As we finish the fifth week of the stay-at-home mandate, with potentially another four weeks ahead of us, we wanted to provide an update on how we are supporting our clients and colleagues, and address questions they have raised. The questions can be framed into four buckets. One, are you guys doing OK and are your people holding up? Two, have you been able to execute research effectively? Three, can you help deliver answers from past research? And, four, what do you see across clients for post C-19? We hope you find these answers helpful.
Are you guys doing OK and are your people holding up?
Yes. We are not only holding up we are doing well. It has been an adjustment for all of us to work as we do today, but our team has settled into the routine well and are firing on all cylinders. Tech platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts have been a huge help. We’ve added new team members in our Chicago and New York “offices” during this time, and we had our last All Hands meeting last week and the energy from the team is powerful. And, our clients are happy with the team’s deliverables and responsiveness. As one client said, “you guys haven’t missed a beat!”
Have you been able to execute research and insights projects effectively?
When we saw signs of C-19’s impact a month ago, we took all in-person research, in the US and globally, across all our clients, and transitioned these to virtuals within a 48-hour period. This was possible due to our worldwide virtual qualitative network, whether for individual interviews or focus groups, and our partnerships with the leading tech providers and recruiters. We haven’t had difficulty with recruiting in the US and globally (with Italy, France and UK as the only exceptions). Despite concerns, we have been successful in projects with full respondent participation in China and Japan. Quant has been easy! The tech-stack is made for today’s crazy world! Despite approach, our project dashboards with 24/7 and anywhere/anytime access to project details, recruitment updates, and research materials has been a lifesaver.
Interestingly, the insights we’ve garnered and the way we’ve used tech platforms to moderate highly immersive team workshops, integrating qual insights with quant data, has been more effective than a majority of the traditional in-person workshops from the past, even as recent as a month ago. Just last week, after one such workshop, the CMO turned to the team and said, “this was great research and powerful insights… but, seeing and hearing our customers has hit me in the guts… we need to act on this and now!”
Can you help deliver answers from past research?
Obviously, there is a renewed focus on managing resources more effectively as budgets are being scrutinized. We have been helping answer questions for a number of our clients by using the advanced qualitative analyses app, S+R AQuA™, powered by machine-learning and NLP capabilities that allows us to dig into past qualitative data and deliver quick responses to questions. For one client, we were able to identify the most common perceptions and misperceptions about CAR-T therapy in hours versus days and having to do new research. Our team is available if you have questions you need answered from your past research.
What do you see across clients for post-COVID-19?
Basically, we see all our clients now focused on what they need/plan to do on the other side of today’s normal. Most of you are staying committed to your learning agendas and are executing your programs. The rest have paused your non-critical activities until you have a better idea on the timing of the stay-in-place mandate. Both, though, are looking beyond traditional models and approaches. Fortunately, the investments we made over the past few years in our tech-stack and partnerships, project management capability, our social scientists and brand planners, and, most importantly, our next-gen research methodologies, has put us in a position to be a credible resource for you.
We hope you find this update helpful. If you would like more information on how we can help you navigate our new world, please feel free to contact us at communications@shapiroraj.com or visit our website www.shapiroraj.com.
Shapiro+Raj
S+R is a research and strategy firm that uses social and behavioral sciences to solve the toughest business and marketing challenges. Our next-gen methods dig deep to unlock market-ready insights. Then our brand planners turn these into strategic marketplace actions that create brand evolution and innovation; customer experiences and loyalty; and new platforms for growth.
