Conversations with corporate researchers
Dave M.R. Mendelsohn
Senior Manager, Global Marketplace Insights, Amex Insights
What aspects do you enjoy most when conducting large, global studies?
Multi-part global projects appeal to me because of their intricacy and the art that’s required in fitting so many moving pieces together, changing from what initially may seem like pure chaos to a clean, logical instrument. I enjoy the wide variety of responses seen across the different countries and the challenge of tying them to a cohesive set of findings that we can use in marketing efforts or initiatives while hopefully painting a larger, more global story.
Of all the market segments you research, is there one that is harder to get a handle on than others?
Since starting at Amex I’ve worked primarily with merchants, so the research I conduct is typically different than more straightforward consumer work. I often work with people running small businesses, or even giant businesses, and finding the right person to speak with can be a challenge. But some of the biggest challenges really come from working closely with our legal team. Much of the research I currently do is externally-facing, so it ends up being highly scrutinized out of necessity, often reflecting ad law and best marketing practices to ensure everything we deliver holds up statistically and without any room for ambiguity.
In your experience, what is the most effective way to present research results to internal business partners?
I’m a firm believer in the elevator pitch – everything down to a few pages, preferably even less. One of my mentors at Amex likes to say, “A presentation is about persuading, not informing. Informing can be done in an e-mail.” And that’s a message I take to heart whenever writing or reviewing a report. It’s also something I try to hammer into the minds of my own students in the market research course I teach at St. John’s University.
How has your role as an adjunct professor teaching market research affected the way you look at mentorship within the MR industry?
It keeps me fresh in research methods and has taught me to be as concise as possible when explaining the reasons behind the research we do and the decisions that are made going into it. This has helped greatly with interactions among my own business partners, who often do not have a research background but have their own areas of expertise.
Talk about a recent win for your team at Amex and what you learned from it.
Taking a multi-country project down from a 25-minute survey, running 20+ weeks start to finish, to a 15-minute survey running under 12 weeks from launch to reporting, while maintaining the same level of depth needed to make informed business decisions and meeting ever increasing time pressures.