Welcome to Day 2 of Quirks London!

It was another lovely day of meeting new friends and renewing existing friendships. We enjoyed many more insightful and intriguing talks too! Here are a few more AHA moments that made me rethink what I thought I already knew.

Transforming Insight at Carnival
Jan Worsley and James Wycherley; Insight Management Academy (IMA), Carnival Cruise Line

• As important as it is to have a senior stakeholder who will champion a project and see it through to action, agile research, as was essential during the height of COVID, is often too fast to secure a stakeholder before it’s too late. But, having a good team means it’s not always necessary.
  Be sure to celebrate today’s research successes today because they won’t necessarily be relevant tomorrow.

What consumers and shoppers want from brands in the future
Jeannine Ferguson, Lindsay Parry, and BV Pradeep; Nepa, DS Smith, Unilever

• Most retailers are aware of the need for omnichannel services but many have yet to fully achieve it. Depending on what country you’re in, up to 70% of consumers believe ALL their shopping will take place online in ten years. Those retailers that aren’t taking omnichannel seriously will fall behind.Don’t believe 70%? Well, in some regions of China, shop owners catch their fish before 7am, take photos for their e-commerce website, shoppers choose their fish online, and that fish is delivered to their door by 9am. From sea to breakfast table in 2 hours. It will happen whether you are prepared or not. And your competitors are prepared.

Trends in sustainability: Learn from Reckitt, Bimbo Bakeries and more
Martin Oxley; buzzback

• Awareness of the need for sustainability has grown but it needs to be vastly more top of mind. Current trends focus on increased use of recycled materials, reducing and removing packaging, finding plastic alternatives that are perhaps even edible, designing for recycling and reusing, and using single material packages that are more easily recycled. Consumers want to do the right thing and brands need to do a better job of facilitating that. Sustainability is financially advantageous, and can win when brands are otherwise equal.

Don’t get lost in translation: Ad performance in the context of cultural differences
Andy Drake; DVJ Insights

• Countries have unique cultures in terms of individuality, egalitarianism, collectivism, restraint and more that can’t be changed. Because of that, an ad that works in one country won’t necessarily work anywhere else, even among seemingly similar countries. If brands want ads to work globally, they need to focus on creating exciting and relevant ads with both rational and emotional aspects.

Applying science to art: The role of research in a cultural institution
Alexander Wheatley; National Theatre

• Researchers are very used to the traditional research business of consumers buying from retailers, and pollsters predicting elections. But the research skill set can be applied in any niche area of life such as charities and the arts. Those areas may even have other aspects of research beyond traditional audience segmentation and targeting, including academic style research to understand the arts and theatre business. Learn the research process and then find a way to apply it to your personal passion.

It was great meeting so many new people at our booth, and we had a fantastic time at Quirks! We look forward to connecting with you again. In the meantime, feel free to chat with us via email using Projects at E2Eresearch dot com. Or, catch up with Rupa, Yogesh, or me on LinkedIn.

Thank you so much to the Quirks team for creating a great event!

See you soon!

Hello from beautiful London, England!

After more than two years of virtual conferences, the E2E Research team is excited to get back to Quirks conferences in-person! It’s been wonderful to see so many friendships renewed and to once again get fully immersed in intriguing new ideas and insights.

I was lucky to attend a number of sessions today and thought I’d share a few insights and nuggets that caught my attention. You’ll see an overarching theme of recognizing that both participants and researchers are human beings who need to be treated like…. people, not robots! If there’s a session that intrigues you, click on the link to read a full summary on the Quirks website. Let’s go!

How to shift strategic direction in a commoditized category by using human-centric design
Dan Cooper, Jonathan Stone, and David Watts; Virgin Media O2

• Researchers need to show respect and understanding of everyone involved in the research process. We usually think about consumers in that regard but that is insufficient.We also need to think about the business stakeholders who contribute to the design of the research. They need to know that they are truly heard and involved, and that their input is valued and will be used over the long-term. But it doesn’t stop there. The research results need to be presented back to the business users as relatable stories with easily accessible metrics for tracking the implementation of results.

Navigating the crisis: Pricing sensitivity amid inflationary pressures
Jenny Kasher and Dorte Torpe Hansen; EyeSee, Kellogg Company

• Recessions may last a year or two but the impact on consumers can be as long as five years. Do look at your competitors’ pricing but you need to be bold and take advantage of conjoint and modeling to set your own course.Remember that recessions don’t impact everyone in the same way – for some people, joy and delight comes from tiny things like a new taste from a beloved brand.

How to build consumer empathy that goes beyond your organization
Nadia Morozova – TikTok

• The traditional pyramid of influence is no longer relevant. People don’t want to be nameless, faceless pions who can never reach the top of the pyramid. Fortunately, fame can now manifest as a circle of influence which works from the inside out – it’s decentralized and inclusive, and allows people with really niche expertise to reach huge audiences. Brands need to rethink and reframe their messaging strategies to work within this new framework.

Fit for purpose: Providing consumer meaning to a corporate vision
Joe Goldberg, Tom Scrimgour, and Greg Sill; Santander

• Brand purpose can’t be dictated by the C-Suite. You need to know how consumers interpret the words in your brand purpose so that your messages and images match in a meaningful way. For example, where a bank may envision prosperity as wealth, research shows that consumers understand prosperity as the ability to create the change they want for themselves and loved ones, e.g., reduce debt, time with family, sense of purpose

The art of spectacle: Driving buy-in and action beyond narrative storytelling
Hannah Rogers; Blue Yonder Research

• Create a way to let stakeholders really feel the emotions, the spectacle, that people experience with your brand. This will result in more memorable research results that will drive longer-term buy-in and action.For example, ask people to put on a blindfold and walk around a room to find their favourite scent on different people. Or, ask thieves to show how they break into your cars. Or, use lightbulbs, post-it notes, and real people in a line as more dramatic physical representations of charts in a 50 page ppt.

Eyes on the road! Future-proofed insight in the new and ever-changing world of EV drivers
Lori Beck and Kate Downer; VERVE, Shell International Petroleum Company

• Community panels don’t have to follow traditional rules. Moderators CAN film casual introductory videos of themselves so the community feels comfortable sharing their personal stories with them. You CAN let the community have a section where they start their own threads about any (at least somewhat related) topic to encourage ongoing engagement. And we need to understand that different exercises work with different audiences – what is fun and entertaining for one audience is silly and childish for another. We need their help more than they need us so we need to create a human experience that works for them.

Strengthening our customer intuition: How the John Lewis Partnership is bringing Always-On customer closeness into the spotlight to drive better, more confident and agile decision-making
Ellie Inman; John Lewis & Partners

• Customer closeness is illuminating, feeling, respectful, instinctive, and fuels decisions. It is direct, first hand seeing and hearing, and a creation of memorable stories that enhances understanding.Their customer closeness program includes an intranet site where research is freely available to everyone. In fact, all employees, whether HR or finance, are required to access it and complete tasks to better understand the customer experience. Every company should democratize their insights.

It’s been a long two years, and we’re ready to reconnect at Quirk’s London on May 4 and 5!

What have you been up to? What’s new and cool in your world? What challenges have you overcome and how have you made great strides? Let’s learn from each other!

From our end, we’re eager to share our newest solutions to help you answer your research questions more effectively and efficiently!

Our Raven dashboards are ready to make data analysis easier and more accessible to both researchers and senior leaders. Whether you’ve got a small concept test or gigabytes of data, Raven is an affordable and fun way to visualize research data from brand trackers, campaign tests, U&As, and much more.

With quick filtering, crosstabs, and exportable charting, you’ll love how easy Raven is to use.

Learn more about Raven by clicking here or ask us for an in-person demo in London!

Say hi to the E2E Research team in person!

Rupa Raje, CEO

Rupa leads our team of more than 200 experts, including researchers, analysts, and statisticians, through thick and thin to help our clients understand buyers, brands, and businesses, and become more successful. If you’re a mountain climber, come chat about your most impressive climb. Or, come compare notes about maintaining an orchard of mangoes, guavas, and bananas!

Yogesh Rana, COO

Yogesh is our chief geekologist who inspires his expert engineers and developers to bring all of our new products to life. That includes conceptualizing and building Raven, our brand new, easy to use dashboard. If you have recent, peer-reviewed data  how to grow the best sugarcane and mushrooms, come say hi to Yogesh!

Annie Pettit, PhD, CRO NA

Annie, sometimes known as LoveStats, loves to get into the nitty gritty of data quality and participant engagement. She’s always ready to talk about how researchers can connect in more personal ways with participants to help them share more valid and reliable data. And if you want to talk ukuleles, ASL (American Sign Language), or test out every single sweet at the snack table, she’s ready for that too!

We know not everyone feels the same way right now. Rest assured, our team is fully vaccinated and happy to wear a mask indoors and out! We want you to feel safe AND be safe. Let us know how we can do that for you.

See you soon!