Market research news
The blog of the market research agency IntoTheminds lists opinionated articles, examples of alignment with marketing theory, highlights and bad buzz, carefully selected by Pierre-Nicolas Schwab, his team and influential experts.
Facebook doesn’t tell you really why you get targeted advertising
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
In the data world, the topics of transparency, privacy and ethics are more and more discussed. As we predicted a year ago, this may well be the next revolution in data science. We ran an experiment to understand the level…
GDPR : what does data portability really mean ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enforces the concept of data portability. What it means remains however opaque for most of us as the concept behind data portability can't be easily applied and doesn't really correspond to any expressed or…
Ugly vegetables look more natural and give stores a better image
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Consumers perceive "ugly", misshappen vegetables, as more natural. Moreover communication campaigns promoting these "abnormal" products benefit also the stores , such campaign convey indeed a positive image in the minds of the customers. Those are the results of a study…
New Twitter conditions give you a glimpse into how and which personal data collected
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
On 20 May 2017 Twitter sent an email to its users announcing that new terms and conditions apply. These changes largely apply to data usage, personalization and targeted advertising. One can't really say it's a revolution, but at least it's…
Personalized car insurance has unexpected effects on customers behaviors
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
A recent article in a French magazine sheds light on progresses made by insurance company Allianz in the field of personalized car insurance. Like many other firms in the field, Allianz believes in the usefulness of telematic units (black boxes)…
Customer loyalty : 3 sets of KPI’s that should become your priorities
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
My good friend Christian Barbaray published an article (in French) where he listed the KPI's that firms most commonly monitor. He split them in 3 categories ("global", "asquisition", "loyalty") and concluded that firms on average monitor 11 KPI's. What I…
Youtube recommendations : user experience and algorithmes better than ever
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
If you are addicated to YouTube, chances are high their recommendation systems play an important role in your addiction. Our deep interest in recommendation engines and algorithms makes us naturally gravitate towards the YouTube app to assess their latest developments.…
Amazon’s new business move will lock customers further
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Amazon looks to me as one of the most innovative companies in the world, far more innovative actually that any of the electronics giants out there which have done poorly at inventing any real breakthrough innovation for the last 10…
4 hints to avoid your customer satisfaction survey from failing
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
In our latest article we discuss the Goodhart's law and what it meant for customer satisfaction measurement. In short, if satisfaction scores become a company's objectives, the likelihood is high that results will be biased. Contact us for your B2B…
How the Goodhart’s law makes customer satisfaction surveys fail
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”. This is the Goodhart's law and it explains in my opinion why why an awful lot customer satisfaction measures fail. Let me take two concrete examples that…
Interview of Edward Vizard on implementing Pay-What-You-Want at Garçonne & Chérubin
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
A few weeks ago we discussed an interesting, yet rather unusual, pricing scheme in the retail sector applied by e-merchant Garçonne & Cherubin : the Pay-What-You-Want system. We discuss today the experience of Edward Vizard, founder of Garçonne & Chérubin, on this…
Ford builds trust and satisfaction with the Ford video check
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Ford is currently rolling out a new digital tool that will help build trust and enhance customer satisfaction : the Ford video check. We tested it and it's just amazing. Read further to see how Ford is transforming the car…
Education : machine learning for better learning
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Among the really exciting application of machine learning, there is one that fascinates me : machine learning in the classroom. Recently some very exciting applications have been described to use algorithms to enhance the quality of education and make children…
Belfius : 95,25% customer satisfaction. Can you believe it?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
I visited a Belfius branch last week and was stunned to see their latest marketing campaign and their claim about their high customer satisfaction: 95,25% customer satisfaction ! Can you imagine ? This is just an amazing score. So amazing…
Market research : data strategy for European broadcasting organizations
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
On the occasion of the 2nd annual EBU Big Data week held in Geneva on 21 and 22 March 2017, the results of a pilot survey on the state of Big Data among broadcasters was revealed. The survey results are…
Why Facebook emoji are an incredibly smart move
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
What is a "Like" worth ? What does it really mean ? The "like" mechanism was a great innovation when it was launched. It was a simplistic, yet powerful, way for a consumer to mark his (dis)interest. It was a…
Virtual Reality : Interview of ArtMyn founder, Loic Baboulaz
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
After a visit at EPFL in Lausanne we discovered the work of ArtMyn, a startup specialising in Virtual Reality applied to Art. We interwied its founder, Loïc Baboulaz, to understand the genesis of ArtMyn and the evolution of the virtual…
Recommendation algorithms : the myth of filter bubbles at stake
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
We've already discussed filter bubbles on this blog, a rather technical term that describes the negative effet of algorithms on our digital life. For more information read this thorough article. Whether or not filter bubbles really exist is still debated…
Artificial intelligence: are algorithms biased by nature ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
I attended a workshop at the Maastricht European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity where I met Prof. Alessandro Mantelero of Polytecnico di Torino. Prof. Mantelero is well known as a specialist in the protection of personal data, which has become…
Good news for customers’ satisfaction : robots will replace humans
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
We have some good news for you : robots are about to replace humans. People are finally going to be able to focus on what they do best : having relationships with other humans. Artificial intelligence evrywhere : what is…
Which market research method for a new concept, product or service ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Recently I was approach by a large group in the hospitality industry which wanted to conduct a market research for a new concept they had in mind. This hospitality concept had been broadly sketched. What the client wanted was a…
The human costs of buying from Deliveroo, UberEats and the like
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Deliveroo communicated that the number of lunch deliveries in Belgium had increased 19 fold ! People start understanding that food delivery is not just a Friday night habit. It can also be experienced during the week and also at lunch.…
Retail : the role of packaging on in-store purchase decisions
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
How to drive more in-store purchases ? This is the $1m question every retailer relentlessly tries to answer. Recent scientific advances in the field of consumer behavior give us some insights on this, especially on the role of packaging. How…
I finally found a useful Virtual Reality (VR) application
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
I have often been disappointed by Virtual Reality (VR) applications. Like IoT (Internet of Things) most VR applications add no or little value for the user. There is an entertainment effect but it's far from sufficient to make you a…
