by QUAL360 Europe 2020 is just around the corner and as part of our pre-conference interviews we recently spoke with Marcos Dreher, Director Global Market Research & Intelligence at Hartmann . In this interview Marcos shared more about his presentation “Rookies vs Oldtimers – the new frontier“and how market researchers can cope with the potential future challenges in qual research.
The Qual360 Europe conference is all set to kick-off on Feb 17-19 in Berlin with a stellar speaker line-up and experts from international brands as well as renowned agencies coming together to kick-start their year. Don’t miss your chance to meet representatives from Henkel, Kao, Electrolux, Brandwatch, BBC, IFF, EON, Insites Consulting, Point Blank, relativ, Butterfly, Catalyx, MaxQDA, FlexMR, Lloyds, Unilever, Yandex and many more.
Qual360: Marcos, without giving too much away – what is the core message of your talk and what would you like delegates to remember?
MD: As more and more companies are interested in DIY research, the relationship Company-Supplier needs to have an overhaul with regards to the added-value suppliers can bring. Using an alternative method, I will exemplify how we as company in cooperation with DHBW (Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University) students were able to produce research pieces with on-par quality to the ones delivered by professional agencies.
Qual360: Why did you choose the topic of your talk?
MD: As all the agencies that currently work with me, I am an advocate of a partner, not only supplier. Even though most agencies nowadays will include “partnership” in their sales pitch, very few of them can honestly deliver the level that we expect. The intention behind the talk is to have an open discussion of what added-values a supplier really can bring and their cost/benefit when considering alternative DIY methods.
Qual360: What motivates you to join QUAL360 Europe and what are your expectations?
MD: I think the exchange with peers and the environment where it takes place proportionate a unique experience which l am looking forward to being part of.
Qual360: There is a lot of talk about the current state of qualitative research – how would you sum up the current state of qualitative research and potential future challenges? And what do you think QUAL360 Europe as a conference can contribute?
MD: The question goes hand-in-hand with the topic of my talk. Qualitative research is a very subjective topic and we need to extract the most objective information from it. The challenge is two sided: On one hand companies need to be very clear about what they are looking for in terms of research question/topic. On the other hand, the supplier needs to be able to tap into a company’s soul to understand and help the research departments to achieve such level of objectivity. It is a two-way street that can only be addressed if both see the added-value of their services. I think Qual360 will bring both suppliers and companies in one place and enable a fruitful discussion towards the topic.
