At AURA Insight’s Generational Insights: Exploring the Changing Consumer Landscape, our very own Colonel Mustard Lucy Davison and NED Danny Russell took the stage to debate whether it’s time to retire generational cohort labelling. After an in-depth discussion with fiery evidence from both sides, the audience of clients voted: generational cohorts are bad for research. As insights professionals, we must always re-evaluate the way we understand consumers. This debate was not about winning, but all about questioning, learning, and finding
Read MoreOur industry has leaned a little too heavily on storytelling to communicate customer insights to stakeholders and decision-makers. Now, there is nothing wrong with storytelling. It is a fantastic tool in many ways, but it lacks dimension. In insights, researchers typically use storytelling to report findings, deliver them, and move on. The customer‘s voice doesn’t infiltrate the organisation’s decision-making, and insights often go unused. Point and case, the 2023 UK Customer Satisfaction Index shows that customer satisfaction has been the
Read MoreResearchers 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
Read MoreHow 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
Read MoreWe 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
Read MoreGreenbook'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
Read MoreThe 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
Read MoreThoughts 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
Read MoreMRSpride 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
Read MoreI 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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