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.
Users change their behaviors to please algorithms
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Technology and especially algorithms have invaded the public space. According to Alain Damasio “Freedom is not a desirable concept anymore”. Security and ease-of-use now comes first, as the success of recommendation engines tends to prove. We are surrounded by computer…
Facebook : how do people perceive NewsFeed curation algorithm
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Curation algorithms aren’t fundamentally different from recommendation engines (see the article we just published on the latter here). They select what you ought to see, for instance on your Facebook Newsfeeds. Two studies have addressed customers’ perception of automated curation…
Retail design : beautiful optician store in Paris
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
We are always attentive to innovative retail design (read for instance our report on the recently opened Joe Sayegh store) and we found a store that is worth a visit . Parici is an optician store located 14 rue du…
Recommendation algorithms : how big is the Filter Bubble in actuality
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Recommendation algorithms have been accused to trap users in a filter bubble, to promote the balkanization of information and hence to reduce serependity. The biggest opponent of recommendation engine is probably Eli Pariser who invented the very term of “filter…
Big Data: let your customers improve your segmentation
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Companies are keen on obtaining as much data as possible on their customers to improve behavioral profiling. Yet, few companies harness the power of their customers to enrich their data with new types of data, allowing new segments to be…
Joe Sayegh opens amazing new store in Paris
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Joe Sayegh just opened a store at 29 Rue du Roi de Sicile in Paris. This is the first B2C store of this brand which was long reserved to architects, designers and … very rich people. We couldn’t resist visiting…
1 month using TOR : it ain’t easy to protect his privacy
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Those of you who watched Ed Snowden’s movie “Citizen Four” are certainly aware of privacy issues that come with the use of the Internet. Privacy was first a value of the internet and progressively became a myth. The initial libertarian…
Digital innovation: does your market segment care ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Tech-savvy entrepreneurs love to imagine solutions to digitalize our world and change consumers’ usages. Adoption is usually the problem that occurs. It’s therefore essential to ask you this question beforehand: “do your target customers care enough to change their habits”…
Let’s reinvent recommendation engines
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Recommendation engines (a series of algorithms aiming at targeting what you'd like best to see / get / purchase / you name it) are everywhere. You use them without knowing it. The first recommendation engine is actually Google (or any…
Great promotion for Canada at Lyon (France) airport
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
While traveling in France I spotted a very nice communication campaign at Lyon Saint-Exupery airport on the occasion of the opening of the Lyon – Montreal connection. To celebrate this new connection, passengers were invited to discover North American culture…
Pokemon Go: what does this game reveal about ourselves?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Newspapers and magazines have been quick to celebrate the amazing popularity of Pokemon Go. The stock market followed quickly and Nintendo share sky rocketed as a result of an excess of enthusiasm, before investors that Nintendo was not at the…
Liberals share less serious content on Facebook than conservatives
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
In my quest to understand how algorithms limit our freedom, my attention was caught by a piece of research published in June 2015 in Science. This research was funded by Facebook (which is an important piece of information) and aims…
How I got in the TOP10 of Linkedin’s most viewed profiles
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
8 weeks ago I started an experiment. I wanted to jump into the TOP10 most viewed profiles of my Linkedin network. I succeeded. Read further if you want to find out how I achieved jumping from the 100th place to…
The economy of the attention ensures a world of mediocrity
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
We live in a world of mediocrity. We are more than ever bombarded with stimuli of all kinds and our brains are about to explode. We are hardly able to concentrate on one task at a time and are constantly…
French Universities scandalous selection algorithm revealed
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Big Data technologies and in particular selection algorithms attract more and more criticism from libertarian advocates. I echoed growing concerns myself in an article calling for more transparent algorithms. French newspaper Liberation revealed that National Education ministry faces legal pressure…
Market research: Snapchat 2nd most popular social media
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
The results of a recent market research on snapchat were made available by the Danish television (see the presentation at the end of the article, courtesy Rasmus Thaarup). Here are the key learning points. Snapchat : market research facts 2nd…
Customers are kings ? No ! Not all !
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
We think that not all customers deserve the same level of attention. Actually some customers should even be left dissatisfied. Looks like a strong statement ? Read further to be convinced that you should change the way you decide on…
Data Scientists are NOT the solution
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
In a recent meeting with Big Data managers in the broadcasting industry, one complaint came over and over again. Data scientists have no feeling for business, and business people even less for statistics and Big Data. How to bridge the…
Big Data can save lives
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
At the conference organized together by Microsoft Europe and Louvain University, Adeline Decuyper proposed a fresh look at Big Data. She rightly made the point that Big Data can also serve non commercial purposes and contribute to Greater Good. She…
Bpost / PostNL : the historical context behind the merger
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
The Belgian post (bpost) had offered to buy the Dutch post (PostNL). Although CEO Van Gerven declared on May 30th that the negotiations would stop, one may wonder what triggered Bpost offer and what potential consequences for employees could have…
Why does Bpost want to buy Post.nl ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Bpost has announced it had made an offer to buy Post.nl This important (and clever) move by Bpost should be understood within a larger historical context. We will explain you in a another article this context but for the moment…
Big Data : what are the trends in the retail and insurance sectors ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
In partnership with Microsoft Europe (Brussels), the University of Louvain (Belgium) organized a conference on 13 May where I discussed the future impact of Big Data in the retail and insurance sectors. I started by outlining the 4 sectors that…
Pros and cons of focus groups vs. interviews: an in-depth review
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
[caption id="attachment_41932" align="alignright" width="470"] Our guide to market research can be downloaded free of charge[/caption] Last update: March 2020. In an earlier article we discussed the major differences between focus groups and face-to-face interviews. Today we’d like to compare both…
The Financial Times found the most perfect KPI’s to measure success
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
The success of any marketing action needs to be measured with the right KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). The Financial Times found a unique KPI that allows outstanding predictions of their churn rate. Read further to learn more. KPI’s are difficult…
