By Betty Adamou @BettyAdamou
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Bob Lederer has been providing commentary on the market research industry, through a suite of reports and videos, for the past 2 decades. If you don’t know who Bob is, you should. And with my interview with him a few weeks ago now published on YouTube, you will.
Bob is perhaps lesser known in the UK. In the US, I can speak to almost any researcher and they’ll say “I know Bob. He’s great” or some other such compliment. In the UK, Bob and his reports and podcasts should be better known, as they are pieces of MR intelligence that so many of us here across the pond crave. Want to know the latest with General Mills? Want to hear about Unilever’s Shark Tank event? Want to hear about Empowering Women in MR? Bob’s got a news-style video for that.
So who is Bob? Bob is the Director of RFL Communications Inc, and has been providing an array of reports about various cogs in the MR industry machine, as well as giving us the latest on movements with research clients and brands, to reporting on the changes in research departments and overall industry in his famous YouTube podcast, ‘The Research Business Daily Report’ or RBDR.
Bob is used to being the interviewer, with his interviewees ranging from from Senior VP, Stan Sthanunathan of Unilever, to Eric Salama, CEO of Kantar, to an interview about our ResearchGames with yours truly.
We decided we wanted to turn the tables on Bob, and I personally interviewed him a few weeks ago to see what he thought about so many aspects of our industry, seeing as he’s been in ‘observer mode’ for the best part of 20 years. Bob and I were on the phone for over an hour talking, and of course some of that was recorded as part of the interview.
What I liked about interviewing Bob is that he is straight-talking; doesn’t sugar coat anything and doesn’t need to. He is just honest as really understands the perspective of the average-Joe market researcher, to the research client, to the research innovator, simply because he’s been speaking to them and getting to know their businesses for such a long time.
Interviewing Bob was like hearing so many different MR voices through one experienced mouth-piece.
We discussed most things I thought that students and new researchers would like to know, as well as individuals who are seasoned researchers. I asked him what he would advise a new researcher to do if they have something innovative to offer by way of methodology, technology, process etc. to hear his suggestions, to what he thinks has been the most innovative ‘thing’ in his 20 years commenting on Market Research.
We also spoke about Games and Gamification for research, in which Bob, on and off the record, was incredibly complimentary about our ResearchGames, citing them as ‘the most exciting thing he’s seen in years’, and I can assure our listeners, we did not pay Bob to say such nice things. It was great to also let Bob know something new which I hope he will share with his audience; that games and gamification for research are two completely different methodologies, and with a spectrum of design bubbles in-between. And as he says in our video interview, that is something he didn’t realise before. So now, in his upcoming ‘Market Research Toolbox’ report, which details 50 methodologies, Bob has actually added Games to the list, in which I have provided a commentary on the methodology for that report.
My interview with Bob is broken down into 14 bite-sized videos, where you can get to know more about Bob in Video1, where he introduces himself and his company, RFL Communications, and you can hear about what’s stopping research clients from hearing about new innovations in Video13. Each video is easily titled for your convenience. So sit back and listen to the nuggets of wisdom from someone who is experienced and knowledgable.
To capture Bob’s collected MR intelligence on a daily basis, follow him on Twitter as @RFLOnlineCom
If you’re interested to find out more, subscribe to one or all of Bob’s reports on the Market Research industry here. But seriously, listen to his quick, news-style videos on his YouTube channel ‘RBDR’ here: https://www.youtube.com/user/RBDRChannel
Here’s one of the videos below to get a taster, and of course, it is cherry-picked for it’s lovely references to RTG, obviously!
Enjoy! Get all the bite-sized video’s on my YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTR__ouCh9SKI2d-XeW7slg/videos