Qualitative Research

No two marketing problems are the same, and no two research methodologies will be the same either. We think very carefully about how to get the understanding we need. We think Moderation should be flexible and creative in eliciting responses and insights. And Analysis needs to be sensitive to issues such as: longer term brand impact, the nature of the consumer's involvement and the cultural relevance and resonance of ideas.

This approach requires intuition and the right instincts. When it comes to multi-country studies, getting this kind of sensitivity in moderation and analysis means collaborating with partners who understand our way of working and who themselves have this intuitive grasp of strategic issues and effective communication.

  • Brand Strategy

    Great brand strategies may come out of insights but they need the vision to imagine the unimagined, to think in the future tense. Even if inspired by consumers, they then manage in turn to surprise them.

    We know it's as important to understand the brand and business realities as the consumer issues. We apply deep intelligence to any strategic challenge, bringing to bear our cultural sensitivity and global perspective to shed new light on the problem. And we always aim to give clear, unambiguous strategic recommendations.

  • Creative Development

    Creative development research should indeed be developmental. We see our job as helping the process of making great advertising, not testing it to destruction. Some of the great campaigns, campaigns that have led to step jumps for the brands in question, have met consumer resistance at initial stages. Forward-looking creative development research must see the things consumers may not: brand communication is not just there to be liked.

    We see research as a springboard to creative brilliance, rather than a 'consumer arbitration process.' Central to our approach is understanding the brand response rather than response to the advertising as an artefact in its own right – and some great advertising has been the result.