Lancaster University

Warwick School

Strategist at Hall & Partners

Jigsaw Research

Quantitative Research Consultant

Hall & Partners

Strategist

As a Senior Analyst at Hall & Partners, my focus was primarily delving into the data to uncover the story behind the numbers and assist in shaping this story into a viable strategy for the variety of clients I worked for. These clients ranged from FMCG, telecom providers and sports franchises to name a few. 

As part of this process, understanding the range of tools and methodologies we offer was crucial in order to facilitate and alleviate clients pain points; to plug the gaps in their own brand story. As such, I have worked with a variety of different techniques such as segmentations, correlation analysis and factory analysis to help with this. Client communication and management is vital here, and a key part of my day to day role. This is not just in terms of the usual project management of timings, deadlines, meetings etc. but in the explanation of more complex aspects to market research in a way the client can understand and get on board with; crucially how the approach will benefit them and their brand. 

To bring all of these findings to life, presentations are an essential part of the research process and where our proposed strategy comes to the fore. As a Senior Analyst, for larger projects my main role was data support and analysis, tasked with the responsibility of story creation in the smaller sections of reports. For smaller projects, I was leading on the analysis and story flow for the whole report

Senior Analyst - Quantitative

Working on a variety of projects across industries be it financial, automotive or FMCG to name a few. These projects encompass a range of different methodologies from the more traditional such as focus groups and face-to-face interviews to the newer methodologies like biometric research looking at skin conduction and eye tracking to determine respondents excitement levels surrounding a stimulus and where they actually look at a product. This adds an extra layer of truth to the research and helps us to understand their true feelings around a brand / product / advert etc. 

With all of these projects, I have been involved throughout the research process whether it's the project setup, organising recruitment, moderation, analysis and / or debrief.

Senior Research Analyst - Qualitative 

Senior Research Analyst

For my third and final placement of the graduate scheme at GFK, I was placed in the Market Opportunities & Innovation (MOI) team. In comparison to my placement in Brand & Customer Experience (BaCE) the focus here was on more Ad-Hoc projects rather than the long-term trackers. This required high levels of the skills gained throughout both my previous placements in the project management (Operations) side of budgeting, project life-cycle and people management as well as the insight and data analysis skills obtained through BaCE.

My primary project involved working for an overseas tech umbrella company who wanted to utilise a segmentation approach to look into their customer audience of each of the brands within their portfolio. Here my task was to help identify the segments, delve into the data as the main Quantitative lead in order to understand the customers, and identify themes within the data which the client could use in order to base their future strategy. This was done in collaboration with User Experience (UX) as well as our digital media insights team in order to not only base the recommendations on customer responses from the quantitative survey, but also to track their behaviours through the digital team and interview some of the participants through UX. 

The results of this were then presented back to the client and stakeholders in a series of "War Rooms" (similar to focus groups). My job here was to ensure all of the data was readable and easily digestible, present these findings and to talk and discuss the findings (as well as their relevancy) to the stakeholders and clients present in each of the war rooms. 

The nature of MOI is Ad-Hoc work, so on top of this major project I've worked on projects spanning a variety of industries ranging from FMCG to tech, automotive and beauty care in a similar role to the above but on a lesser scale.

Research Analyst

My second rotation of GFK's graduate scheme enabled me to take on more of a project management role centred around one of the main media and telecoms players in the UK. My day-to-day in this role encompassed creating and checking short online questionnaires to cater for the different media this was targeted at and involved generating the routing, coding and filtering of multiple variables. On top of this, multiple reports were needed every week to in order to tract, amongst other things, how fresh & new programmes were perceived to be by the audience.

On top of this major project I managed multiple other smaller projects which required less of my time and involved other aspects of project management such as budget analysis and time & people management, such as project timeframe & deadlines.

Research/Project Executive - Operations

Calling up previous clients on our long tail to see if they are interested in some of our new product offerings which would be relevant to the client. For the most part this involves recruitment of clients to register for a webinar as stage one of the process. Once those that had registered had either viewed the live or on-demand recording of the webinar, our next task was to again contact these potential clients in order to discuss whether this would be an area of interest for them. 

For example, on our Digital Advertising Effectiveness Campaign our aim was to reinforce the importance of correctly collecting and analyzing digital marketing data across multiple platforms and environments and the value this would have for their future digital campaigns. All being well, a follow up meeting will be arranged or a brief delivered in which we would pitch to their client and hopefully win the bid. 

This whole process is about reaching out to our older clients and re-connecting with them over an area which is becoming increasingly important in an ever evolving technological world.

Hunter Taskforce (Business Development)

Part of the graduate intake beginning October 2015 and which finishes October 2017, with my first rotation being within the BaCE (Brand and Customer experience team) whose core focus is upon tracking the longer term clients and brands within the GFK portfolio. My daily roles were scrutinizing the data to firstly ensure it was correct but also to identify key trends and areas of strengths and weaknesses for the client. Also presenting this data in a visual and aesthetic way supported with verbatim and crucial insight to ensure the story is presented efficiently and in a way that the client fully understands the results of the tracked project, be it on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis.

Trainee Research/Project Executive - Brand & Customer Experience

Working as a university information rep for the university ski trips to the Alps.
Involves looking after the students by providing them with the most up to date information regarding their trip, patrolling the residences in the evening to deal with any injuries or drunken behaviour, liaising with local security and looking after your allocated coach from departure point all the way through to France, to name a few roles of this job. 
This requires a high degree of responsibility and organisation as well as a willingness to get stuck in and assist in any and every way possible to ensure the client enjoys their holiday in the smoothest possible way.

NUCO

Information Rep

Working as an online internet assessor analysing the appropriateness of webpages in relation to a user query typed into a search engine such as Google. 
Queries range from navigational, informational or action intent, whilst analysing the quality of the landing pages in terms of functionality, reputation, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness is also essential.

Lionbridge

Part Time Online Internet Assessor

Part of a team conducting both quantitative and qualitative market research with the aims of analysing who their members are, why they are members and what their interests and behaviours are.
In addition, discovering the reasons why volunteers involved with Friends of the Lake District are not members and analysing strategies in which their competitors adopt in their membership recruitment process.
Primary research involved the use of questionnaires both online and paper based as well as informal and telephone interviews. Three focus groups were also held.
Secondary research tools such as competitor website and social media analysis were used to further gain insight.

Friends of the Lake District

Student Researcher

I was responsible for supporting on crucial projects, most noticeably year end reviews for one of their major clients. I collated the necessary data, put it into an easy to read format and helped to formulate the final story to the client.

Millward Brown

Placement

I was paired with the Sensodyne Account team which involved creating story boards of existing advertisements, helping with video editing and attending focus groups regarding their new mouthwash product. 
I was also involved in the recruitment process of a mandarin speaking dentist who was required for an advertising shoot to be aired in Hong Kong. I also attended this shoot.

Grey Group

Worked within the marketing section of the company helping to assist with the updating of the website to incorporate the Bodyworks event that was on for that week. Also worked with the design agency that MOSI used in order to gain an insight into the design area of marketing.

Simon Blake