Data Gurus Podcast | Insights on Business Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions, Market Research & Data Collection

For the third episode of the Attribution Accelerator 2018 round-up series, Maggie Merklin joins Sima Vasa. She shares a bit about her talk and her company’s key to great relationships with their clients. She also discusses how TV and digital platforms drive success.

Maggie Merklin - Analytics Partners and Choice Hotels

Maggie is the Executive Vice President at Analytic Partners. They have been working with Choice Hotels for over eight years now. Her talk revolves around how attribution is being adopted, particularly by this client.

Over the years, they have seen significant increases in Choice Hotels’ return on investment. They collaborated with Choice and their media agency to develop a PSA test. These gave similar results that aligned with the advanced analytics that they have been providing Choice.

“It’s a great example of collaboration across agencies, as well as transparency to the approach, and then validation to help drive that buy-in.” - Maggie Merklin

Transparency for Success

The key to success in this partnership is transparency. Like any other analytics company, they want their clients to adopt their results. They like to be challenged, and this helps with proving their validity.

“The results we provide through our analytics are only as good as an organization is going to use them.” - Maggie Merklin

Their collaboration helped prove this. Developing the PSA tests took a lot of work to make sure there was no spillover, among other things. A lot went into this specific collaboration, which showcased their commitment.

ROI Genome Project

For Analytic Partners’ ROI Genome project, they collect all of the results they performed with their various clients, including ROI trends, spend trends, as well as savings.

There has been a shift towards more spending online versus offline, which isn’t really surprising. But what has been interesting is the convergence in terms of investment from online vehicles, like displays and paid search, and with offline, like in TV.

“A lot of that is really driven by not necessarily the effectiveness of digital advertising but just the pressure with costing.” - Maggie Merklin

Quick links to connect with Maggie Merklin:

LinkedIn

Analytic Partners

Twitter - Analytic Partners

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Abha Dawesar, Marketing Strategy Director at HSBC joins Sima Vasa for this second episode of the Attribution Accelerator 2018 roundup series. She shares what she spoke about at the forum. She also talks about assigning business growth to marketing investment.

“A lot of the consumer behaviors might be linked to the things that got them to the gate in the first place.” - Abha Dawesar

Abha Dawesar - In-Depth Tracking of Insights

Most of the industry ends up getting third-party analytics that often show highly-aggregated data. Abha gets involved in campaign designing and analytics at the beginning in order to come up with a set of data that they can track at a very granular level.

For instance, they not only look at the offer, segment and geography, but also go into the details of a campaign. They inspect a test all the way down and then build the customer journey after they became customers. This takes away the limit of seeing only what offer is converting or how conversion and acquisition happened.

“We were able to overlay a variety of categories and touch points with the customers to get to qualitative metrics.” - Abha Dawesar

Seeking Long-Term Relationships

There’s no undermining the importance of looking into the entire life cycle of a customer and closing the loop to gain better insight. A plethora of questions come up by doing so.

You can launch a campaign with the intention to answer short-term and medium-term business needs. But in the end, you’re looking for customers that fit your brand and that you’re able to service in a way that they need for the long-term.

“You’re really looking at a far longer term relationship as a financial institution with your customers and so these quality metrics are really critical to have in place.” - Abha Dawesar

Deep-Layered Work for Patterns

A lot of what is happening at the front end of a marketing cycle is very quantitative. It is remarkable to note that when you start doing this deep-layered work, through time, you will see customer behavior patterns.

Quick links to connect with Abha Dawesar:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

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Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

For the first episode of Attribution Accelerator 2018 series, Thomas Bauer, Partner at McKinsey & Company joins Sima Vasa. He rounds up some of his realizations from the forum and how marketing has become a true pillar of growth for the industry.

“It's never really the analytics that do the job but without the analytics, it's a tough business for a senior marketing executive.” - Thomas Bauer

Thomas Bauer - On Attribution Accelerator 2018

Thomas has always seen the Attribution Accelerator as extremely engaging. He likes to see the community coming together and talking about attribution. There has been a lot of movement recently and the scene is constantly evolving.

For this particular year, Thomas moderated a session on brand attribution when last year there was none. He is very happy that things are progressing.

“The way that attribution is looked at is becoming even more comprehensive.” - Thomas Bauer

Economic Value of Marketing

This progress is apparent when people look at the entire economic value created by marketing and making sure that they pay attention to it analytically.

For instance, when people talk about brand ROI, it is one thing to have a very strong contribution and a solid view on the short-term effects. Mathematically, you can do quite a few things wrong on short-term. But it is another matter to aim for capturing the long-term effect of marketing properly.

“We see some convergence towards a more granular model, towards people-based models, more attention to data stitching.” - Thomas Bauer

Marketing as a True Pillar of Growth

Brands have to deal with the difference between short-term and long-term goals based on marketing ROI in measured marketing dollars. Budgeting is always a short-term focus and it is hard to defend the case to invest more because there is a lack of credible ROI measurement.

However, people must subscribe to the case of marketing as a true pillar of growth. This is why it's important to have the best analytical weapons to support these discussions.

Quick links to connect with Thomas Bauer:

LinkedIn

McKinsey & Company

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Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

Karyn Schoenbart, CEO of NPD Group, joins Sima Vasa today. They talk about the data, insights, leadership and how each of these are shaping up in the near future of NPD and the market research industry.

“The best results in the future aren't going to be from consumer surveys or POS retail scanners or receipts. It will be a combination of all of those.” - Karyn Schoenbart

Karyn Schoenbart - NPD’s Readiness to Face Changes

The NPD Group is one of the top 10 market research companies in the world. With the fast-changing industry, Karyn worries about the company’s relevance like any other CEO. The good news is that NPD is well-poised to address the changes.

“I have to make sure that our folks don't become complacent and that there is this sense of urgency throughout the company.” - Karyn Schoenbart

Long-Term over Short-Term Results

There’s a ceaseless struggle with the balance of hitting short-term goals and creating the sense of urgency for the future. But NPD’s strength lies in their history. Their track record for innovation goes a long way, from Nielsen Homescan to the first online surveys.

Karyn considers NPD lucky to have an owner that is willing to invest in the future. It’s a competitive advantage that they get to focus on what’s right for the business and their clients in the long-term and not the short-term, quarterly results.

Keeping True to Their Mission

With all these in mind, they pick certain industries that they will be part of. They test data and couple these with industry expertise and prescriptive analytics. Innovations must fall into these areas and help advance their key mission before the company invests in them.

“It comes back to staying true to our mission and why we exist and not just chasing things because they're interesting.” - Karyn Schoenbart on core values in their innovations

Karyn agrees completely that long surveys and other things that burden consumers are not good in the long run. This is the very reason they are investing heavily in receipt harvesting, among other efforts.

Quick links to connect with Karyn Schoenbart:

Karyn Schoenbart

LinkedIn

Twitter

NPD Group

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

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Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

On today’s episode, Nik Samoylov, founder of Conjoint.ly joins Sima Vasa. Together they talk about how Nik fell into market research and how automation has affected the industry and its methods.

“If anything, core research skills like drafting questionnaires will definitely stay in demand.” - Nik Samoylov

Nik Samoylov - Choosing Market Research

With the marketing and statistics courses he took in college, Nik wanted to pursue a career in market research. For three years after graduation, Nik was involved in consulting.

When he decided to focus on market research, he didn’t go looking for a job. Instead, Nik started his own market research company, Conjoint.ly it's has been around for a little over two years and they launched their platform a year ago.

Conjoint.ly Working with Companies

Nik’s established company helps others with product pricing and research. They do this mainly through their platform, where clients can log in, put in their stimuli, and choose who they want to survey. Reports then follow, which answers their clients' market-related questions.

“The biggest selling point is the ease of using the platform and the outputs that it gives.” - Nik Samoylov on Conjoint.ly’s platform

They also build custom projects for companies. One benefit of this is that clients get to learn from what they need and translate these into automated polls. Through this, everyone gets to use something that has been tested multiple times with a huge sample.

Automation and Research Methods

With automation among the rising stars in the market research industry, a question has arisen. Do we still need researchers to write and design questionnaires when this art and science could potentially go away in the long run?

Nik says that even in automation, there is the need to use templates. People make their research similar to what they or other people have done in the past for consistency and reliability. But when they need to answer a question differently, the need to draft your own question becomes even more obvious and is something that’s not going to go away despite automation.

To hear the rest of Nik's insight into automation and research, download and listen to the episode!

Quick links to connect with Nik Samoylov:

Conjoint.ly

LinkedIn

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

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Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

Natasha Stevens is the Executive President of Strategy at GFK North America. On today’s episode, she sits with Sima Vasa to talk about how market research is blossoming as an industry. She also shares how client data drive innovation in present-day endeavors.

“It's really striking a balance between staying very committed to what the overall mission is but also having that flexibility and to realize that you're going to have to make changes along the way based on what you're hearing in the market.” - Natasha Stevens

Natasha Stevens - An Exciting Time for Marketing Research

There's a lot of changes going on within market research and the same goes for GFK, which has undergone some exciting changes as an organization. GFK has transformed from being a broad-range market research company to a technology-enabled data and analytics intelligence firm.

GFK, among other firms, is currently awash in data coming in across from all parts of the organization and even externally. But ultimately, how do they utilize all these data to make better business decisions?

“There's no challenge in getting that data. But how do we bring it together, how do we make sense of it, how do we process it, how do we use it to actually democratize and share information?” - Natasha Stevens

Changes Driven by Clients

Natasha focuses on the part of strategy that still needs that transformation in North America. She and her team have their eyes set on what drives change in the market based on client needs.

One of the things they look into are the core competencies of the market as they relate to data assets and core industries such as media, technology and retail. Consolidated, these things help clients answer their business questions.

Charting the Course for the Organization

By bringing together all these data, Natasha and her team enable clients to pave the road from insight to prediction. They do all these in a dynamic marketplace, as they redefine GFK and move in the core space of data analytics and intelligence.

Quick links to connect with Natasha Stevens:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

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Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

Barry Jennings handles the central market research team at Microsoft. On today’s episode, he speaks with Sima Vasa about how research is involved in and has evolved at his workplace.

“Realistically, the job of delivering impactful insights, that part doesn't change. But we have significant challenges, like the speed of business...  data proliferation.” - Barry Jennings

Barry Jennings - Market Research Director at Microsoft

At Microsoft, Barry and his team focus on endeavors related to the cloud, servers, as well as technical audiences like IT pros, developers and data scientists. His work keeps him busy on the daily, but it’s the kind that doesn’t allow a single dull moment. In fact, his workday is highly variable.

Barry’s fundamental job is to bring insights to the business. They take things to the next level and extend what research brings to the picture in terms of changing the minds of people in the organization, product development and even messaging.

“We try to understand what questions the business is facing and we try to bring fact-driven customer insights to the table that help drive our essential business decisions.” - Barry Jennings

Involvement of Market Research

Market research came to be to bring in the most innovative customer insights function in the world. The team has this very high-end aspiration that drew Barry to the job.

The central market research team also has a seat at the table as a partner, as a thought leader, and as that part of the business that helps advance Microsoft's vision

Changes and Challenges

Barry and his core team are under significant transition with the current changes in market research. They work in a function that looks at what people feel, what they want, what they do, and market research is great for that. A pretty robust qualitative and quantitative practice in the field has also existed for the longest time.

However, there is definitely an inflection point thanks to the growth in other disciplines like data science. There are a lot more analytics and data to be taken into account. As market researchers, they need to make sure they understand how what they do integrates with the broader set of insights that are out there.

Quick links to connect with Barry Jennings:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

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Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

On today’s episode, Patrick Comer joins Sima Vasa. Patrick is the Founder and CEO of Lucid, a software company focused on delivering human answers on a massive scale. Today he shares his thoughts on competition and purpose, and the importance of understanding perspective on data collection.

Patrick Comer - The Competitive Landscape for Lucid

Everybody always talks about the landscape offered by different companies, along with the competition. But Patrick has always maintained that it doesn’t matter who the competition is or who isn’t. In the end, every peer will compete against them or partner with them in some way.

The reality of the situation is that all the other companies are also the clients. Regardless of the niche or category they occupy, they will still work with Lucid in one way or another.

“In our world, it's neither one nor zero. It's always gray.” - Patrick Comer on competition

Purpose Over Competition

It is impossible to get away with pointing out peers and branding them as the enemy. What is more important is to focus on purpose and the goals.

Companies will thrive as long as they are narrowly focused on their mission, values, and what they are trying to deliver. This is regardless of whether another partner has similar products or capabilities. While those may seem competitive, they are not as important as focusing on clients and a defined mission.

“Purpose is far more important than comparing ourselves to other people.” - Patrick Comer

The Purpose of Lucid

Lucid recognizes that every single day, there are questions being asked among various global platforms. Each of these questions need the right audiences to answer them, whether they come individually or in the form of surveys. Patrick and his team connect global questions to human answers.

Their second purpose is to provide real impact on the communities around them. It is easy to talk about business in the context of competition, growth, and where they fit. But every day, the people at Lucid remind themselves that they are members of society.

Quick links to connect with Patrick Comer:

Twitter - Patrick Comer

LinkedIn - Patrick Comer

Website - Lucid

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

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Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

Ben Harden, partner and leader for Data and Analytics at CapTech Consulting sits with Sima Vasa today. They talk about the importance of data in bridging the gap between businesses and technology. They also discuss data governance and how agile frameworks are managed.

Ben Harden - Full Service at CapTech

CapTech Consulting is a national firm in the United States with nine offices across the country. In his area, Ben runs the data and analytics practice. Apart from this, the firm also offers their clients services on software engineering, management consulting for agile and object-oriented management, and customer experience.

Essentially, CapTech is a full-service consulting firm. Their client projects often involve data engineers, architects and scientists, as well as persons of command and analysts. This is in response to the general shift in the market on the idea of customer experience and doing exciting designs from a digitization perspective.

“A typical team is drawing from all of those different areas, putting that team together and trying to solve the problem for our clients.” - Ben Harden

Bridging Businesses and Tech

Ten years ago, CapTech spent a lot of time in the information technology department. Over time, however, thanks to working with business customers, they realized that businesses are the actual buyers in many cases.

This doesn’t mean that IT has to be pushed to the back. In fact, the need to exert efforts in IT to leverage and work through available platforms remains. To sum it up, CapTech is a bridge between the business and tech sides of the trade, working to deliver the solutions to these businesses.

Data Science: Coolest 21st Century Job

Twenty years ago, data science is a back-burner kind of career. Suddenly, it’s the coolest job there is. But businesses have grown to need to understand data further in order to pull all aspects of research together.

In this age, everyone needs to gain access to information that will help their business grow. And all these start with data.

“I think data in general is a bridge.” - Ben Harden

Quick links to connect with Ben Harden:

Twitter - Ben Harden

LinkedIn - Ben Harden

Twitter - CapTech

LinkedIn - CapTech

Facebook - CapTech

Website - CapTech

Alfred - Your Data Butler

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

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Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!

On today’s episode, Betty Adamou sits with Sima Vasa to talk about games as tools for market research. She is the CEO and Founder of Research Through Gaming Ltd and the author of Games and Gamification in Market Research.

Betty Adamou - Market Research and Video Games

Betty’s passion for Research Through Gaming came about when she started working in the market research industry. She was taken aback by the disparity between the massiveness of the sphere and the poor quality of communication, that is, surveys.

By day, she finds herself working in her market research job, looking after clients or helping design these surveys. But at night, she is glued to her video games. She began asking questions that eventually gave rise to her passion project,

“There’s something there. Why am I glued to this screen but not to that screen?” - Betty Adamou, on market research and video games

Birth of Research Through Gaming

Betty conducted a conference talk on the future of research through gaming while she was still working at Nebu. People clearly took an interest in her conference paper. She began receiving calls and questions, asking when she would start her project.

She quit her job and eight years later, she feels validated. She hears of the results of her research games, her clients’ feedback, and what they do with the data they gather. And with the advent of different advancements in the industry, she knows she could further evolve.

“It’s just a big passion of mine. As much as I've written the book, I design games and I run research trends every day. If anything, I get more excited about it.” - Betty Adamou

The Process of Market Research Games

For the companies she works with, she directly deals with the brand research managers. Betty offers different kinds of services for these companies. Among these is making sure that her clients don’t forget the kind of engagement and insights that they want from the traditional services they using.

Her process involves coming up with an idea, designing the game, and actually working on it. They usually have a turnaround rate of 10-14 working days.

Quick links to connect with Betty Adamou:

Twitter - Betty Adamou

LinkedIn - Betty Adamou

Website - Research Through Gaming

Sima loves to hear from her listeners with input, questions, suggestions and just to connect! You can find her at the links below!

LinkedIn

Twitter

infinity-2.com

Sima is passionate about data and loves to share, learn and help others that share that passion. If you love data as much as her, subscribe on iTunes and don't forget to leave a rating and review!