Blog

Thoughts on everything that matters right now in marketing, communications, and insights.

Category: Insights

Salience and Staying Power: hear from De Beers, Haleon and Pearson at ESOMAR Posted on August 10, 2023 by Simon Dunn

Researchers face an uphill battle. Decades of data has proven that companies which listen to customers and markets have the greatest chance of success. Yet, for years, debates have focused primarily on how data and insight can ‘get a seat at the executive table’. Indeed, that’s a position of influence and input, but it is not demonstrative of a culture that is truly customer-centric and which thrives on making decisions informed by insight. To achieve this, researchers have to be

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Get on the case Posted on January 25, 2023 by Lucy Davison

How to make case studies work for you in insights An insights company without case studies is like Batman without Robin. Demonstrating your value through a case study is fundamental to thought leadership and growth. Plus, there’s the added advantage that most clients are burning with curiosity and FOMO; the number one thing that they want to know is what you are doing or have done for other companies like them. But producing case studies is often a big challenge

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Discussions and debates at ESOMAR’s UK summer event Posted on August 16, 2022 by Braden MacDonald

We at Mustard Towers were delighted that ESOMAR recently returned to action in the UK with its first in-person event in over three years. As a (somewhat) new recruit in the MRX and insights industry, I quickly realised that ESOMAR has an excellent reputation. In case you didn’t know, ESOMAR is the global community for people working in data, research and insight. I couldn't wait to get stuck in and see what ESOMAR's UK Summer Event had in store for

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Trends, teasers and triumphs: A recap of IIEX Europe Posted on July 13, 2022 by Braden MacDonald

Greenbook's IIEX events explore the intersection of technology and insights. Is there a better place to host IIEX Europe than Amsterdam? It's a trendy hotspot for many individuals and communities, and MRX is no different. So, you can imagine how excited I was as a (slight) newcomer to the industry to hop onto the Eurostar, arrive and take in the eternal beauty of centuries-old canals, before attending the two-day wonder of 'one of the most cutting-edge consumer insights events in

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GRIT Report: How to be famous Posted on March 31, 2022 by Lucy Davison

The challenge to stand out is as important in MRX as it is for washing powder or breakfast cereal. But yet again, in this GRIT Report, we see that researchers don’t make good marketers. The point of positioning is knowing what you do – and what you don’t do. In past reports, we have seen inconsistency from respondents within supply-side companies as to what their company does. And in this report again, “the employees of many supplier companies aren’t really

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MRS Impact 2022: A round-up Posted on March 29, 2022 by Braden MacDonald

Thoughts on the Market Research Society's Impact 2022 event by our newest Mustard recruit. After joining the world of MRX only a few months ago, I was excited to attend my first professional event and learn more about the people, trends and the contribution of data and insights. Learning is a treasure that follows its owner everywhere, so as someone with a communications background, I was eager to get to grips with the industry to see what I can apply

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Researching intersectionality: understanding and learning inclusive behaviours Posted on March 7, 2022 by Braden MacDonald

MRSpride x CORe: IN+ERSECTIONAL PLATFORM Market Research is all about understanding. Knowing what makes consumers tick and what demographics they neatly fit into is key. But inclusivity is a challenge. For some people it’s not easy to fit in a box – and those boxes aren’t as applicable as they may be for others. This is a core tension for MRX – we both need to categorize in order to measure, and we need to be inclusive if we are

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Views on MRS Impact – from a new(ish) recruit Posted on March 30, 2021 by Braden MacDonald

I had heard a lot about the MRS Conference, the networking and the parties, never mind the conference sessions themselves, but since I joined MRX during COVID I have never actually been to a ‘physical’ research industry event – ever! How would this leading industry event, shape up to being purely virtual? From looking through the programme, I could tell this was a line-up of big names – from politics and the arts, and both client and agency-side. So, I

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ESOMAR Insights Festival: thoughts from an industry newbie Posted on October 6, 2020 by Braden MacDonald

I don’t think any of us expected an international MRX event of the scale of the Insights Festival to be pulled off this year. But ESOMAR has proved that major conferences can still go ahead, albeit digital and totally different, and be a roaring success. As a newbie in the industry and having never attended the ESOMAR Congress in previous years, I had nothing to compare the Festival to, so I was pleased to feel a sense of community and

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A lot of data, a tight deadline and no idea where to start? Posted on July 15, 2020 by Simon Dunn

Throughout the lockdown, customers from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa had been sharing their experiences and concerns with the insights team at a large FMCG client. As a result, the team had many diverse, engaging consumer vox-pop clips, which they had grouped into six broad themes. But they needed to weave them into a single, coherent and impactful story. In a challenge that is typical for many insights teams, there was no lack of data. But the

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