Idea workshops

Interesting and innovative ideas are critical to developing brands, and to answering the perennial research question, 'What do my customers want?' Everyone enjoys having creative ideas. We enjoy structuring and facilitating the process of generating ideas and solving problems, and we're expert at it.

Our idea workshops with internal project teams, leading edge customers and stakeholders, are often the starting point for a research project. With training in Synectics and lateral thinking techniques we have a great track record in stimulating fresh ideas for marketplace leaders, including Classic FM (the world's biggest commercial radio station) and Metro (the world's largest free newspaper), and in guiding policy for Government that is truly stakeholder-led.

Sensitive research

People are fascinating. Qualitative research is a delight when people let you into their lives to understand their behaviour and beliefs. We know that being able to talk and relate to anybody demands a combination of natural talent, technique and experience, and we believe our ability here is distinctive.

This skill is important to all research but particularly working with people in delicate areas such as religion and education, and talking to audiences such as the deaf and socially deprived, where we have experience.

Above all, we want to ensure your customers enjoy being consulted, so that they have the confidence to be themselves, and express themselves freely and frankly. This way we can fathom their rational and emotional actions, and their most heart-felt opinions and dreams concerning your organisation.

We have a raft of techniques to help customers and business people to express ideas and feelings with confidence thorough metaphor, imagery, and role-play, and we provide appropriate tools for the job like magic wands. Almost every project leads us to create a new technique to fit the brief.

Business-to-business research

B2B research requires a different kind of sensitivity. We become the client's representative, often in front of very senior people, and we believe an interview should reflect well on the commissioning client to build their reputation as well as their knowledge. Our approach centres on thorough preparation and professional presentation with gravitas and lightness of touch in appropriate measure.

As well as being a safe pair of hands before treasured customers we have a very high success rate of securing lengthy face-to-face and telephone interviews with difficult-to-reach senior professionals in the UK and overseas. We also know what works as incentives for interviewees.

International research

We work with overseas agencies, conducting the UK stages of large international projects, and our own projects have taken us to the USA, Germany, France, India, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. We have worked directly in these markets where English has been the appropriate language, and we have briefed and trained local researchers to ensure continuity of methodology from country to country.

Recruitment control

Qualitative research depends upon the quality of recruitment. In addition to our network of professional recruiters, when the project demands, we personally make direct contact with potential research respondents. We recruit business people in the UK and international markets up to CEO level.

Making films

Nothing brings customers alive nor demonstrates their strength of feeling better than audio-visual, and we use conference quality video to capture and convey research insights. It helps us to produce more compelling debriefs that staff want to watch and revisit. We have developed our own interview techniques that work with this medium without compromising the research.

Video is a valuable tool to help to get research absorbed and used. Our research films have been used for intranet sites and as a sales tool, and we are developing more added value research ideas with video.

Stimulus materials

Translating ideas into concepts for testing in research is a skill in which we are trained and well-practised, and we work independently or with imagery specialists, design agencies and copywriters to produce stimulus materials that truly stimulate customers and give newborn ideas the best start in life.

Home grown techniques

In our quest to understand people's real relationships with brands, products and services, we interview people in their homes and cars, shopping and working, observing and filming what they really do rather than what they say they do. Our Break-Out depth interviews give group respondents the opportunity to speak more candidly and expansively face-to-face, with gratifying results.

We have developed quantitative methods that work within qualitative groups and interviews to give clients an early steer in gauging price points and propensity to purchase. The pre-group and post-group diary methods we have developed over a decade capture valuable details about respondents' behaviour and feelings over time. As we gain research confidence in the new medium so our new methods may expand online.

Research by numbers

Sometimes projects call for the support of numbers from existing or new research. With our grounding in strategic planning we are able to advise, design, commission and analyse quantitative research and integrate the numbers into the full research picture. Whether figures come from consumer data, omnibus surveys, tailor-made usage and attitude studies, or full-blown market segmentation, our creative approach to presentations ensures that the numbers tell an interesting story.