Here at FACE we like to think we do things differently to other agencies – what agency doesn’t, right? But it’s been a few years since many of us worked anywhere else! To get a fresh point of view, we asked the two newest members of our qualitative research team to tell us about why they joined.
Beca has previously worked at a boutique quant agency in Ireland and a digital qual agency in London. Rich has worked as a parliamentary researcher for an MP and a commercial analyst at a premier league football club before specialising as a qualitative researcher.
Joining FACE brought with it many changes for both of us, and lots of learnings too, so we’d like to share with you what we’ve discovered in our time here so far.
Beca: So Rich, what was it about FACE that made you want to work here? Was there anything in particular that really excited you?
Rich: I joined FACE to get experience on wider range of research methods. I remember in my last role, I was crying out for the use of a mobile app so I could record people’s behaviour in situ. Here using our mobile app, consumers can record their instinctive reactions almost immediately with minimal disruption to their lives. This has great benefit to a researcher as it negates a lot of factors that add doubt over the validity of responses. It adds precision and detail because it drastically shortens the time between experience and response.
This is key because a person’s memory naturally filters out detail and often leaves only summary. You may test drive a car and note many things you disliked. Interior too cluttered, steering unresponsive, poor satnav, weak handling/brakes etc. If asked straight after the test drive why you didn’t like it, you’d have no problem reeling off details. If asked a few weeks down the line, you will have forgotten many of the particulars. You will simply remember that your overall feelings towards the car were negative, but not necessarily all of the reasons why.
The Pulsar platform is another great tool that I wanted to be able to call upon when making strategic recommendations. By tracking the buzz about a brand – not just on social media, but anywhere mentioned on the web, we are able to grasp the feelings of the consumer like never before.
This kind of information is invaluable when it comes to making valuable recommendations. If I, as a researcher, don’t truly understand how your consumers feel about you today, then how can I possibly help you to be successful tomorrow?
The online community has a great advantage also and is something I was very keen to learn and use. I knew the world of research was changing and that online was the way forward. The online communities are very useful especially as they are so cost effective compared to the alternative, leaving us with more budget for the stuff that matters – the research.
So the tools FACE uses were the flame to the moth for me, what about you? Does FACE do things differently than what you’ve done before?
Beca: Coming from a predominantly digital background I am fairly new to the world of face-to-face qual research. Since joining FACE I’ve had the pleasure of sitting in on some groups and I was so pleasantly surprised by how different they were from what I’d seen before. Rather than the moderator being an authoritative force within the group, the playing field was levelled and the participants were much more natural and relaxed because of it. But the thing that made FACE stand out from the crowd for me is co-creation!
Rich: I agree, ‘co-creation’ is a buzzword you hear a lot, and many people have copied the approach. To find out that FACE were among the first do adopt it in a market research capacity was a huge draw for me. I wanted to go beyond just probing for reactions and actually have a hand in sculpting creative outputs going forward.
So the methodologies are quite new for both of us then, an exciting learning curve! Anything else different at FACE?
Beca: What was probably the most difficult thing to get my head around upon joining FACE is that I am no longer expected to be everything. Coming from an agency where researchers are responsible for everything, from the very seed of a project to the felling of the tree, this was difficult to get my head around initially. I’ve quickly realised the immense benefits of having teams dedicated to production and commercial as well as account managers and in-house technical support. Each team has different strengths, to handle different stages of a project. Having the time to dedicate to the research, which is after all why I chose this path, is a luxury I am still getting used to and one I appreciate more than I ever thought I could.
Analysis of qualitative data is central to what we do as researchers, and FACE really gets that! In previous agencies analysis was often a solo pursuit, but here at FACE analysis is a team effort, with people challenging each other’s conclusions and pushing them to the next level.
You came from automotive research, right? This must be a big change from that?
Rich: Definitely! One of the great things about FACE is the clients we have and the type of work we do. Not wanting to be typecast in one industry led to me wanting to move somewhere with such an enviable FMCG client list; brands like: Coca-Cola, Unilver and Reckitt Benckiser!
You’ve worked in FMCGs before though, haven’t you?
Beca: I have, although quick turnaround projects were much less common in my previous agency. And although watching a project grow and evolve can be very rewarding it can be more difficult to maintain the same level of interest and creativity and keep the momentum going. The short-term nature of most projects at FACE encourages excitement and enthusiasm from start to finish, and allows for continuous creativity throughout. As an added bonus it also opens you up to working on a whole range of projects in a variety of industries, keeping the nature of your work diverse and varied.
How’re you finding it? A new job can be quite daunting…
Rich: The attitude of everyone on the team is first class. From the intern to the directors, we all sit together like a happy family of beavers, all with different roles, but ultimately unified in our goal of making robust and long lasting dams! From a personal point of view, it’s been a touch being able to feel so comfortable so quickly at a new company. There is an eclectic mix of cultures and backgrounds making for a great dynamic both in and outside of work.
With unemployment at an all-time high, working somewhere that both challenges and stimulates is increasingly rare. In joining FACE we have both found a great opportunity to continue to learn and grow as researchers. The multi-faceted approach of online, social and traditional techniques will help us to develop skills we would not have gained elsewhere.
*
If you want to learn more about what it’s like to work at FACE, check out Oana’s post, ‘A Peek Through The Keyhole of the FACE Office’.
Or think you’ve got what it takes and want to join us? Let us know here.
