Recap: Dunkin’, RB, TalkingRain, and Estée Lauder On the Future of Research
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Here’s an example of how much the world has changed this year: the last time Suzy hosted a panel of insights experts to discuss the future of market research, it was at an in-person event! Six months later, the pandemic has left a lasting impact not just on the way we network with one another, but the way companies connect to their consumers in all areas of life.
With that in mind, our latest roundtable for the Quirks Virtual Event, “Insights 2020: Dunkin’, RB, TalkingRain, and Estée Lauder Explore the Future of Research,” brought together a new panel of industry leaders to share how they’ve adapted their methodologies to respond to the current moment, including:
Katie Gross, the Chief Customer Officer at Suzy
Nathan Noertker, the Shopper Outperformance Team Lead for RB Health.
Angela Smith, the Insights Lead for Sparkling Ice beverage manufacturer Talking Rain.
Kaitlyn Watson, the Consumer Insights and Trends Manager at Dunkin' Brands.
Yvette Marichal, Executive Director of Innovation Insights & Trends at Estee Lauder Companies.
Here are some highlights of what they discussed:
Widening the focus on consumer behavior
“Last year as a company, we gathered around [the idea] that we were consumer obsessed,” Angela said of Talking Rain’s current strategy. “This year we've evolved to community-obsessed, recognizing that the consumer is not just one person at the end of the chain, it's all the people along the chain that are affected. And then beyond that, there's a community that's larger than the people that just consume our product.”
Similarly, the insights team at Dunkin’ has expanded past food and beverage insights to explore other consumer behaviors. “People are reacting very differently from each other. Their beliefs are differing right now and they're constantly changing,” said Kaitlyn, adding that this shift in focus has already led to some useful results. “Early on, we identified some COVID trends that impacted us particularly. We've actually applied them to our innovation pipeline and even pulled forward some short-term innovation.”
Sharing knowledge across the industry
Just as local communities around the country are trying to come together across their shared social distance, so too has the market research industry rallied to share knowledge and resources with one another.
“I really feel there's been this collective feeling throughout the insights community that we're all in this together. And because of that, there's been so many great webinars, so many continuous studies that have been tracking consumer sentiment over time,” said Kaitlyn. She also supplements this with information from the news, her own company’s market intelligence team, and with specific questions that her team launches directly to Suzy.
“Everyone's searching for that opportunity to work with someone. Not in isolation, but actually collaborating and co-creating,” added Yvette. “Suzy is something we've been leveraging tremendously. When we do ideate, we try to test our ideas and get consumer feedback live so we're iterating the new ideas as we go. It's almost kind of like a co-creation with the consumer, which I really love and everyone really gets all psyched about. It's certainly not the same as being in-person, but we've all adapted.”
What business leaders should do next
“Don't miss this opportunity to capitalize on the need for insights within the business — working with your internal teams, working with your retailers, really to make sure that you're helping to break down those silos within the organization that may have existed,” advised Nathan. “Because I think longer term, it's gonna have a huge effect on what you and your team can accomplish.”
Another tip from Angela: don’t shy away from more creative approaches to gathering insights, especially now. “We put a lot of investment in our digital support and technology, so we have machine learning abilities where that helps us really get into understanding people in an organic way, listening in through social channels. Just think about some of those non-traditional ways that you can understand and get answers to those needs for the organization.”
Leveraging DIY for greater impact
“I am a huge proponent of DIY,” said Nathan. “I can go through and really layer things in that allow our respondents to choose their own adventure. However they answer directs them to a different question, and I can really get at the nuts and bolts of what they're trying to tell me.”
“The ability to have the consumer response and co-create with them has been fabulous,” added Yvette. “We've been able to field questions so much more quickly and agilely, turning around things in a couple of days. It's amazing, and it's made a tremendous difference in how we service our teams.”
Suzy's become a verb at Talking Rain, Angela admitted. “‘Let's just Suzy it!’”
For more knowledge from our panel of experts, watch the full recording of our Quirks virtual event, “Insights 2020: Dunkin’, RB, TalkingRain, and Estée Lauder Explore the Future of Research.”