Research Live

It never ceases to amaze us how ready various industry commentators and practitioners are to put down their fellow human beings’ ability to communicate with each other meaningfully. One speaker, while leading the charge for big data dominance at a recent conference we attended, even went as far as to describe surveys as ‘the bizarre idea you can ask shoppers what they want’!

Our position here at Shoppercentric is perhaps a little more consolatory: whilst we very much agree that big data (of various kinds) brings a whole plethora of new opportunities for understanding human behaviour and motivations, we don’t think it’s a panacea. It can of course offer invaluable insights if used correctly but, we’d argue, its contribution would be even more invaluable if used in conjunction with the context that spending time with consumers and shoppers can bring.