Uncovering Cultural Insight in Market Research

Shawn Roy – APAC Innovation & Insights Lead, Haleon

Shawn is presently based out of Singapore and leading the Insights & Analytics for vital categories for APAC within GSK Consumer Healthcare/Haleon. He has 17+ years of Consumer Insights & Analytics experience and his key area of interest lies in deep human understanding, Brand comms & strategy and NPD/ Innovation research.

He has gathered in-depth experience in consumer products & consumer health, baby care and other FMCG. He has been involved in many turn around stories of both local and global brands where consumer insights played a vital role in driving the change; being on the agency side for several years, He has served various blue-chip and local clients across the regions of South Asia and South East Asia & other APAC region and have acquired cross-category learning which comes very handy being on the client side now.

MRMW: We are thrilled to have you on board as a Speaker. Without giving too much away – what is the core message of your talk and what would you like our delegates to remember?

Shawn: The core purpose of the talk is to call out & establish the crucial role of culture in the brand and innovation thinking. While cultural thinking can be about bringing out the specificity & uniqueness about one market/country, however, it can be at the same time a pursuit about seeing commonalities across diverse regions and thus driving scalability.

MRMW: Why is the cultural piece so important in the CMI space now, specifically in the APAC region?

Shawn: The cultural piece can provide deeper human understanding beyond on the surface habits, usage or attitude and can help us marketers to underpin the subconscious motivation driving the choice or behaviour, and thus can end up giving us sustainable marketing ideas that can straddle culturally.

MRMW: What motivates you to join MRMW APAC 2023 and what are your expectations?

Shawn: MRMW is a great forum to connect with Insights & Analytics experts and learn from each other; also, a great platform to showcase your expertise as well as learn about new developments and trends. Above all, it’s a great initiative to give Insights & Analytics its own space to function & flourish!

MRMW: What are the current challenges in Market Research & Insights from an APAC perspective?

Shawn: Challenges are always opportunities. I would say AI adoption needs to be faster to see where we can drive differentiation with clients. Also, we need to groom & develop strong storytellers, who can take the data forward beyond its current realm of factuality.

MRMW: What are your thoughts on the future of Insights?

Shawn: We would need to drive Deeper Human Understanding side by side tech & AI. So, the future would be develop teams with a right balance of right and left brain thinking.

MRMW: Outside of work, what does Shawn like to do?

Shawn: Exploring new food joints, spending time with my toddler and watching good content.

MRMW: Thank you very much Shawn, we look forward to hearing more from you at MRMW APAC 2024!