News & other interesting stuff

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News

Good, classic market research – tried, tested and sometimes still perfect!

New methods, reinventing the world or focusing on the fundamentals is important and especially worthwhile, but sometimes a wonderfully classic focus group also does the job even better. Or a classic taste test at the studio! Or a classic online survey without chat & community!

“Classic” does not mean being “old-fashioned”, but instead “tried-and-tested”, and very valuable - if it is done with craftsman’s skill! This is where we come into the game. And what we also love to do for you. That simply needed to be said.

More information:  Susanne Schöttmer +49 - 40 – 309 662 - 30

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New: 28-day Customer Innovation Cycle

As customer insight experts, in the future we will be collaborating with the experts for innovation development, Berlin’s LORENZO innovation consultants. We will be working together to develop really inspiring ideas with your company’s internal innovation teams & consumers, and that in just 28 days.

Our flexible 28-day Customer Innovation Cycle…

  • develops powerful insights from new perspectives
  • stands for genuine collaboration, because we productively bring heterogeneous teams together
  • is validated, can be experienced directly and has a manageable timeframe
    – because together we swiftly build specifically conceivable prototypes from creative ideas, and test and optimize them directly with your target group.
  • accelerates implementation
    – because we initiate clear ideas for the continuing workflow, and the solutions we have worked out together are borne by the team.

More information:  Susanne Schöttmer +49 - 40 - 309 662 - 30

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How do brands reach the connected consumer?

Hans Schöttmer reported on the challenges faced by the communication of traditional consumer brands in the digital age to students studying communication psychology at Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg on May 11, 2016 as part of a lecture.

Based on many years of researching on behalf of brands like MAGGI, BAHLSEN, ZOTT and TCHIBO, the Schöttmer-Institut is an expert in developing classic sender-receiver forms of addressing clients, ranging as far as interactive communication with connected consumers. The comprehensive look at a brand as a business model and optimal integration of brand communication as part of a consistently consumer-centered process were the central areas covered by the lecture and the discussion with the up-and-coming generation of communications experts.

More information: Hans Schöttmer +49 - 40 – 309 662 - 20

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Schöttmer goes China!

Our journey in December 2015 went to Shanghai and Peking where we dived into the culture of China and „the Chinese“. What we experienced, was very surprising and inspiring.

Traditions and values from the past come across latest technology and life models. We are gladly willing to inform you in more detail about what we experienced and about the relevance for the daily life. It was an incredibly exciting journey!

Of course, we established contacts and visited partner companies personally. Nowadays, we are glad to be able to offer quantitative as well as qualitative research which covers in particular culture-specific services for businesses that are ambitious to get a clear picture of the country and want to do research with a better understanding.

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Matthias Kötter: “The test studio is dead – Long live the test studio”

We are currently seeing a widespread dying-off of test studios that has insiders quite worried, and an increasing consolidation to just a few major providers. The market for standardized quantitative mass testing in test studios has effectively collapsed in recent years.

And so the days when test studios essentially consisted of an endless series of little white test cubicles are over! What happens next/now? Read his article on the topic.

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ISM Lecture

Be Inspired - From the "What?" To "Why?" -

Innovation research beyond product insights

The MAFO-Sueßwarenkreis (Association of Confectionary Market Researchers) hosted its annual meeting at this year's ISM (International Sweets and Biscuits Fair) in Cologne on 3 February. In a keynote speech, Hans Schöttmer and Lisa Neundorfer reported their findings from their long years of experience in product and innovation research and took questions from the leading confectionary brand-name manufacturers: How do we arrive at truly disruptive offerings – beyond variations on types and textures – for confectionary?

The speakers pointed up a way that distances itself from the product and starts with a comprehensive perspective on the lifestyle of consumers:

“Consumers follow wishes, not problems. This lets us identify trends and viable areas of tension, which form the basis for strong insights and true innovations in the category.”

If you are interested in our ‘Deep Dive Adventure’ approach for generating insights, please get in touch with us.

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Methods Update: Mobile Ethnography

Be right in the thick of it, as it’s happening: mobile ethnography via mobile app – your direct connection to [your target’s] real life. 24/7, in real-time. And digitally linked to the search for clues through the ‘Ethno-Studio’.

This has become a hot topic across the research industry. However, ethnography cannot unfold the full potential if it is not conducted professionally. Colourful images seduce on superficial view into one-dimensional interpretations and of course the actual documentation and observation is also very important. But sometimes, however, what is not documented by the consumers is at least as important. Or it is important to consider who is reporting what, i.e. the personal socio-cultural and demographic background of the subject.

Ethnography has always been a much-esteemed but complex, time consuming and therefore costly method. This has changed thanks to technical progress. Today access is easy thanks to smartphones. But all infatuation with technology aside, it is important to remember that the app should be simple, reliable, and above all fun to use – without becoming a gadget. Here we feel that there are a lot of products on the market that only partially meet these principles.

The technical platform we use was developed for a purpose completely different than market research, but perhaps because of this delivers convenience, stability and quality of analysis that is unparalleled.

But even the best app doesn’t lead to the desired result if the market researchers working with it don’t have the appropriate sensitivity and methodological training to handle the formidable flow of pictures and commentary and identify the nuggets hidden inside it.

We have proven our expertise at this in many studies and would be happy to present them to you in a case study. Contact us – we look forward to hearing from you!

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Awards

Following a general audit of Nestlé’s suppliers and service providers in January 2015, we were honoured with a silver ‘ecovadis Supplier Sustainability Ratings’ medal (www.ecovadis.com) (external link).

Pressroom/Publications

Media relations

Susanne Schöttmer
Managing Director
Schöttmer-Institut GmbH
Moenckebergstraße 17
20095 Hamburg
susanne.schoettmer(at)schoettmer.de

 
Article

Matthias Kötter: “The test studio is dead – Long live the test studio” – October 2015
 

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Hans Schöttmer: “A vision of good market research” – May 2014
 

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