Editor's note: If you’re an end-client researcher and interested in participating in a Q&A with Quirk’s, please e-mail me at emilyk@quirks.com. 

What led you to a career in marketing research? 

Keri HughesI have always been inquisitive by nature, so much so that my family would try to encourage me to just let things be and not ask so many questions. I think I just always wanted to know the how and why behind decisions being made or actions being taken. I was always searching for more and for a better understanding of other people. In college, I think it took me a little bit of time to figure out how to translate this natural interest of mine into a career that I would enjoy and thrive at. Once I was exposed to subjects such as sociology and psychology, I really started to connect with what I was learning about how people interact with each other, how they behave and how that influences the world around us. From there, I switched my major to psychology, and the rest was history! 

I went on to receive a master’s degree in experimental psychology and began working in research. This research started with more of a pharmaceutical focus and understanding the symptoms and impacts that individuals with various health conditions experience to support the development of key treatments. While I enjoyed this work and found it to be rewarding, I was looking for a change. Since then, I have been working more specifically in market research and couldn’t be happier. 

Market research has been the perfect balance between my interests in consumer behavior and how that influences the outside world, including marketing efforts and business-/product-related decisions. As a market researcher, it is my job to truly listen to the consumer, interpret any underlying motives around why consumers feel the way they do and provide evidence-based recommendations and improvements for my clients. It’s about asking the right questions to solve real business issues. And I’ve always felt fortunate to be in a career that genuinely allows me to be my inquisitive self and continue to learn and grow from each individual project that I touch.

Could you share a recent “win” for your team and what you learned from it?

You can imagine the heightened need for ongoing research and insights throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, especially within the financial services category. The world around us was changing quickly, and we needed to keep up to continue to understand what consumers needed and how a company like ours could support them throughout the turmoil. Our team had to act fast to stand up new, more agile research methodologies that provided generalizable and detailed quantitative feedback more quickly than ever before. 

We have been tracking the COVID-19 pandemic since it began in March 2020 with monthly consumer omnibus surveys and detailed monthly newsletters that include both proprietary research and third-party data to inform our key stakeholders and businesses about ongoing consumer sentiment and how it continues to change. This research has really helped to evangelize the research and insights team throughout the organization, as well as with our business clients and research colleagues. Our research has been presented at a number of financial services and research industry conferences — including Quirks! — and featured in plan sponsor/advisor webinars, monthly trend reports for advisors, sales meetings, podcasts, thought leadership and PR efforts, and more. We are also seeing our key stakeholders becoming more empowered by research and including data and insights in their own work — whether it’s marketing, communications, advertising, PR, product or others. 

What are some predictions you have for the future based on what you have learned from your COVID-19-related research? 

There are a number of consumer trends that we believe might “stick” based on having lived through this event — such as: all things digital; stockpiling household necessities and PPE; keeping your circle tight; increased focus on hygiene; etc. But in thinking about financial services and our industry specifically, one of the biggest shifts has been in terms of risk aversion. While data show that consumers are becoming more risk averse in general — a dramatic shift from the pre-COVID-19 days — this is also true in terms of investing in a more risk-averse manner. We are seeing that recent financial losses, or even the possibility of financial losses, appear to be the largest driver of change in risk tolerance for consumers. We are also seeing an increased focus on workplace benefits and ensuring the right amount of coverage. Consumers are spending more time reviewing and thinking about their workplace benefits coverages, as well increasing their focus on emergency savings, which we think — and hope — will stick. Past research indicates that many Americans did not have enough emergency savings heading into the pandemic and would benefit greatly from building up their emergency savings to protect them from unknown and unpredictable circumstances in the future.  

When it comes to the insights function, there are also some predictions we can make based on what we’ve learned over the past year. First, there is definitely an increased need for real-time, agile research tools and measurements. We are all being tasked with doing more with less during this unprecedented time, and the need for immediate insights became even more pronounced than ever. The idea of “multi-source synthesis” and leveraging all data sources has become a must-have for market researchers. It’s not enough to conduct your own research, but you really need to be able to review and digest what else is out there through external resources to build out a complete view of consumer insights and sentiment. And lastly, being able to pivot, recalibrate and stand up new measurements at any point in time will be the key to success for any research and insights team. We must be able to be flexible to best serve our clients and their needs at any time. 

Do you see your team leveraging any new methodologies in the next year? 

Based on the predictions made within the insights function, you can imagine that we are undoubtedly becoming more agile and will continue to do so over the next year. We have added new research tools that will allow us to gather more insights at a faster pace and a lower cost. We are utilizing some more DIY tools to complement our current ongoing research efforts and vendor relationships so that we can gather fresh insights more quickly for our key stakeholders. 

We will continue to need flexibility with the research tools we utilize, whether it’s tapping into a specific target audience or gathering quick feedback from the general population. This level of flexibility in our tools and research methodologies allows our organization to be more nimble, more competitive and more responsive to the wants and needs of consumers, which are changing faster than ever during this volatile time. 

IMPORTANT: Forecasts, projected outcomes, or other information generated regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. 

This information is provided by Voya for your education only. Neither Voya nor its representatives offer tax or legal advice. 

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