Acumen have been shortlisted in the Best Innovation category at the 2018 MRS Awards.

The prestigious award will be judged in front of a “Dragon’s Den” style panel before the awards are announced at the MRS Awards Ceremony on Monday 3rd of December.

Acumen have been shortlisted for the groundbreaking work they did on the joint BBC & BT project for a new prototype technology that they have been developing in partnership. The research that Acumen conducted was instrumental in assisting the development teams in the new features and services of their prototype, before taking it to the next phase of development and trials.

Speaking of the work with Acumen, Doug Williams, Project Director at BT Sport, said:

“Acumen played a critical role in allowing us to assess the features and interaction design in our prototype service and worked with us to ensure their market researchers could support our evaluators in what was, at the time of the test, a very technical set up. Following the trials that Acumen conducted, Jamie Hindhaugh, the COO of BT Sport is now publicly promoting our prototype as ‘the next big initiative’ that will help in BT’s quest to allow their viewers to get to the heart of sport.”

Winners will be announced on the 3rd of December – everyone at Acumen will be keeping everything crossed until then!

For the third year running Acumen have successfully completed their audit for the ISO20252 accreditation in market research with zero discrepancies.

After a two-day process where external auditors came into the company and scrutinised the processes of our qualitative market research team, plus quantitative and healthcare teams they found us to be fully compliant with the quality control measures implemented as part of the standard.

Leading Acumen in this is Wendy Durn who, as our Head of Compliance, has overseen the creation and implementation of the ISO20252 standard within the business, in addition to the new requirements of GDPR.

Acumen received particular praise for the work we have done with regards to GDPR in addition to noting the steady growth of the business and the continually high levels of satisfaction amongst Acumen’s clients.

To achieve the ISO20252 standard in market research is an achievement that everyone at Acumen is rightfully proud of – but to do it without having any discrepancies for the third year in a row is a remarkable achievement and one which we will all be celebrating.

If you’d like to know more about how our quality standards can add value to your research contact costings@acumenfieldwork.com

We’re thrilled to announce that Acumen have been named as the winners in the Best Data Collection (Face to Face) category at this year’s MRS Operations Awards.

Acumen were given the award for our truly innovative approaches to collecting data with the judges stating that:

Acumen clearly demonstrated how their face-to-face team delivered genuinely inventive data collection within hard to reach audiences in the last 12 months. Two case studies involving creative interviewing methods backed up their submission and the quality of their fieldwork and client servicing was strongly reinforced by glowing testimonials. A worthy winner for 2018.

Acumen had previously been named as finalists in this category in 2017 but it wasn’t until this year that we were able to pick up the trophy for the work we’d done in 2018 and we couldn’t be happier.

If you’d like to speak to our award winning team about how we can help with your research, whether qualitative or quantitative, then please contact our Fieldwork Director, Becki Pickering, who’ll be more than happy to discuss your research needs.

Tell me if this sounds familiar. After a long day at the office – probably poring over the findings of a complex and detailed piece of research you’ve spent weeks working on – you find yourself at home trying to unwind. If you’re like me then unwinding usually involves scouring through the TV channels – hopping left and right – in the search for something that fits that happy balance of vaguely interesting but not deeply engaging – just enough so you can switch yourself off.

The other night however, as I was bouncing from one station to the other, something caught my attention. It wasn’t the latest happenings in a reality show or even the latest ‘must-watch’ that’s been buzzing around the office; it was, quite simply, an advert. Usually I wouldn’t pay much attention but due to the lack of anything else to focus on my brain was piqued by something they were saying.

The advert in question was for a well-known optician who were promoting a pair of glasses with a special optical lens to combat the glare of traffic lights when driving at night. But what caught my attention wasn’t the product itself, it was the messaging that came with it – messaging in the form of a number of research statistics supporting the value of the new lenses.

“Based on a consumer survey conducted with 105 existing lens wearers, 85% agreed they felt less concerned about headlight glare when driving at night with our lenses.”

“LENSES FOR EVERYDAY USE AND SAFER DRIVING*”

*Based on a wearer trial with 100 participants conducted by Aston University. 67% agreed or strongly agreed they would recommend these lenses for everyday use.

Now while I don’t doubt the voracity of the research, my experience of conducting research gave me a bit of insight which allowed me to question some of the  things around these claims.

The first issue is around the size of the sample. While research can be reasonably conducted with smaller samples the results, and any statements of fact pulled from them, should always be shown in conjunction with the representative quota of the sample. Here we see that they’ve taken the results from existing users of the glasses which slightly skews the perspective of the research. Would non-users have so strongly advocated for this product in a similar trial?

These sorts of quasi-research findings are nothing new in advertising. You can find similar ‘studies’ propping up the marketing straplines on a number of products, from shampoo to skincare regimes, toothpaste and even sports and nutrition drinks. All of them exhibit the same sort of skewed representation to support whatever angle they’re trying to pursue. And I’m not saying that market research has no place in advertising; it’s just that the misleading and questionable positioning of these studies represents a wider malaise about market research in general.

It’s probably not hard for anyone in our industry to cast their minds back over the past two years and recall the scorching criticism that researchers received in the aftermath of the General Election and the previous EU referendum. The scorn piled on for our industry’s lack of ability to predict the outcome of these events was also set against a backdrop of people in the public eye advising everyone to “not trust the experts”.

And it’s this last part which goes to the heart of the issue for me. While we, as an industry, have always demonstrated our integrity by maintaining impartial and unbiased insight, often backed up with empirical data, there greater, and less frequently articulated,  value that we rely upon as researchers; the value of trust.

For the work of market researchers to matter, not only to us but the people it is used to serve, then there needs to be an implicit trust in what we do. It is an essential component both now and in the future, if our industry is to continue to grow and be sustainable. The misappropriation of market research by advertisers serves to devalue the work of our industry – not directly or purposefully, but by creating a background hum of quick facts and figures which, with even a quick glance, only really devalue the authenticity of both the research and the product. If we as researchers cannot see that truth then we’re truly myopic; and no amount of miraculous glasses with special lenses is going to correct that for us.

We’ve got some news! The Acumen team is growing with a number of new members on the Qualitative and Healthcare teams.

Joining Gemma and the rest of the Qualies is Carina Ealam and Abigail Brown while Becca Hatton joins Lizzie and Jordan on the Healthcare team. The decision to expand with new positions in both departments comes on the back of prolonged periods of increased demand for services in healthcare and qualitative fieldwork so we were delighted to welcome these new talents to the business.

Carina (pictured left) originally came to Acumen as part of a work experience placement for her degree in Anthropology with the University of Manchester. It was clear she had all the skills of a fieldworker and when she decided to settle in Manchester after graduating from her course we were more than happy to offer her a place within the team.

Abigail (pictured right) joined at the same time as Carina and quickly found her place within the department. Abigail is originally from Aberystwyth but came to Manchester to complete a degree in Sociology. After falling in love with the city she decided to make it her permanent home and has been a valued member of the Acumen team since.

Becca (pictured centre) came to the healthcare market research services team after working for a medical market research agency in South Manchester. Originally from Blackpool she came to Manchester to pursue a career in market research and has proven to be invaluable in helping the healthcare team as the demand for their services increases.

For more information on our latest team members, head over to our Team Page where there’s information on all the people that keep the cogs turning at Acumen.

We’re delighted to announce that Becki Pickering (formerly Harrison), Fieldwork Director at Acumen, has been voted onto the board of the AQR.

After being nominated to stand by peers within the industry, Becki stood on a platform of representing the voices of field and recruitment providers in the industry, a section which is often overlooked by other industry bodies. Her promise to work on the behalf of that sector proved popular with the voting members of the AQR who saw her take up her role as a Board Member.

The Association for Qualitative Research represents the needs and interests of the qualitative research industry by providing a hub for members where they can access both training and support through a number of platforms, initiatives and events. Through her experience within the market research industry Becki hopes to bring fresh perspectives on the benefits of combining new and traditional methods of recruitment in order to increase engagement and promote research to new audiences.

We’re all about the data at Acumen – so we decided to turn the lens on ourselves to see how our teams measured up.

Timed to coincide with the World Cup, our ‘players cards’ show how each of our teams hold their own in the world of research.

First up is Team Qual!

Headed up by Gemma Shevlin our team consist of an impressive 13 fieldwork managers and have a combined experience of over 60 years in market research. More than enough to ensure that your fieldwork gets off to an impressive start. To speak to us about our qualitative services, contact Gemma Shevlin.

Not to be outdone, here’s Team Quant!

Our Quant team is led by Dean Cope who oversees a network of over 700 interviewers throughout the UK. These numbers are what has allowed the team to respond to complex, large scale research with an impressive 320,000 responses recorded in one single project. For more information on what our team can offer, contact Dean Cope.

And finally, here’s Healthcare!

For all your healthcare fieldwork services we’ve got a team who are more than adequately equipped with access to over 70,000 healthcare users in the UK. Although the team was only established in 2006 they’ve scored an impressive 35 years experience combined between their team of 6. For more information on their capabilities contact Lizzie Coultas.