If you require insights and knowledge to help you achieve clarity on your brand’s growth and development, then the “2024 Insights in focus” e-book is what you need. Get in touch via [email protected] and it will soon be in your inbox!
Inside, you will find:
8 case studies (about #social_media, #pricing and inflation, #NPD, #shopper and #HFSS, and more)
In-depth how-to articles on #planogram, #pack, #brand_blocking, and #E-commerce
Multimedia presentations on tools and research methods, including demos and webinars
Countless insights, statistics, and industry best’s quotes
This can help you better understand:
Behavioral tech-enabled mixed methods frameworks with which you can test your: Pack, Planogram, TVC, Product Claim, Social Media Ads, Online P2P
How to always be on top of the game with market trends and predictions
What answers in-context behavioral mix-method insights can provide you with that sole qual research can’t
How to ask the right research questions for highly predictive insights
How to leverage insight-based knowledge to improve your product, portfolio presentation, and communication
What true consumers’ needs are and how to strategically act upon them
Grab your e-copy of 2024 Insights in Focus! Get in touch via [email protected] and it will soon be in your inbox!
Unsure if you’re maximizing the potential of your existing research framework? Your research needs range across multiple consumer touchpoints, both in-store and online – from Planograms, over Pack and Claims, to Path to Purchase and Social Media Ad testing and you want all those testing options in one place? Then it is about time we meet for coffee!
The best part is that if you are in London or Dallas this month, you can meet with EyeSee’s top Business Development Directors, Nicole Tudosie and James Howitt (London) and Cliff Kane and Koen Philippaerts (Dallas). Let’s exchange knowledge and figure out how to elevate the consumer in-store experience while also keeping the cost-of-living crises and movement in the e-commerce scene in mind.
Here are the conferences where we will keep an eye out for future trends and learn from the best in the industry!
LONDON Shopper&Inisghts behavior conference: 1 day, 26 Speakers, 9 Hot Topic Shopper Panels
Recently, we were inspired by travel retailers to think about and tackle this topic. How can we make the in-store experience as engaging and fun as possible, and what can we learn from the way travel retailers organize creative product displays and ways of promoting goods and services? You can warm up to that article by reading it here.
UNMISSABLE RETAILER INSIGHTS & COLLABORATIONS
Well, it is always great when big retailers such as Tesco and manufacturers meet in one place and discuss their successful collaborations! And of course, we all want to know the answer to the question – how can you ensure your category, brand, and product are indispensable to retailers today? We grappled with this topic in this piece about brand blocking, as well.
DALLAS CMA|SIMA & QUIRK’S DALLAS: 1 city, 2 major conferences, 4 days in a roll
As our mentioned meta-study revealed, the cost of living crisis in the FMCG category impacted the US market way less than the rest of the world, almost insignificantly. Maybe that is why, on the main page of the CMA|SIMA Conference siteyou will find the following: This year’s conference theme is “Trailblazing Retail’s Bold Future” as the industry collectively returns to an innovative mindset after a long period of disruption. Did someone mention innovation and NDP testing? Count us in!
And just after we see what is cooking in the category management insights departments, we will be ready for a much broader insights industry landscape presentation at QUIRK’S DALLAS Conference.
It is even harder to have a favorite pick at any Quirk’s conference, but this is our take:
How top CPG brands like Coca-Cola, Carlsberg, and Nestle use AI to guide, predict, and improve their innovation success
How Kraft Heinz is reimagining research through mobile-based conversational techniques
Building brand trust with consumers in an uncertain world by Visa
We hope our paths will cross soon, but if you miss us at Quirk’s Dallas, make sure to be at Quirk’s Chicago, we will host a special guest there. Stay tuned!
Eager to learn more? Read about Insights as the Lighthouse Industry of the Global Economy here.
This year’s Davos World Economic Forum was the first time the Market Research (MR) industry has been granted a seat at this high table.
In this article, I will provide you with the key takeaways from my visit to the Insights Lighthouse program, but more importantly, I will try to map the position of our beloved nerdy MR Industry and data-based Insights as essential tools for understanding and shaping the economy of tomorrow that will be greatly influenced, and already is, by … AI.
Davos: the meeting point of extraordinary power
Although Davos appears to be a distant and inaccessible world, my impression was that connecting and reconnecting was one of the core values of the “Rebuilding Trust” theme this year. This is supported by the fact that almost all major sessions were live-streamed. For me, introducing and building connections and relationships started even on the train to Davos, where, after meeting delegates from Sri Lanka, France, … among others, I met with my esteemed colleague Joaquim Bretcha, ESOMAR’s General Director, with whom I would share the panel stage later that day.
Upon arrival, like two kids in a candy shop full of amazement, Joaquin and I explored the main promenade. While the main forum happens in a “gated castle”, we spotted excitedly along the promenade various pavilions including national / local governments like Digital Saudi, India’s Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Emirates, … but also major tech firms like Amazon, Google, Salesforce, Palantir, … and academic (MIT, NUS, ETH, …) hosted exhibition pavilions on AI like AI House, Builder AI, and many more. So, even Davos’ landscape sent a clear message: high hopes for the transformation of the economy into a more resilient economy of the future will happen through the techy pathways and neural networks of AI.
So, one may ask the reasonable question – what is the market and consumer behavior research role in all of this? The mission of MR in general is to always be a “Lighthouse” and navigation tool for businesses that aim for sustainable growth. There are many paths business decision makers can take when fixing the challenges coming in the way of that growth. That is why companies like EyeSee offer insights-based solutions and help understand consumers’ behaviors and true needs. We are here to give the business recommendation based on a deeper and more unbiased understanding of the main business drivers – human needs and desires. If we take this as a framework for thinking about the economy and the global need for finding ways of integrating AI into businesses, both internally and externally, we can see how the connections between AI, MR, and improving business for a more stable economy are being formed.
The Insights Lighthouse illuminating takeaways: Humanizing AI
Thanks to initiative and entrepreneurship of “LinkedIn Insights Top Voice”Dr. Liubov Ruchinskaya (Electrolux & ESOMAR), a group of likeminded and passionate Insights professionals gathered around the “Insights Lighthouse” event.
The Insights Lighthouse, Business Growth Catalysts consisted of three panels, all centered around the topic of AI in the service of business growth:
The first session, “Pioneering Business Growth in Today’s AI-driven Economy” delved deeper into the realization that being data-driven alone is not sufficient and that insights play a crucial role in decision-making. Speakers acknowledged the role of AI in making decisions faster but recognized its limitations, especially in providing the “why” behind decisions. Lastly, they sent a message of encouragement to Insights professionals to be bold, proactive, and comfortable with being uncomfortable since it is their role to challenge the old patterns to bring growth forward.
The second panel, “Unleashing Cutting-Edge Innovation and Insights for Corporate Success,” also emphasized importance of creating a culture of innovation through risk-taking, education, diversity, and idea-sharing while reminding us, through examples in FMCG, Pharma and MR Industries, that multidisciplinary teams including different functions and external partners are important for learning and innovation. A sentiment that stood out and resonated with me, by Olga Komleva (Colgate Palmolive) “To spearhead the culture of innovation, leaders need to:Unlearn. Reskill. Transform. Re-Invent.”
And finally, our session “WORKWISE AI: Exploring AI Transformative Power, Risks & Opportunities to Impact the Future of Work” shed light on the impact of AI on internal management, with speakers talking openly about how they use AI to improve their work efficiency and the points where AI simply cannot overtake human input. This deeper understanding of the topic came from the fact that, like EyeSee, most of the companies represented by speakers already leveraged technology in their production processes, so AI is not that unfamiliar ground to begin with.
That is why I agreed with Joaquim’s call for caution against perceiving AI as a god-like entity, which also stressed the importance of human input and creativity. I pointed out the accessibility and ease of use of AI tools, especially for day-to-day operations, by giving an example from EyeSee.
Augmented roles can free up time for creative human lead analysis, which allows to focus on storyline, conclusions & recommendations for the client. If we remember, according to Oxford University, humans are still outperforming AI in terms of understanding the context, adding emotion to that, and just being grounded in common sense.
However, AI should not compromise data quality or accuracy, and we must be aware of AI bias and the need for transparency, ownership, and ethical considerations.
The main takeaways and recommendations from this session, as I see them, are the following:
Embrace new tools, build bespoke models and foster a culture of experimentation.
AI is a tool, not a replacement for judgment. Focus on hiring individuals with good judgment.
Insights professionals have a huge opportunity to leverage their understanding of behaviors and train algorithms effectively.
Companies must be aware of the need to adopt AI or risk falling behind.
Insights professionals can shine in combating the fake reality created by AI by ensuring the quality of data.
But for me, as the CEO of a scaleup that studies human behavior, I would like to stress that it is not only a chance but also the responsibility of ours and other behavioral market research agencies to use this understanding to train algorithms for AI to serve people and not the other way around.
Speaking of humanness
But now, after we’ve dived so deep into the topic of AI, insights, and business growth, let us catch a breath and go back to a wider perspective. The panel ended with a Q&A of Pranjal Sharma on his best-selling book, “The Next New: Navigating the 5th Industrial Revolution,” giving us a broader perspective and once again pointing out the danger of biases that can result in rising inequality among people. First of all, we shall be aware that biases occur, that’s step nr1! Also, 2024 sounds exciting to him as he predicts that Mobile AI will be the “new thing.” Last but not least, he reassured us that MR is an “influential industry” which allows us to connect with consumers and generates the key input for corporations to work on their social impact. We have our role to play!
That is why a visit to the Advancing Equality Together Center was precious. We were hosted by wonderful Kim Flanery-Rye – Founder, Principal DEI and Culture Practitioner at INCLUSION EQUALS and over a drink at the terrace we debated further and were reminded once again that a good leader sets the example by being: Empathetic, Compassionate, Kind & Paves the way.
And, as the cherry on top, thanks to Jean de Gheldere, we were able to join the evening session at the Belgium house which hosted a speech of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and an interesting conversation between John Blood (AB Inbev) & Adrian Cooper (Oxford Economics) on the Economic contribution of the Beer industry.
Always good to reconnect with my homeland and be reminded that Belgium is where EyeSee’s story began, and it is now expanding globally, with Davos as one of its futures regularly visited destinations along the way!
November is a special time of year; we summarize our insights and consumer behavior trends, workshop plans, and vision boards for the year to come to pin down the increasingly unpredictable (business) future. My mind inevitably goes back to the first ever bucket list EyeSee made in 2012 even before I joined Olivier and the initial team. The team that won me over with their big idea, passion, and dedication they already put into setting the foundation of what we see today. There was only one item on their agenda; launch a platform that would map the eye gaze using webcam and therefore exclude the need for central location testing.
Although our young core team knew what the goal was, we were yet to understand many things about how the market operates or where we could play our best hand. To say that our initial business strategy needed fine-tuning would be very generous. Thanks to key forward-thinking clients such as Lidl and Smurfit Kappa, we understood that we needed to bridge the technology and insights gap with an integrated offer.
11 years, 150+ team members, 7 global hubs and countless insights projects for leading clients in our key major industries, I find myself at the helm of the organization. The paradox is that I have way more unanswered questions now than I had in 2012, I’m empowered by the knowledge we’ve picked up as a team along the way. Our strategy is clear and still follows our initial compass of combining scalable behavioral methods.
Reflecting on our path to sustainable growth, here are three crucial lessons. May these insights inspire and ground your journey to expansion!
Big idea? Innovation is a marathon, not a sprint.
In 2012, Olivier Tilleuil (EyeSee’s founder) reflected on different consumer research approaches and noted two things.
Firstly, most shopping decisions are made in a split second and subconsciously; however, the go-to framework for researching these decisions were explicit methods. In most cases, respondents are not able to verbalize feelings or reasons behind their decisions, so it’s no surprise that surveys ended up being effective in predicting consumer behavior 6 out of 10 times; a little better than rolling the dice.
Secondly, methods measuring behavior such as eye tracking (mapping the eye gaze) or facial coding (mapping emotions) gave higher predictivity but were cumbersome and commercially inaccessible.
Developing online Eye Tracking was our first major win which solved the challenges Olivier keenly observed. Very quickly after, while working with our first clients, we were pushed to go beyond eye tracking – facial coding, interactive shelves, and many more methods were launched to meet the research needs of those determined to stay on top of the market.
Innovation doesn’t stop with the big idea; rather, it is more like an initial bang that will start the chain reaction of transformation and innovation. If it doesn’t provide that “big bang” one may ask, was it a real big idea in the first place?
Trust your instincts in picking partners
After our big idea and initial growth and development that led us to travel overseas and open an office in New York, our desire to improve remained strong. However, sometimes, especially when growth is rapid, companies require the assistance of true allies and visionaries. Someone who sees all the possibilities while keeping a bigger picture in mind.
In our case, that kind of validation, support, and knowledge came from the main investors, ING Corporate Investments, and Smartfin , who acted as our strategic financial partners.
The capital raised was resourcefully invested into building an R&D team, expanding our commercial and operations teams, revamping our organizational structure based on multidisciplinary client pods with agile support teams and opening new markets. We ended up operating on four continents and providing insights in50+ markets, thanks to our openness and the vision and faith our clients placed in us. We expanded and opened new offices in Mexico and Singapore, all while dealing with a global pandemic. Such results wouldn’t be possible if we were in it alone.
The partnership was grounded on these solid pillars; trust, and a curiosity for developing new tech that would enable us to take the unbeaten path.
When in doubt, always set your course forward
While looking back is grounding, a more important question is – what’s next? If priorities need to be set – what serves the future, as opposed to what we are doing now? For EyeSee in particular, we plan to continue leading the social media insights game. Our massive collaboration with TikTok in 2023 resulted in the largest behavioral study done on the platform; by testing 60 ads by 20 brands across categories, we were able to discern creative guidelines.
Cultivating technology is part of our company’s DNA so, for example, it is not surprising that we have released deep learning instead of a machine learning based algorithm for our Eye Tracking methods. Obviously, we are taking that forward across platforms to Mobile. We are also developing a Client Collaboration platform so that our operational efforts can progress smoothly and make insights for our clients more easily accessible with as little friction as possible.
All these priorities are directly inspired by our clients’ needs. Client-centricity is not only healthy but a key ingredient of success. Stop, listen, collaborate and iterate; it will make you ten-fold better. So, in the future, I see an amazing team of multidisciplinary talented individuals sharing curiosity and eagerness that we are today, to keep making a difference in the exciting market research space of tomorrow.
Interested in diving deeper into consumer behavior knowledge, tune in and follow our podcast you can acquire here.
For two decades, Greenbook’s GRIT Reports have been the go-to resource for tracking trends in the insights industry, empowering brands, suppliers, and professionals to succeed. The annual Insights Practice Report focuses on essential approaches and skills, providing a comprehensive guide for growth.
EyeSee debuted on the GRIT Top 50 most innovative research suppliers list this year,among fourteen other tech-enabled companies. Tech-driven suppliers are rapidly gaining market and mind share; the industry is on a continued search for solutions outside of the “usual suspects” and “challenger brands” that provide alternative research frameworks.
The CEO of EyeSee, Joris De Bruyne, who has witnessed firsthand the team and client list growth over the past few years, offered the following observation:
‘Businesses like EyeSee, which focus on applied behavioral testing, make a big contribution to what the market research industry views as innovative. We are constantly finding new ways to combine methods, scale them via technology, and uncover true reasons behind consumer decisions. High predictive power of behavioral insights is the main driving force of our innovative initiatives and reason why more than one half of top 30% CPG brands place their trust in us when in need of research.”
Joris went on to explain that the EyeSee team is proud to be listed in the GRIT report with so many well-known figures who consistently motivate EyeSee to do even better. Novak Marinkovic, the Head of Research and Development at EyeSee, provided the following perspective on what is to come:
‘The report data demonstrates that technological investment increased as the pandemic spread and has continued to be significantly higher than pre-pandemic scores. EyeSee has always given applied technology a high priority; it is in our DNA. Over the years, we’ve introduced technologies to improve the output’s speed and accuracy. Currently, our primary focus encompasses two vital topics: (1) the development of social media replicas and the Collab platform, and (2) continual development of social media replicas as testing environments in order to meet ever-evolving trends and demands of our clients.’
The GRIT Top 50 list signals our industry’s direction: increased supplier diversity, tech-led growth, and an emphasis on real innovation. To access the full annual Insights Practice Report and Top 50 most innovative research suppliers list, request access here
Some people hear music when they see music sheets, while others can look at the data and see valuable insights that lead to strong business development recommendations. Insight managers are a true force behind the Market Research Industry and its cornerstone, each crafting insight stories in their unique way.
We use The Marketing Research and Insights Excellent Awards powered by Quirk’s to put them in the spotlight and give them all the credit they deserve because, without them, all we would have, is a big pile of numbers and statistics we would have no idea how to use.
When did you realize you were hooked on behavioral insights and there was no going back?
Saša: I must admit that my mentor, Beca (Dobrinka Vicentijevic), infected me with enthusiasm and passion for turning data into insights and the magic of the aha(!) moment. I always love to experience those. You collect all the data and piece the puzzle together, trying to determine where your predictions were incorrect and, more importantly, why! So, you are constantly thinking about it, trying to connect the dots. So, when thinking about it becomes an obsession, you usually let it go, take a step back, and then it just happens.
Tara: For me, it is the gap between say and do in shoppers’ behavior that is so inspiring, and I also love how the implicit approach to research effectively reveals biases. For example, the entire marketing team may be baffled as to why some packaging labels have no impact on consumers and may have a variety of design theories, but eye-tracking methodology will quickly reveal that it is because they are positioned in such a way that they are not spotted at all.
Milica: More than 5 years ago I realized the potential of technological advancements to grant us new means to comprehend behaviors that eluded validation through simple conversations. Being a psychologist who was already deeply immersed in research by then, it felt like I stumbled upon new horizons. I’m eagerly anticipating the unfolding of future technologies in our domain.
Bratislav: It was when I started realizing that it was not always easy to decipher what respondents really thought by providing their answers and opinions to our traditionally defined questionnaires. Many times, I was left with the impression that something was missing, the unfathomable part of what they really thought or needed. Over time, I learned that consumers could easily and clearly express some of their needs, and that’s where traditional questionnaires were quite useful. But oftentimes, consumers cannot articulate their needs, and their responses can then be misleading or prone to biases. This is where the behavioral approach proved to be super useful, as all I did was to just put consumers in their typical and specific situations, with little to no influence or instruction, sit back and observe, and then look for typical patterns of behavior. This way I was much more confident with the learnings and able to draw bolder conclusions and recommendations on how to influence consumers.
The last few years have been in crisis mode for most (if not all) of us. How has the consumer changed?
Saša: I understand that the expected answer should be based on our personal impressions rather than a study with specific parameters, but I am afraid that once you recognize the importance of context and put on your insights manager glasses, you cannot just assume such things. So, I will let this one slide, if that is okay.
Tara: My personal impression is that when it comes to shopping, people become much more cautious and stricter. Especially when it comes to less frequently purchased and somewhat pricey categories like care and beauty. Shoppers will question every claim made about the product, so communication must be well thought out.
Milica: Living in a deeply consumeristic society, addressing this question isn’t straightforward. If we talk about shoppers, regardless of channel, knowing that trade is a human activity that has existed for a very long time and crisis are nothing really new to people, we see how swiftly shoppers adapt their strategies when crisis hits, making more informed and conscientious choices (crises elevate the significance of System 2 decision-making); at the same time, social media and technologically mediated social communication is a relatively young phenomenon in human history and we are witnessing those same shoppers as now social media consumers struggling to consciously dispose of their time in a way that they perceive as healthy, especially during crisis.
Bratislav: We are going through the most dynamic period with dramatic changes in the behavior of all of us as consumers. The recent events, COVID pandemic, global crisis and inflation have been shaping the way we shop and consume goods and services. During the pandemic, while locked down, we turned to e-com, but limited to spend as much as wanted, given the concerns and uncertainty, loss of jobs, but also derails in logistics, supply, or delivery. And we started craving. The moment we stepped out of it, unleashed, believing we were going back to the “old, good normal”, the global crisis and inflation hit. So, we are still torn between our wish to shop and consume, and the imposed need to prioritize and budget. But the way consumers changed their behavior depends on the category and consumers’ socio-economic level. In some categories, they started buying less or turned more to private labels. In others we observed an increase in sales of more premium brands. So, this urge to consume and spend is there, but we are reinventing and reprioritizing what is most important to us.
What is the one thing you are most proud of?
Saša: It takes a lot less time for me to reach the aha(!) moment because I believe that over time, I have improved the way I think about and approach problem-solving, and I am hopeful that this will continue.
Tara: Well, I am proud of the confidence that I have gained since I started working. When I give recommendations, I am very confident about them, and my clients act according to them. Somehow, they gave me their trust from the start; their instant confidence in me became a reason for me not to doubt myself and really feel encouraged. From that moment on, it just grew stronger.
Milica: I take pride in my diverse journey within research, spanning roles from shopper research consulting to creating and validating innovative technologies, all the way to advocating for consumer understanding through new business development.
Bratislav: For me, a business challenge has always been a creative challenge, too. So, together with clients I typically managed to design the most unusual and innovative approaches to a research problem. Very often you could consider such studies almost as pilot projects, without clear indications on how the study would end up and what the outcome would be. Fortunately, at least so far, such endeavors have ended successfully to my and the clients’ joy, which has convinced me that the “can do” attitude always pays off in the end, with a little courage, no matter how complex the challenge is, which I am especially proud of.
You look at ad and shopper behavior all the time! Ok, let’s be honest. But what kind of consumer are you?
Saša: Well, some habits never die. I used to go shopping with a list in one hand and a calculator in the other since I was a student and every penny counted, and I still do that. So, unless there is a good offer, I do not make irrational decisions impulsively. And, of course, I do the math before deciding that the discount is too good to pass up.
Tara: I am the total opposite. I want to try everything that is new. I like to try new versions of phones; I want to test every pack claim and try new flavors. When you imagine a shopper willing to engage with a product, you imagine me.
Milica: I’m sugar-free hooked! Besides that, ever since 2016, I’ve been happily immersed in the world of physical retail: whenever I hit the road, I transform into a retail explorer, tracking down mind-boggling stores across the world. To me, stores are the ultimate decision arenas. They hold the power to sway me toward novelties or classics.
Bratislav: When comparing myself to what I typically see in research studies I could say that I am quite an atypical consumer. I have my predefined set of favorite brands and usually I know what I am going to buy in advance, though I like to explore and try new things when they hit the market and quite often buy things on impulse. I rarely think about whether I am going to spend an extra buck on things I like. Typically, I assess the quality, value, and proposition a product offers rather than the costs it comes at. To illustrate my irreconcilable nature as a shopper and consumers, what may come as a surprise to many marketing people who try to “understand” consumers, if I cannot find my favorite soda (highly processed, artificially flavored) from a major brand in the store, I might as well reach for the most organic, 100% natural juice made by local small businesses.
Want to learn more about behavioral research from our experts? Find the list of EyeSee’s webinars here.
After 10 years as partner at EyeSee, Joris De Bruyne is taking over the role of CEO from founder Olivier Tilleuil, who moves to an EyeSee Board position. The EyeSee mission remains the same – and our team continues growth as a global leader in behavioral insights!
Over the past decade, Olivier Tilleuil’s vision grew a small Belgian start-up in Ghent into a scaleup of 150 employees across 7 offices, conducting research in over 50 countries worldwide. What started off as a webcam-based eye-tracking idea, evolved into a global tech enabled behavioral research leader, blending top notch implicit and explicit methods. Check out our decade-long journey in more detail here.
Joris De Bruyne joined EyeSee in 2013, partnering with Olivier to develop proprietary tech and build up commercial capabilities. He has been instrumental in securing the 2020 capital round and supporting the R&D department to innovate, customize agile models, and cater to our clients’ needs.
In line with EyeSee’s steady growth, the Board of Directors recognized Joris De Bruyne as the right man for the job of preparing the organization for the future and appointed him CEO. President of the Board – Wouter Verlinden, shared thoughts on the change: “The Board is convinced that Joris and the EyeSee team are eager and ready for what’s coming up next considering the insights expertise, tech advancement and new organizational structure .”
Commenting on his new role, Joris shared:
EyeSee is seeing another leadership change, with Marija Djordjevic, former Product Director at EyeSee, being appointed as the Head of Crafts. Commenting on her new role, Marija said:
We are proud of where we are today and ready for what’s coming up next! Our unique tech-enabled formula for behavioral insights is explained here.
At EyeSee, women add up to 71% of all insights and data researchers; roughly 8out of 12 Directors are in fact women who define every facet of our agency. It is not an exaggeration to say that having this perspective uniquely influences how we tackle clients’ needs, deliver results and lead in consumer behavior insights. Therefore, we take Women’s month (as well as any opportunity) to reflect, acknowledge and celebrate women who shaped research and us.
First off, we checked in with our team based in Mexico City regarding their thoughts on consumer insights and the state of market research industry.
Are we doing femvertising right?
When asked what sort of patterns distinguish advertising of today, Daniela Blanco, Senior Insights manager at EyeSee had this to say:
Daniela observed that women aged 25 to 50 in Mexico do not feel represented in advertising, and they consider that brands do not represent gender equality. With femvertising, brands can better connect with female consumers, but above all, empowering, encouraging and strengthening women; which also benefits men and society in general.
In the same way, it was shown that there is a positive influence on the perception of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of brands that use messages of empowerment of women, several studies have shown that this type of advertising improves the self-esteem of girls and adolescents, even in patriarchal and collectivist cultures.
What is the key challenge with consumers of today?
The consumer insight that is key to understand the behavior of the new generations is Average Attention Time, argues Yael Moctezuma, EyeSee’s Junior Data Analyst. She explained:
Environments such as social media pose additional challenges when it comes to creating a successful video ad. Ferociously fast-moving timelines have brought on the need for marketers to become excellent managers of attention. Consequently, attention metrics come into play as the strongest indicator of success: being three times more predictive than viewability, attention metrics inform marketers about how much of the video content will actually be seen.
Is the future female?
As you might have discerned by now, Mexican team is comprised of outstanding female influences that inspire us daily. One of which is Alexandra Mar, EyeSee’s Insights manager whose previous experiences cover health, finance, and EdTech sectors. She took this opportunity to reflected on employment gaps and imbalances, and outline reasons to curb optimism:
The impact is felt across industries including market research, claims Alexandra. If the future were indeed to include a more balanced female presence in the industry, the first step is to ensure empowerment through knowledge and training.
Incidentally, our Mexico Country Lead & Insights Director Diego Adolfo Chávez Terrazas just joined the impressive list of Women in research mentors, organization that works tirelessly to advance position and amplify voices of women in the industry. He echoed Alexandra’s concerns and added a very personal take:
Interested in this topic? Check out our #FollowInsight article inspired by Women’s month.
What does 2023 have in store – for consumers, brands and marketers? Let’s talk about it! From Bangkok to Los Angeles and Amsterdam, come and connect with EyeSee’s very best at upcoming industry events all around the globe! After the very product chats we had at IIEX APAC, Quirk’s LA, and Annual Category Management and Shopper Insights Conference, here’s where you can find us in the next few months:
Quirk’s Chicago | March 27-28
Coming to Quirk’s Chicago? Drop by our booth #708 for a chat with Laura Hoste, Cliff Kane, Heather Graham – and find them on the conference stage (more info about the speaking session featuring te latest findings of the Pricing study in inflation coming soon!)
A decade and many milestones ago, a practical yet innovative idea was cooked up by EyeSee founders – make it easier and more predictive for brands to understand how their consumers think and shop. What began with the goal of removing bias in market research data led to the development of proprietary methodology, tools and an entire suite of solutions that provide actionable insights across any consumer touchpoint. Market research has been around for over 120 years, but the real tectonic shift happened just in the last couple of decades – and all the new tech will only continue to transfigure both the industry and EyeSee!
Here are the 10 formative milestones that have defined our path to impactful behavioral insights – so far:
#1 Out with the old, in with quant behavioral
What initially sparked the ambition to seek outside the boundaries of research was knowing that +80% of research uses conscious measurements only – limiting the scope and depth of insights needed to make sound business decisions. This made it clear – to truly understand consumers and what drives their decision-making process, the magnifying glass must be on their behavior.
So, our first behavioral method, Eye Tracking, was developed – to pinpoint what respondents are (not) seeing and what reels in their attention when looking at a product or an ad. With it came ideas about decoding consumer emotions and the tech for Facial Coding was brought to life. Quickly after, Virtual Shopping and Reaction Time Measurement were introduced to complete our mix-method approach for reliable consumer learnings. And for all of these methods to be on their best behavior (pun fully intended), all that is needed is the respondents’ own laptops and mobile devices.
#2 Going global and growing further
And expanding our tools, tech and knowledge further powered our global expansion – with many new talents joining us all around the globe and growing our team from 4 to 144! To guarantee clients across all time zones and regions have accessible behavioral insights, footholds in New York, Singapore, Mexico City, Antwerp, Belgrade, London and Paris were established.
The truth is, each new region bears new challenges and demands – from the digital-first, mobile-savvy markets in the Asia-Pacific and rising social commerce initiatives to the undeniable global need for omnichannel optimization. So, every EyeSee hub was built with a laser focus on the locations where we identified a critical mass of novel and specific research questions, testing needs, and brand requirements.
#3 Thinking out of the box and in context
The number one question in the MR industry is: how does one ensure mighty yet accessible consumer knowledge? The answer – in-context research. While behavioral methodologies uncover the nook and crannies of behavior crucial for understanding consumers, you must make sure that what you are measuring is authentic and natural.
Guided by this vision, we thought of the tech that would be able to virtually recreate any setting or environment that consumers are familiar with and test – anything from stores, supermarkets, and restaurants to e-commerce shops, websites and fully interactive social media feeds! This could not have been possible without our ever-growing Research & Development team working tirelessly to perfect the complexities behind this tech and innovate internal tools that support client inquiries and research needs.
#4 Remote measures as a new standard
When the whole world was forced to stay indoors and find alternatives in many aspects of life and work – we moved into our home offices. The approach behind our research was always online and remote and the turbulent times only underlined the need for alternative methods to the ways everyday things were done – including research.
These pressures of uncertainty and the unfeasibility of the traditional way consumer research was conducted accelerated the adoption of innovation and pushed many brands to uncover the exciting world of online behavioral research. Now, two years later, as the demand continues to increase, more and more brands are embracing this new way of gathering vital know-how. Online behavioral research has quickly become the go-to for staying on top of trends, demands and needs of consumers – all while creating opportunities for fresh forms of cooperation with clients and allowing a more hands-on and collaborative approach to research.
#5 Exploring the unexplored and non-traditional
One of our project milestones was inspired by another milestone that happened in history in the last few years – the record-high participation of women in the Olympics. We joined forces with a social media platform to take a much-needed dive into the way gender roles in sports are portrayed in social media advertising – and, in turn, the impact it has on the brand and its consumers.
The learnings were unexpected yet compelling – ads featuring female athletes outperformed campaigns with male protagonists on almost all KPIs. Generally, across the tested ads, a definite driver of purchasing behavior was the non-traditional portrayal of gender roles – such as, women’s stamina and engagement in sports that are typically considered masculine and men shown as paternal, caring, and emotional.
#6 Seizing sustainable shopper behavior
A growing number of consumers are adamant about making the planet a cleaner place – so, what’s stopping them? We wanted to understand all the plentiful opportunities at which brands can support their consumers in their endeavors to buy, live and act greener.
The behavioral data was hopeful, showing that over 86% of shoppers are ripe to embrace the change and opt for more eco-friendly products. However, brands must help them in this by utilizing effective communication through the proper product claims, impactful social media content, and tapping into the yet uncharted categories that shoppers want to buy.
#7 Feeling the consumer’s pulse – at all times
Consumer behavior is always evolving – and at (un) certain times, it can change in completely unexpected ways. It has always been imperative for brands to keep a close eye on their behavior, but inflation has put consumers under immense pressure causing seismic activities in their sentiments. So, how are the rising prices affecting buying behavior – what can companies do in response? We took a tech-driven approach leveraging virtual shopping to find out.
By testing in virtual supermarket replicas, we uncovered that one of the factors that impact consumer decision-making is the frequency at which a category is bought – for instance, in the low-frequency category, shoppers now tend to opt for a smaller package within the same brand. But there are some wild card categories to be aware of, like Bacon and Beer, that remain untouchable under inflationary pressures – don’t underestimate the power of self-indulgence!
#8 The power of knowledge lies in sharing it
Researching the latest trends, identifying windows of opportunity, and helping clients develop only the best for their consumers is only one side of the market research coin. As much as gathering insights and learnings is critical, being able to share this knowledge is just as, and if not more, important.
So, over the last decade, we published 130+ blogs and 40+ webinars, 4 (and counting) annual publications and had 70+ speaking opportunities at global events in an effort to make actionable behavioral insights truly accessible to everybody everywhere – and will continue to do so!
#9 It takes a team effort to push research boundaries
Our innovations, tools, and tech would be nothing without the tenacious support and strong partnerships we forged with our clients along the way. Having their unique perspective, requirements and questions continue to spark our drive to create and develop solutions that are changing the research game.
Clients like Google, Microsoft, Colgate-Palmolive, Energizer have also played a crucial role in our commitment to sharing knowledge, joining us on stage and in webinars to advocate for behavioral research, and amplify the reach of smart consumer insights.
#10 The award-winning behavioral framework
The decade-old mission to help brands better understand their customers and provide them with a competitive edge was initially kickstarted in 2014 when EyeSee won Bizidee’s Belgian startup competition and got first place at the Global Mobile Innovator contest in NYC. And this was only the beginning of an array of recognitions to come! In 2019, we teamed up with Microsoft and won the award for the Global Market Research Project in the Quirk’s Marketing Research and Insight Excellence awards. A year later, our long-lasting partnership with Twitter resulted in an exciting project, ‘(Non)traditional gender roles in sports ads’, that was recognized as the Advertising Research Project of the year.
That same year, we were honored with Deloitte’s Most sustainable growth award celebrating the most consistent growth across the last several years and with Quirk’s Market Research Supplier recognition! Speaking of the Quirk’s awards, we were also finalists in 2 categories in 2022 – MR supplier of the year and Global Marketing Research Project with Colgate-Palmolive! And just last year, we were shortlisted in the LVMH Innovation Awards showcasing companies with a unique vision of the future of customer experience and had our very own Insights Director, Diego Adolfo Chávez Terrazas, become Quirk’s Fearless Leader! In addition, EyeSee continues to be among the Deloitte Technology fast 50 for the 6th consecutive year and we are thrilled to see what the next 10 years will bring – here’s to growing further and beyond!
