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.
Real-estate prices predicted : latest news of startup Realo
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Last year we reported on the scandal that followed the launch of Realo, a website predicting real-estate prices. A Belgian initiative, Realo has European ambitions and is based on a business model that has proved its efficacy in the US…
Algorithms : is our freedom threatened?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
If you follow the news you may have come across this news : a deep-learning algorithm has defeated the European master of Go. This news was such a milestone in artificial intelligence (AI) that it was featured in the Nature…
Sharing economy : revenues to be taxed in France
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
The good thing with the sharing economy is that it has empowered individuals to make money. The bad thing is that governments haven’t been able to take much advantage of those new business models. In France the sharing economy represents…
Facebook case: towards more Big Data transparency ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
No later than Monday we were announcing the next Big Data revolution : algorithms will become more transparent in the future. We argued consumers will become increasingly aware of how sensitive their data is, eventually demanding information on how it…
TripAdvisor, Booking.com … are restaurants about to retaliate ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
While in Venice for a marketing conference, I spotted a very strange sticker on a restaurant’s door. It said basically “no to tripadvisor” and to dictatorship of consumers’ reviews. It made me think about how the business of restaurants’ reviews…
Big Data : here’s the next revolution
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
This is the beginning of the next Big Data revolution. However it remained confidential. A bill was passed in France mid-January that will force the fiscal authorities to reveal the variables in algorithms used to take individual decisions (article in…
How to handle a complaint perfectly
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
A colleague recently sent me an answer to a complaint he had sent to Delamaison.fr, an online shop specializing in furniture. As we recently discussed on this blog, most firms do everything wrong when it comes to handling complaints. But…
Creative business cards : we are almost there
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Last year I felt the need to have new business cards. From the very beginning I wanted to create creative business cards that people would remember. After searching the internet and in particular pinterest, I drafted a few concepts that…
RAGE 2015 study : customers more dissatisfied than ever with complaint handling
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
The 2015 edition of the RAGE study is out … and guess what ? Post-complaint satisfaction has never been so low and firms seem to keep doing the wrong things about complaint handling. Complaint handling practices are obviously wrong in…
10 Parisian stores with a 3D-printed interactive window
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
In an earlier post we reported about an initiative launched in Paris to create interactive windows 3D printed elements made by Le FabShop. This initiative got launched by SEMAEST, a public organization which aims at promoting local retail in Paris.…
Good resolution #2: enjoy my old passions
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
To follow up on my latest blog post on good resolutions for the year 2016, here's part 2: my second set of good resolutions. I've a few passions in life that need to be awaken. I put them aside many…
How a simple law can change market conditions
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
When you do a market research, it's important to look at all the exterior factors that can change market conditions. There's a special little tool to do this analysis consistently: it's called the PESTEL analysis. The purpose of today's post…
4 retail problems that focus groups cannot solve
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Focus groups are not the magic solution to all your marketing problems. Good market research uses focus group as an additional technique to confirm the results obtained elsewhere; never as an exploratory methodology. In the retail world, focus groups are…
Good resolution #1: be more selective
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
In April 2015 I started a new Big Data assignment in Brussels. I was (and still am) spending most of my time in the eastern part of Brussels. I then realized I was working not far away from a former…
How to handle qualitative market research in different countries / languages
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Because our market research agency is located in Belgium, we often have to deal with qualitative marketing assignments that require to conduct interviews in different languages. As you may know Belgium itself has 3 official languages (Dutch, French and German)…
On the importance of data obsolescence
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Short before Christmas I decided to send a few emails to re-connect with some of my fellow colleagues, acquaintances and clients of the past. I also used that occasion to ask those contacts one particular question for a market research…
Heineken beer pump LeSub spotted in … Madrid
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Last year we reported about the superb popup store Heineken opened in Paris : the Substore. Although we were told the beer pump "Le Sub" were available physically only in the Substore from Nov 20 until Dec 20, 2015, we surprisingly spotted…
How to increase satisfaction of call centers in 3 easy steps
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
I got many positive reactions about my latest post on call centers' phone menus. It seems many of you are frustrated by these anti-satisfaction systems. What they achieve to create among customers is everything but satisfaction. I wondered about we…
Clever store window : innovative, interactive and surprising
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Shoppers are desperately in need of new, innovative and refreshing ideas in the retail sphere. Retailers have come up with tons of digital innovations inside the store, all aiming at selling more. But they forgot the enchantment part of the…
Le Substore : Heineken opens its popup store in Paris
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
It's been quite a long time we haven't been reporting about remarkable popup stores. Not that we didn't want but we actually didn't spot anything really exciting. We took the chance to visit the Substore, Heineken's popup store opened in…
High on frustration, low on satisfaction : call centers’ phone menus
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
In the word of service there’s one thing that really drives me crazy : call centers’ phone menus. You know the feeling. You’ve got an issue and have to dial a national number to get assistance. “Press 1 for English,…
Unethical behavior : making money around terrorist attacks
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
At the time of the terrorist attacks in Paris in January 2015 (Charlie Hebdo) I was asked in a radio interview to analyze the merchandising phenomenon that was witnessed. All kinds of objects with the “#JeSuisCharlie” logo suddenly appeared on marketplaces…
Big Data becomes Art at MoMa
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Visualizing and making sense of big data is in itself a difficult exercise. Successful attempts have been reported on this blog. Visualization can sometimes be so stunning that it can become a piece of Art. Columbia researchers Laura Kurgan, Eric…
Can we measure satisfaction in our bodies ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
I’ve been studying customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction, loyalty for more than a decade. Both my academic and business experiences have taught me one thing : there’s no one-size-fits-all magical recipe to satisfy people. There are almost as many ways to satisfy…
