Name: Improve gender inclusivity in market research
Uploaded: 2022-05-23T07:57:51.373Z
Duration: 784.83

Improving gender inclusivity.vtt

English

{{00:00:27}}
Hi, I'm Jordan . We're here at TMRE 2021.

{{00:00:29}}
Today.

{{00:00:30}}
I'm joined by Katie Gross She's
the chief customer officer at Suzy.

{{00:00:34}}
Katie thank you so much
for joining us today.

{{00:00:35}}
Thank you for having me.

{{00:00:36}}
You're welcome.

{{00:00:37}}
So maybe we could start by having you tell
me a little bit about yourself and your

{{00:00:40}}
role and sort of what Suzy is all about.

{{00:00:42}}
So I am a lifelong market researcher
having studied psychology at university.

{{00:00:47}}
My only marketable skill, but I
came out of university was SPSS.

{{00:00:51}}
So landed in the market research
role at a food and drink company.

{{00:00:55}}
And then have been mostly
in online panel companies.

{{00:00:58}}
And the number of last kind of
number of years, I moved to the USA

{{00:01:02}}
about 10 years ago,  and joined Suzy

{{00:01:06}}
right in the middle of the pandemic.

{{00:01:07}}
So, it was fantastic.

{{00:01:10}}
I,  think during kind of recessionary
times when there's a lot of turbulence

{{00:01:15}}
with consumers, people need very
fast feedback very quickly consumer

{{00:01:19}}
habits are changing rapidly.

{{00:01:21}}
And the Suzy is a great platform
to, to enable brands, to really

{{00:01:25}}
kind of get to know that consumers
and get that rapid feedback

{{00:01:27}}
Can you talk a little bit about
the new product innovations

{{00:01:30}}
that the team has done in 2021?

{{00:01:32}}
Suzy is only three

{{00:01:33}}
and a half years old.

{{00:01:34}}
So we are rapidly developing a
rapidly creating new products.

{{00:01:38}}
And in 2021 this year, we have launched
a number of new services and products.

{{00:01:43}}
One of those being, I have, so in usage
testing, we had a lot of clients who used

{{00:01:49}}
to do, central location testing who wanted
their consumers to taste test products,

{{00:01:54}}
and someone had to shut down during COVID.

{{00:01:56}}
So we developed very quickly a
product that enables our clients

{{00:02:00}}
to send products to consumers.

{{00:02:02}}
We can then obviously do follow-up
surveys for those consumers, to

{{00:02:05}}
understand more about the packaging,
the needs, the tastes, et cetera.

{{00:02:10}}
And we have also leveraged a new
service of ours called soothy

{{00:02:14}}
life, which is additional in-depth
interviews with consumers.

{{00:02:17}}
So you can now take them from the survey
into an in-depth interview, back into a

{{00:02:22}}
survey we've already kind of like come
full circle with in-home usage testing,

{{00:02:26}}
and that it's not just a follow up survey.

{{00:02:28}}
You can actually have an in-depth
conversation with as consumers, whether

{{00:02:30}}
it's one-to-one or focus groups as well.

{{00:02:33}}
How do you see clients using Suzy?

{{00:02:35}}
So we really kind of straddled all
four pillars of market research.

{{00:02:39}}
So all of our clients are using
us for foundational research.

{{00:02:42}}
So who is the consumer?

{{00:02:44}}
What are the needs?

{{00:02:45}}
What are the drivers motivations
of purchasing and behaviours?

{{00:02:49}}
They will then take that information
and start conducting a significant

{{00:02:52}}
amount of, concept testing.

{{00:02:55}}
So we do a lot of innovation work.

{{00:02:56}}
I actually had a client just last
week who said that the insights

{{00:03:00}}
industry is not short of ideas.

{{00:03:01}}
They're short the ability to
be able to throw bad ideas out.

{{00:03:05}}
So he had 80 concepts.

{{00:03:07}}
He put them all into Suzy and
overnight kind of like whittled out

{{00:03:10}}
40 of them and these are bad ideas.

{{00:03:12}}
So innovation testing is really
a really big component of

{{00:03:16}}
what our clients use us for.

{{00:03:17}}
And then ad testing, corporate
testing, concept testing,     for

{{00:03:22}}
digital ad campaigns.

{{00:03:23}}
And then really through to kind
of shopper,     analysis and

{{00:03:27}}
understanding the kind of drivers
and,   have that shifting,   consumer

{{00:03:32}}
channel purchasing is,   has
really evolved over the last year.

{{00:03:35}}
Right.

{{00:03:35}}
Can you talk a little bit about Crowdtap
and having your own panel or sort

{{00:03:39}}
of how having your own panel unlocks
different things for your clients.

{{00:03:43}}
Yeah, absolutely answer I think
one of the reasons I joined Suzy,

{{00:03:47}}
having come from panel companies.

{{00:03:49}}
So most of my career
Suzy owns his own panel.

{{00:03:51}}
The consumer, the consumer
facing brand is Crowdtap,  the

{{00:03:55}}
panelists and the respondents and
members,  join it is a game changer.

{{00:04:00}}
So having our own panel enables
us to do many, many things.

{{00:04:04}}
Number one,  we're always
iterating with those consumers.

{{00:04:08}}
We actually ran a segmentation
recently on our own panel.

{{00:04:11}}
So what are the motivations of
them belonging to Crowdtap what

{{00:04:14}}
do they enjoy about answering,
our client surveys,  and so on.

{{00:04:19}}
But owning our own
power means that we can.

{{00:04:22}}
We contact with respondents
very frequently.

{{00:04:25}}
We can segment the, the panel
against our clients, typing tools or

{{00:04:30}}
segmentation tagging those respondents.

{{00:04:32}}
So when we're running a survey,
it is typically only kind of seven

{{00:04:36}}
questions on average  for most of
our  most of our surveys, because

{{00:04:40}}
we already know their age, gender
region, ethnicity, demographics.

{{00:04:45}}
segmented behaviors, et cetera.

{{00:04:47}}
We've already asked for that information.

{{00:04:48}}
So we're not having to kind
of labour the respondent with

{{00:04:52}}
25 minutes worth of questions.

{{00:04:55}}
So the data file has significant
amounts of information that respondent

{{00:04:58}}
themselves are answering the
questions that are most relevant.

{{00:05:01}}
We started noticing that
it took them a Gen Z.

{{00:05:04}}
When the first question is please
select your gender: Male, female.

{{00:05:08}}
Respondents were really feeling like it
was not an inclusive question though.

{{00:05:12}}
They themselves may have
identified as male or female.

{{00:05:15}}
They felt the question was not inclusive,
naturally X out of the survey altogether.

{{00:05:19}}
So,      we were concerned that not
including,    everybody meant that

{{00:05:25}}
we were excluding a lot of people
and we're suiting allies,    as well.

{{00:05:29}}
So we could go male, female, other,
we could go male, female prefer

{{00:05:34}}
not to disclose, but actually
we decided to do some research.

{{00:05:37}}
We asked our own panel,    we
had 10 different versions of

{{00:05:41}}
the gender and sex question.

{{00:05:44}}
And we put it to the test.

{{00:05:46}}
So we did our own research
basically on our respondents.

{{00:05:50}}
And we found that the question that was
most inclusive for both are not rep panel.

{{00:05:55}}
And also our LGBTQ plus panel
was male, female,   other and

{{00:06:02}}
preferred not to disclose as well.

{{00:06:03}}
So really give somebody the
option to,    identify the way

{{00:06:07}}
that they want to identify.

{{00:06:09}}
It, that question resonated not just with
the LGBTQ plus panel, but again, as I

{{00:06:14}}
mentioned, like allies, et cetera,   and
our, our Crowdtap members really felt

{{00:06:19}}
that that type of question made the
brand feel a much more inclusive brands

{{00:06:23}}
and they wanted to hear all voices,
not just the voices of the people.

{{00:06:27}}
Didn't find male, female.

{{00:06:28}}
As we talk about, you
know gender questions.

{{00:06:31}}
What practices can brands take on
board to really address inclusivity

{{00:06:35}}
beyond the gender questions?

{{00:06:36}}
Yeah, exactly.

{{00:06:37}}
I think we're really, we're in a place
where, we have historically been good

{{00:06:42}}
at market research for a very long time.

{{00:06:44}}
We have asked gender ethnicity income
and we have kind of really just made

{{00:06:49}}
assumptions on bucketing people.

{{00:06:50}}
based on some of those, our
client yesterday, Fran Guzman

{{00:06:55}}
from Kraft Heinz mentioned.

{{00:06:57}}
He himself,   select the Hispanic
box in  a survey as do his parents.

{{00:07:03}}
He is second generation.

{{00:07:03}}
His parents are first generation
and he really said it it's very

{{00:07:06}}
misleading because the behaviours,
attitudes, purchasing behaviours

{{00:07:11}}
drivers needs are incredibly different.

{{00:07:14}}
And so I think we've really done
ourselves, a disservice by assuming

{{00:07:17}}
that people can be,    kind of bucketed
into demographics and,    in the kind

{{00:07:22}}
of old school way of thinking about it.

{{00:07:24}}
And it's, it's time to really
think about what are the drivers?

{{00:07:27}}
What are the needs?

{{00:07:28}}
A parent is a parent.

{{00:07:29}}
Regardless of,    regardless
of their ethnicity or gender.

{{00:07:33}}
Yeah.

{{00:07:34}}
And

{{00:07:35}}
how do you think brands can create
surveys for gender fluid consumers

{{00:07:38}}
who recognize the need to be including
more than just the male, the female?

{{00:07:43}}
How can that potentially
get better insights?

{{00:07:45}}
Yeah, so I think for some  of our clients
have just stop asking gender at all.

{{00:07:49}}
So there's a lot of products
and brands that are really

{{00:07:52}}
there is no difference between,
purchasing behaviours and needs

{{00:07:56}}
and drivers based on,    gender.

{{00:07:58}}
So they've just kind of said
we don't need to segment.

{{00:08:00}}
So we don't even ask the question anymore,
which I think is incredibly important.

{{00:08:04}}
I think surveys can often feel
laborious because there is 10 minutes

{{00:08:07}}
of demographics that no one uses.

{{00:08:10}}
So I think first of all, should you
be including demographics at all?

{{00:08:14}}
If they're not relevant, don't ask them.

{{00:08:16}}
And  second, I think it's about
thinking about your brand as I'm

{{00:08:21}}
trying to be inclusive, and I want
to hear the voices of everybody.

{{00:08:24}}
And so as again, as I mentioned,
even though somebody may identify as

{{00:08:28}}
female or identify as male, they want
to ensure, or they want to make sure

{{00:08:32}}
they're giving their feedback to a brand.

{{00:08:34}}
And that brand is an inclusive brand.

{{00:08:36}}
Right.

{{00:08:37}}
And just seeing the question
expanded beyond just male, female,

{{00:08:40}}
or beyond just ethnicity is a
really key marketing touch point.

{{00:08:44}}
That makes sense.

{{00:08:46}}
And how has your team been
embracing or emphasizing diversity?

{{00:08:50}}
Both in sort of your team as well
as within the market research.

{{00:08:54}}
So I think we can all.

{{00:08:56}}
Unfortunately say the market
research industry is not diverse.

{{00:09:00}}
I've been in this industry for 20
plus years now and we struggle.

{{00:09:05}}
I've, I've been in many conferences,
many rooms where the majority of folks

{{00:09:09}}
are Caucasian and the majority of folks,
are, are male or female identifying.

{{00:09:15}}
And I think it's about
employing and growing the

{{00:09:19}}
right talent, the right people.

{{00:09:21}}
First of all, sometimes I will
read a survey that has been.

{{00:09:26}}
Written by a particular socioeconomic
group or a particular gender.

{{00:09:29}}
And we're like, we're missing,
we're missing a lot of topics

{{00:09:34}}
or attributes, for example.

{{00:09:36}}
So I think we need to attract more
diverse talent into our industry.

{{00:09:41}}
I think we need to grow
that talent as well.

{{00:09:44}}
I think people need to see on boards
of our companies, that there is

{{00:09:48}}
a lot of diversity of ethnicity,
socioeconomic background, gender.

{{00:09:55}}
And I think that we have, we
have a long way to go, I think,

{{00:09:57}}
in the market research industry.

{{00:09:58}}
So we, Suzy    are not just
really looking for great talent.

{{00:10:04}}
But we are also very,   we
do the hard work.

{{00:10:08}}
I think it is a culture and a
company is built on what you

{{00:10:11}}
tolerate and,   and what you don't
tolerate is incredibly important.

{{00:10:14}}
And so when we do that hard
work, I grow as a person and

{{00:10:18}}
it can be emotional at times.

{{00:10:19}}
I've definitely been on
some of those bookclubs.

{{00:10:22}}
I've had to do a lot of soul-searching
and, and dig deep with myself.

{{00:10:26}}
And I think that's what makes Suzy
really special is that it's not

{{00:10:29}}
just about building a fun culture,
it's building a hardworking culture.

{{00:10:33}}
And   and yet we're all
growing as, as people.

{{00:10:36}}
Last two years.

{{00:10:38}}
I mean, in general, things have
been changing, but over the last

{{00:10:40}}
few years, we've seen massive
change because of the pandemic.

{{00:10:43}}
So I'm curious to know sort of what you
think the biggest change has been in

{{00:10:46}}
the market research industry directly
affected because of the pandemic.

{{00:10:50}}
Yeah, I

{{00:10:51}}
would say it is speed.

{{00:10:53}}
Speed.

{{00:10:54}}
Speed.

{{00:10:55}}
So, when I first started
working in market research, I

{{00:10:57}}
had a month to write my survey.

{{00:11:00}}
I would send it over to the services team.

{{00:11:02}}
They would say, we'll
get you back in a month.

{{00:11:04}}
I would have a couple of weeks to put
together my PowerPoint presentations,

{{00:11:06}}
which I would fiddle around with.

{{00:11:08}}
And,    and so on.

{{00:11:09}}
What I'm, I think I'm what I'm most
happy about with that is that, you

{{00:11:14}}
know, I wasted, but I spent a lot
of my career and it was earlydays

{{00:11:18}}
during that hard task based kind of work.

{{00:11:22}}
And I feel like what we are doing is
enabling our clients in their careers

{{00:11:26}}
to progress much quicker because they're
not having to spend the time on that

{{00:11:29}}
kind of very manual, manual work,    and
automating, it has really enabled

{{00:11:34}}
them to grow in their careers quicker.

{{00:11:36}}
So, you know, this is
me to my last question.

{{00:11:38}}
I think it's interesting, you mentioned
around automation and I'm curious to

{{00:11:42}}
see what you think the biggest trend
in 2022 in market research will be?

{{00:11:47}}
So I think

{{00:11:47}}
it is about segmentation.

{{00:11:49}}
So segmentation for brands has
usually been an enormous undertaking.

{{00:11:54}}
It's normally been a six month project.

{{00:11:58}}
really  understanding consumers.

{{00:11:59}}
And at the time those clusters it's
conducted at great expense, great time.

{{00:12:05}}
And as they're not dated   for kind
of three years, like these are the

{{00:12:08}}
segments, these are our consumers.

{{00:12:10}}
And that's changed.

{{00:12:12}}
So the segmentation work that a lot
of our clients did pre pandemic and

{{00:12:16}}
even early pandemic, even mid pandemic
Delta variant pandemic, et cetera,

{{00:12:21}}
is it's almost outdated as quickly as

{{00:12:23}}
it came through those consumers and those
segments have shifted significantly.

{{00:12:27}}
So I think for 2022, the real key focus
for Suzy and for many of our clients

{{00:12:32}}
is what is this segment needs consumers
faster, quicker and more frequently

{{00:12:36}}
because these behaviours    are
shifting on a very, very frequent basis

{{00:12:41}}
and people don't fall into just one
segment and stay there for three years.

{{00:12:44}}
It's really about that shifting,
shifting needs and shifting mindsets.

{{00:12:48}}
So I think segmentation and the speed of
segmentation is going to be a key in 2022.

{{00:12:52}}
Katie you thank you so much for
telling us about Suzy and the insights.

{{00:12:55}}
It's been great speaking with you.

{{00:12:56}}
Awesome.

{{00:12:56}}
Great to be here.

{{00:12:57}}
Thank you.

Hi, I'm Jordan . We're here at TMRE 2021.

I'm joined by Katie Gross She's
the chief customer officer at Suzy.

Katie thank you so much
for joining us today.

So maybe we could start by having you tell
me a little bit about yourself and your

So I am a lifelong market researcher
having studied psychology at university.

My only marketable skill, but I
came out of university was SPSS.

So landed in the market research
role at a food and drink company.

And then have been mostly
in online panel companies.

And the number of last kind of
number of years, I moved to the USA

I,  think during kind of recessionary
times when there's a lot of turbulence

with consumers, people need very
fast feedback very quickly consumer

And the Suzy is a great platform
to, to enable brands, to really

kind of get to know that consumers
and get that rapid feedback

Can you talk a little bit about
the new product innovations

So we are rapidly developing a
rapidly creating new products.

And in 2021 this year, we have launched
a number of new services and products.

One of those being, I have, so in usage
testing, we had a lot of clients who used

to do, central location testing who wanted
their consumers to taste test products,

and someone had to shut down during COVID.

So we developed very quickly a
product that enables our clients

We can then obviously do follow-up
surveys for those consumers, to

understand more about the packaging,
the needs, the tastes, et cetera.

And we have also leveraged a new
service of ours called soothy

life, which is additional in-depth
interviews with consumers.

So you can now take them from the survey
into an in-depth interview, back into a

survey we've already kind of like come
full circle with in-home usage testing,

and that it's not just a follow up survey.

You can actually have an in-depth
conversation with as consumers, whether

So we really kind of straddled all
four pillars of market research.

So all of our clients are using
us for foundational research.

What are the drivers motivations
of purchasing and behaviours?

They will then take that information
and start conducting a significant

I actually had a client just last
week who said that the insights

They're short the ability to
be able to throw bad ideas out.

He put them all into Suzy and
overnight kind of like whittled out

So innovation testing is really
a really big component of

And then ad testing, corporate
testing, concept testing,     for

And then really through to kind
of shopper,     analysis and

understanding the kind of drivers
and,   have that shifting,   consumer

channel purchasing is,   has
really evolved over the last year.

Can you talk a little bit about Crowdtap
and having your own panel or sort

of how having your own panel unlocks
different things for your clients.

Yeah, absolutely answer I think
one of the reasons I joined Suzy,

So most of my career
Suzy owns his own panel.

The consumer, the consumer
facing brand is Crowdtap,  the

panelists and the respondents and
members,  join it is a game changer.

So having our own panel enables
us to do many, many things.

Number one,  we're always
iterating with those consumers.

We actually ran a segmentation
recently on our own panel.

So what are the motivations of
them belonging to Crowdtap what

do they enjoy about answering,
our client surveys,  and so on.

But owning our own
power means that we can.

We contact with respondents
very frequently.

We can segment the, the panel
against our clients, typing tools or

So when we're running a survey,
it is typically only kind of seven

questions on average  for most of
our  most of our surveys, because

we already know their age, gender
region, ethnicity, demographics.

We've already asked for that information.

So we're not having to kind
of labour the respondent with

So the data file has significant
amounts of information that respondent

themselves are answering the
questions that are most relevant.

We started noticing that
it took them a Gen Z.

When the first question is please
select your gender: Male, female.

Respondents were really feeling like it
was not an inclusive question though.

They themselves may have
identified as male or female.

They felt the question was not inclusive,
naturally X out of the survey altogether.

So,      we were concerned that not
including,    everybody meant that

we were excluding a lot of people
and we're suiting allies,    as well.

So we could go male, female, other,
we could go male, female prefer

not to disclose, but actually
we decided to do some research.

We asked our own panel,    we
had 10 different versions of

In an industry where the customer experience is vital, it's crucially important that you don't make your customers feel excluded or left out. As customer awareness of DEI (Diversity, equity and inclusion) issues has grown over the recent years, creating more inclusive and diverse market research alternatives has become increasingly valuable. 
Chief customer officer Katie Gross discusses how to conduct more inclusive and diverse market research and shares her insights on industry trends and changes.

large_Katie_Gross.png

medium_Katie_Gross.png

small_Katie_Gross.png

thumbnail_Katie_Gross.png

xlarge_Katie_Gross.png

xsmall_Katie_Gross.png

Katie_Gross.png

Katie Gross

Chief customer officer

Gross, a lifelong market researcher, outlines how having your own panel benefits a research firm for strengthening connections with respondents.

Introduction

In market research to determine the demands of clients, demographics and gender are not relevant identifiers for some items. Gross is confident that they shouldn't be included if they're irrelevant.

Embracing diversity and inclusion

The prime change, especially in the post-pandemic period, is speed. Companies can respond more efficiently and on time if they receive faster customer input. 
Gross highlights the role of "speed" for clients' career progression.

Changes in the market

As customers' mindsets and preferences have shifted more frequently than in past years, rapid segmentation will be one of the key themes in 2022. Segmentation, according to Gross, will be a massive undertaking in the coming years.