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.
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…
Market research: all our knowledge made available in one place
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Market research is often understood as doing a survey. This is not true as many other techniques and tools need to be used to get a comprehensive picture of the market. We have very often published articles on market research…
Will Amazon revolutionize supply-chain management?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Two years ago we were analyzing on this blog the rise of a new logistics giant : Amazon. Amazon was successfully testing new delivery experiences with DHL and Audi. We also predicted Amazon was ready to compete directly with the…
How to do a desk research on a market you don’t know yet (PART 2/2)
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
In the previous part of this article on desk research, we explained how to get a first glimpse into a market you don’t know. Today we continue with the two last steps: structure the information and verify it. Desk research…
How to do a desk research on a market you don’t know yet (PART 1/2)
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Market research is especially difficult when the market you have to investigate is not known to you. Desk research is usually the technique chosen to get a first idea of what a market looks like (think about checking our series…
iOT : this object offers a new music experience
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Music can be experienced in very different ways. But nowadays it’s mainly digital (despite vinyl revival). Beyond.io, an Antwerp-based iOT agency, wanted to create a new music experience. X-II was their answer. Music sharing has changed They launched the X-II…
Will banks sell your data to retailers?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Your bank knows a lot about you and, as a matter of fact, the banking sector has been investing huge amount in Big Data for years. Similarly retailers know also a lot about you through the purchases you make. Is…
