Market and consumer research surveys have a reputation of being boring. Obviously, that’s not a tradition any of us want to maintain because of the negative impact it has on completion rates, data quality, and costs.

Fortunately, we have solutions!

In this month’s issue of Quirk’s magazine, Annie Pettit, our Chief Research Officer, shares our perspective on how anyone can create more playful questionnaires that people will actually want to answer. You can read our article on the Quirk’s website here or check out the entire Jan/Feb 2023 issue on BlueToad here.

And if you’re really passionate about creating a better research experience, join Annie for an Esomar workshop where you’ll get hands on instruction and practice creating kinder, more respectful, and more playful questionnaires. Whether you’re a junior or senior agency or corporate researcher working in healthcare or mobile gaming, you’ll leave the workshop with practical knowledge you can start implementing immediately! Learn more about the Esomar workshop and register here.

Enjoy!

EVENT PASSED

Room 2 | 9:40 am – 10:10 am | Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Researchers have gotten very accustomed to writing questionnaires as if they were Charlies Dickens or Jane Austen. But who writes like that? Who talks like that? And how is alienating people through incomprehensible grammar and paragraph long sentences going to increase engagement, data quality, and completion rates?

In this presentation, Annie will show you five tactics for writing questionnaires that are playful and appeal to real people living today. Even better, these tactics are free and can be implemented on the questionnaire you’re writing right now. Let’s make research more playful!

Key takeaways:

• Questionnaires can be professional, generate accurate data, and be enjoyable for participants, all at the same time.
• Creating playful questionnaires doesn’t have to cost any money or take any extra time. It just needs commitment to creating a better experience for participants.
• Every researcher has the skills to create questionnaires that are more playful and engaging for research participants.

See you then!

Ever wondered how you can give back to your industry in small but meaningful ways? Well, here’s the scoop!

Every year, Quirk’s launches an awards program to recognize some of the best and brightest market and social research talent around the world including corporate researchers, agency researchers, individual researchers, and research teams. And they always need volunteers from around the world to help review submissions and identify the gold nuggets.

Personally, I love judging awards. As you might guess, it’s very happy way to give back to our industry. I get to help identify people who’ve done amazing things so that they get the recognition they deserve. It’s especially important for people who are quiet, humble, or not well known outside of their company.

As hoped, the candidates I reviewed represented a number of countries and hailed from both the agency world and the brand world. I could easily see why their colleagues had nominated them. The group of people I learned about have broad experience leading, mentoring, and guiding other individuals and teams. They love the entire innovation process from conceptualization to developing and launching those products. They love supporting not only their colleagues, but also their clients and people who aren’t even a part of our industry. Mentoring and being a trusted advisor seem to be intrinsic traits for these folks.

I’m looking forward to when the finalists are announced in September and, after that, when the awards are celebrated in November.

Good luck to everyone!

Have a peek at other blog posts

• NewMR Webinar with Annie Pettit: Statistics are dead. Long live statistics!
• Doing better survey design in research: A reel talk podcast with Jenn Vogel and Annie Pettit
• How to Conduct Meaningful Market Research: The Consumer Insights Podcast with Annie Pettit

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!