Get to Know
print this articleMeet David Katz, Vice President,
Strategic Business Development
David Katz is a marketing research veteran with nearly 25 years of vast cross-industry expertise. As Vice President, Strategic Business Development at InsightExpress he leverages his own research experience along with InsightExpress resources, including leading edge survey technology and an expert analytic team, to provide outstanding service – and a smile – to his clients.
In your opinion, what’s the best way to approach a new research program?
When it comes to building partnerships with my clients, I think it’s important to consider the long view. Where do you need to be one, two, five or more years from now? What does the big picture look like and how can we help you get there? While each project may help us discover new truths about a brand, product or service, I am always curious to know how they add up.
In addition to balancing short term and long term goals, it’s important in these times to differentiate between the “nice to know” versus the “need to know.” An awareness of these subtleties lets us identify what requires attention and where strategic short cuts can occur. It also allows for more flexibility as we move from project to project, managing through knowledge and building upon learnings.
Company purse strings are still tight. Why should research remain a priority?
I think the industry should view marketing research much like consumers have been advised to view their investing habits. Pulling out of anything cold turkey, whether it’s a strategic research program or a 401K, can sometimes have more serious consequences than staying the course. The insights gained from marketing research studies are often built up over time, layer upon layer; each new set of findings adds a piece to the puzzle. A gap in this ongoing process takes you back to square one.
I’ve spent some time here at InsightExpress exploring ways to offer our clients increased value across marketing research programs of all sizes. As part of this experience, I’ve seen firsthand the limitations that clients have faced over this past year. But we have also been able to develop a good understanding of how to balance high quality research with reasonable cost. The two should not be mutually exclusive, which is a good lesson for everyone moving forward.
What InsightExpress marketing research solutions are you excited about going into 2010?
We actually have several solutions that are causing a lot of excitement among clients.
In terms of ROI and accountability, our Cross Media Symphony and DirectImpact solutions are generating incredible buzz. Cross Media Symphony allows brands and planners to measure exactly how their marketing activities – across multiple channels – work both together and individually to affect key indicators such as brand awareness, brand favorability, consideration, purchase intent, branded search behavior, word-of-mouth and visits to the brand's Web site. DirectImpact offers a powerfu, and fun, way to gauge the potential success of your direct mail efforts in a virtual mail sorting environment. It is used to pre-test how your direct mail pieces are noticed and opened, and helps you identify how graphics and copy can be refined.
Listening through exploration is also a hot topic. InsightPanels is our premiere listening solution that combines the benefits of “high touch” qualitative research with large-scale quantitative work. It’s not only affordable, but also flexible; we put a proprietary, virtual, centrally managed community at your fingertips. Our “closed loop” approach allows you to explore insights with an Exploration Community and then validate them among a larger, more reliable, and separate Validation Panel.
Finally, clients are also gravitating towards our ImageDriver analysis. Essentially, when used with either ImagePaint or Interactive Editor, it shows marketers what areas of their visual assets – concepts, packaging, ad copy, media covers, etc. – are most correlated to purchase and deserve the most attention during the development and refinement stages.
David would love to hear from you! To contact him directly, please send an email to dkatz@insightexpress.com.