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.
Insurances : towards the end of the risk sharing principle ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
There is one very important underlying principle of any insurance : risk sharing. Good drivers cover a part of the risk of bad drivers; people in good health pay for those who fall ill. Americans call this a “socialist” way…
“What else” : do you remember where it comes from ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
“What Else” has become Nespresso’s tagline. But do you remember where it comes from ? When a friend of mine asked me this question, I couldn’t. Watch this 2006 video and you’ll remember quickly … Image : Rob d / Shutterstock.com
Hospitality : this postcard leverages customer satisfaction
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction are increasingly expressed online. Capturing this information remains instrumental for most sectors, especially for hotels and restaurants. Bad word-of-mouth can destroy reputation and cut revenues. In the hospitality sectors the norm is usually to have satisfaction…
Mobile Me : your car has no secrets for Mercedes
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Nowadays cars can be connected with your smartphone ; not only to make calls but also to control your car at distance. The Mercedes Me application enables the owner to monitor basic and more advanced functionalities of the vehicle through…
Service quality : the next retail challenge after Big Data
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Algorithms have become instrumental in retailers' strategies to increase loyalty among customers. We don't know of any major retailer not having a Big Data team working on a.o. predicting churn, couponning, increasing loyalty, new segmentation, ... Yet, what we also…
Customers are the last hurdle to remove for a smoother supply-chain
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
The Nespresso Prodigio case shows that companies are trying to remove the last uncertainty factor to maximize loyalty. This factor is the customer himself. It’s not a bad idea indeed. Rather than building complex algorithms to predict customers’ behaviors, why…
Nespresso : the secret behind the new Prodigio connected machine
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Nespresso just launched a new connected machine called “Prodigio”. This machine allegedly allows you to prepare a coffee with your smartphone and make sure you never run out of Nespresso capsules. This machine will however allow much more than that…
Are smart boxes the future of car insurance?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Telematic units, also called black or smart boxes, are devices installed in a car to monitor a driver’s behavior (speed, acceleration, deceleration, …). They are increasingly used by insurance companies to develop a pay-as-you-drive pricing. Such pricing may be especially…
Design Thinking helped us imagine creative business cards
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Are business cards something of the past ? We definitely don't think so, especially if you have a creative business card that will make an impact. We used Design Thinking techniques to revisit the experience around giving and getting a business card.…
Big Data : 4 points to understand your legal responsibilities
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
I recently attended a workshop on the legal aspects of Big Data and IoT (Internet of Things) that was organized by Impulse in Brussels. The presenter, Philippe Laurent, had a very clever and clear way of presenting the problems posed…
Is Humanity lost ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
In an article published two weeks ago I was explaining my pessimism with regards to the directions taken by Society. For those who know me this is not really surprising; my high optimism phases alternate with some more pessimistic ones, that…
Techstartupday 2016 : virtual reality on the rise
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
At the techstartup day 2016 that took place in Brussels last week, one of the buzzwords was virtual reality (VR). Juan Bossicard, Cluster manager at Impulse and President of the Microsoft Innovation Center, held a very interesting speech on the…
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…
