00:17]

Yes, it’s going okay. I’ve only been here today, I got here this morning but my team is quite happy with the show in general so, it’s good.

[00:26]

Tell me a little bit about your company.

[00:29]

Strategir is a full-service market research agency. What we are showcasing at the moment is how we use VR to set the context for any research we do really. Context is critical for people when they make decisions and we might make a different decision in a different context, so we use VR to immerse people in a situation.

[00:56]

Two things that are really interesting, the first is I’ve only heard one other company here talk about context of insight, and that is probably the single biggest missing piece of research because we think of it as a clinical trial. The reality is if I’m trying to catch a taxi in the rain, my answers to a survey might be different, right?

[01:25]

Yes.

[01:26]

Then if I’m sitting at home in front of the fire or—

[01:27]

Absolutely.

[01:29]

The context of the insight is paramount.

[01:32]

Yes.

[01:33]

The other piece that’s interesting is to solve that you’re using VR. Tell me a little bit about the solution.

[01:39]

VR is just technology, so we just use the technology to set the context for whatever we are trying to achieve. We use VR in a number of different situations. The case study that we presented this morning was about using VR for sniff testing essentially to understand fragrance, so simulating when you take your washing out of your washing machine. If you have people immersed in a situation that looks like where they take the washing out of the washing machine, that differs by country, of course, we get much richer answers, we get more committed respondents, better quality research, essentially. We can also use it for things to do with shelves for a shopper. We don’t know how we shop, but if we put people in a context where that is a realistic situation, ask them to make a purchase, that’s more reliable than if we just ask them what they would like to buy out of context. Many different situations, many different ways of replying it.

[02:49]

Do you have a standout study, some project that you’ve worked on where you’re like, “Wow, that was really fun”?

[03:00]

There are many that are fun. The one we did where we presented the case study, it was really very interesting to learn how something as simple as washing powder can be really engaging for consumers to talk about. You think it’s quite boring but people were quite engaged. We gave them the chance to take the VR off, they didn’t want to. They wanted to just be in the situation, so it’s quite interesting to learn that people just quite like it as a technology—

[03:40]

You don’t hear that very much as a researcher do you?

[03:43]

Not exactly.

[03:45]

How long does it take to do a project? Did you have to build the virtual environment, right?

[03:52]

Yes. We’ve got an internal team that builds the environment. It depends on what the environment is, and it depends on whether you need to interact with products on the shelves or something like that. Generally, we’ve chosen to build an environment.

[04:07]

So fast.

[04:10]

Yes, quite fast.

[04:11]

I would imagine a pain point would be the co-creation of the environment with your customer?

[04:18]

Yes. You need to set a realistic context, something that’s realistic for whatever it is we are testing. That could be a challenge depending on the country, the environment, the type of shop. If it’s a shop, what else needs to be in there to make it realistic. Yes, but we will get there. We will get there in the end.

[04:40]

What markets are you operating in?

[04:44]

In terms of geography?

[04:45]

Geography, yes.

[04:46]

We operate worldwide, so we have our own offices in France, UK and Germany and then we work through our joint venture partners in the rest of the world in different countries.

[04:56]

If someone wants to get in contact with you, how would they do that?

[05:00]

They can either come and see us here at the stand or they can visit us on our website. There’s a contact function on the website as well.

[05:09]

That is Strategir, S-T… Sorry, my glasses S-T-R-A-T-E-G-I-R.com, right?

[05:19]

Yes.

[05:19]

Of course, that will be available in the show note. Before I let you go, you’ve only been here for a little bit, what’s the highlight of the show so far?

[05:29]

It’s the chocolate mousse that tastes like banana.

[05:38]

Dorte, thank you very much for being on there Happy Market Research Podcast.

[05:41]

You’re welcome. Thank you.