Search Results

IIC Interactive Lounges IIC will be at some of the industry's most coveted events this year. WHY Generating awareness of our field is the key to building a more diverse, representative pipeline of talent to ensure a more inclusive research and insights future. There is a need to target BIPOC students & young professionals in a way that allows them to see themselves in our industry before finalizing their career choices. WHAT To help close the gap of awareness and build a more robust diversity pipeline for the research & insights industry, IIC hosting an Interactive Lounge Series at this year's Quirk's NYC events. WHO The lounges will be open to all but specifically geared towards BIPOC students & young professionals aged 30 and under. This year we've secured a limited among of free tickets for young professionals and students seeking to attend any of the Quirks event in Chicago and NYC. Click here for more information. The Quirk's Event is a valuable collection of sessions and networking opportunities with leaders in the insights field. It's designed to be affordable and convenient, with in-person and virtual options and multiple dates and locations. FOR BIPOC RESEARCHERS 30 & UNDER If you are a multicultural researcher under the age of 30, or if you know of any who would like to attend the Quirk's event in Chicago or NYC, contact us. FOR BIPOC STUDENTS For college students, we have secured a special timeslot for your attendance from 10am-2pm on day one, which includes lunch and fun interactive activities to meet some of the industry’s most well-known research companies. If you are an educational institution that would like for some of your multicultural research/ marketing/ humanities students to experience a research conference event with other students, contact us. Become a Sponsor Download our sponsorship package to learn more. Become a Sponsor Don't wait until it's too late! Sponsorships dollars are needed now to ensure we meet vendor deadlines!

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Training are Highly Suggested There seem to be a lot of unknowns in your research process. There may be a need for diversity training for your team to better understand how to setup and think about research in a way that doesn't produce insights and outputs through a restrictive lens, effectively muting diverse consumer narratives. Based on your responses, your research is likely already entrenched in cultural biases which automatically prevents your work from being as inclusive as it needs to be. Contact the IIC team to schedule a diversity consultation below. Without additional diversity considerations, your project will not yield accurate results. NEW! Download IIC’s Standards for Inclusive Research! UNIVERSAL TRUTHS ​ CHECK YOUR BIASES & ASSUMPTIONS AT THE DOOR There will always be things that you won't know, or won’t know to ask yourself. Ensuring that your team is diverse will ultimately help to solve for these blind spots. Never assume that respondents will voluntarily (or honestly) reveal all of the tensions that exist within the intersectional parts of their identities. Always ensure the right probes and researcher dynamics are in place to promote information sharing in a way that fits the diverse needs of your respondents. Never assume that a person of color is as affected, or as impacted by racial trauma as other BIPOC consumers (this includes the BIPOC researchers on your team/client team). Race and identity are complex. The dynamics of American racial tensions are not the dynamics as BIPOCs in other countries. The experiences of minorities and minority immigrants should never be generalized or categorized as the same. CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT Given the diversity of the new mainstream, no research can be done without integrating cultural context into the process. Without this, your outputs will struggle to maintain relevancy and will miss opportunities for richer, more nuanced storytelling. Always ask yourself, "why is this the case?" and find the historical data, context or BIPOC subject matter expert to back up and support your insights. TELL THE STORY CORRECTLY Always interrogate your story tellers. Research is often commissioned based on vendor-client relationships, and not on capability. If your research supplier or research team is not diverse enough to support or guide your projects, seek outside BIPOC resources, teams and/or experts to play lead roles in your work - from commission to completion. Interrogate your storytelling methods. Utilizing old frameworks and outputs to tell complex, multilayered consumer stories will often fall flat with audiences who may not be able to see the bigger picture. Along with utilizing more BIPOC researchers, creative & dynamic storytelling techniques are encouraged. THINGS TO CONSIDER We highly recommend that your organization set up a diversity and inclusion training to better understand how lack of diversity not only impacts your work, and internal processes. There may be a need to increase diversity within your organization, your research team or your client's team. Hiring diverse talent may take a while but using outside resources & experts could potentially solve some of the issues you may be running into or, that you may not be aware of. Reexamine your screeners, surveys and overall research approach to ensure your project is setup to capture the full breadth of diverse responses from your consumers. Ensure & insist that diversity is included in all touchpoints of your projects as much as possible, including the teams who will receive your outputs. Ensure that diverse talent is present to tell the story of the consumers in your research, especially if your work has a multicultural focus. Researching the new mainstream can be expensive, and when budgets get cut, so do opportunities for unique consumer stories & outputs. Make sure to push for, and insist on budgets that can guarantee the necessary over recruitment and readable base sizes to yield relevant solutions and truly accurate recommendations. If your project is not focused on multicultural consumers, continue to interrogate your findings to see if there are any nuanced stories that may stand out on their own based on consumers' identity (race, ethnicity, cultural background, life experiences, disability, acculturation, sexual or gender identity), a part from the mainstream findings and then investigate those stories. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES CULTURAL RELEVANCE IN MARKETING NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER NON-INCLUSIVE AD TESTING: REAL CULPRIT BEHIND TONE-DEAF ADS DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE SUPPORTING A CAUSE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP FROM TOUCH OF WHIT CREATIVE INTERESTED IN A RESEARCH CONSULTATION? EXPLORE IIC FORWARD Up

More Opportunities for Diversity Exist You are off to a solid start, but there are a few more opportunities that you could be tapping into to ensure your research and outputs are as inclusive as they need to be. You have put effort into making your research inclusive however, more work may need to be done to ensure that you’ve also accounted for any of your own cultural biases and assumptions. NEW! Download IIC’s Standards for Inclusive Research! UNIVERSAL TRUTHS ​ CHECK YOUR BIASES & ASSUMPTIONS AT THE DOOR There will always be things that you won't know, or won’t know to ask yourself. Ensuring that your team is diverse will ultimately help to solve for these blind spots. Never assume that respondents will voluntarily (or honestly) reveal all of the tensions that exist within the intersectional parts of their identities. Always ensure the right probes and researcher dynamics are in place to promote information sharing in a way that fits the diverse needs of your respondents. Never assume that a person of color is as affected, or as impacted by racial trauma as other BIPOC consumers (this includes the BIPOC researchers on your team/client team). Race and identity are complex. The dynamics of American racial tensions are not the dynamics as BIPOCs in other countries. The experiences of minorities and minority immigrants should never be generalized or categorized as the same. CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT Given the diversity of the new mainstream, no research can be done without integrating cultural context into the process. Without this, your outputs will struggle to maintain relevancy and will miss opportunities for richer, more nuanced storytelling. Always ask yourself, "why is this the case?" and find the historical data, context or BIPOC subject matter expert to back up and support your insights. TELL THE STORY CORRECTLY Always interrogate your story tellers. Research is often commissioned based on vendor-client relationships, and not on capability. If your research supplier or research team is not diverse enough to support or guide your projects, seek outside BIPOC resources, teams and/or experts to play lead roles in your work - from commission to completion. Interrogate your storytelling methods. Utilizing old frameworks and outputs to tell complex, multilayered consumer stories will often fall flat with audiences who may not be able to see the bigger picture. Along with utilizing more BIPOC researchers, creative & dynamic storytelling techniques are encouraged. THINGS TO CONSIDER Make sure to reexamine your screeners, surveys and overall methodological approach to ensure your project is setup to capture the full breadth of diverse responses from your consumers. Ensure & insist that diversity is included in all touchpoints of your projects as much as possible, including the teams who will receive your outputs. Ensure that diverse voices & perspectives are present to tell the story of the consumers in your research, especially if your work has a multicultural focus. Researching the new mainstream can be expensive, and when budgets get cut, so do opportunities for unique consumer stories & outputs. Make sure to push for, and insist on budgets that can guarantee the necessary over recruitment and readable base sizes to yield relevant solutions and truly accurate recommendations. If your project is not focused on multicultural consumers, continue to interrogate your findings to see if there are any nuanced stories that may stand out on their own based on consumers' identity (race, ethnicity, cultural background, life experiences, disability, acculturation, sexual or gender identity), a part from the mainstream findings and then investigate those stories. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES CULTURAL RELEVANCE IN MARKETING NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER NON-INCLUSIVE AD TESTING: REAL CULPRIT BEHIND TONE-DEAF ADS DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE SUPPORTING A CAUSE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP FROM TOUCH OF WHIT CREATIVE INTERESTED IN A RESEARCH CONSULTATION? EXPLORE IIC FORWARD Up

Ways to Join Whether you're a student, freelancer, current research professional or brand seeking new talent, IIC has several different ways for you to become a part of the IIC community. Subscribe to our Newsletter in the footer Join the IIC Community Receive exclusive updates and discounts available to IIC members only. Join the Community Join the Researcher Gallery Show your face! Join our growing wall of BIPOC Market Research & Insights Professionals Join Join the Freelancer Marketplace Sign up to be notified of new client requests Join the Freelancer Database Join the Digital Community Now on Slack, Hosted by Mimconnect Join Subscribe

IIC believes that all data is beautiful. Because of this, we are dedicated to sharing impactful research stories in ways that are meaningful and engaging. This platform was built to move research out of white papers and to the eyes of the next generation of BIPOC researchers. By doing so we hope to aid in growing the pipeline of multicultural research & insights talent. Data is Beautiful Story Submission Purpose ​ 1. Changing the way data and insights are socialized in the industry by reimagining insight outputs about BIPOC groups. ​ 2. Appealing to younger generations of researchers in order to highlight the importance & impact of BIPOC groups being the architects of their own stories. ​ 3. Shining a light on brands, agencies and insights suppliers doing the work to tell immersive, impactful multicultural insights stories View Site Process ​ 1. DOWNLOAD the submission template, fill it out & save it ​ 2. SUBMIT the information in the Data is Beautiful Form; attach the template from step 1. ​ 3. PAY the submission FEE ($1500)* ​ 4. FINALIZE & work with IIC to clarify any last minute touches & see your insights story on site in 10-15 business days! ​ *due to the highly interactive nature of the data is beautiful platform, IIC must pay web design specialists to create each and every story in unique ways. We take a lot of time to liaise with each specialist throughout the story development process along with members of your team. The fee accounts for the labor of the web design specialists and the IIC team. ​ More Details

We are on a mission to ensure diversity exists at every touchpoint Click Here to learn more about building a career in Market Research and Insights. WHEN IT COMES TO DIVERSITY & INCLUSION, THE RESEARCH TO PRODUCTION PIPELINE IS BROKEN. Insights in Color partnered with Public Service, a platform and creative studio dedicated to advancing equity in imagemaking and Ahzul , a full-service, research- based consulting firm to emphasize the importance of ensuring that diversity is present at every point in the research to production pipeline. “When the production and talent teams are only moderately diverse, the final output is less successful in reflecting the nuanced and varied perspectives of BIPOC consumers. Unequal power dynamics in the production process and on set can impact how and if BIPOC creatives speak up when problematic issues arise. This can result in stereotyped or tokenized outputs, the misuse of cultural artifacts, and/or misrepresentation or underrepresentation of diverse groups on screen.” — ANU LINGALA- PUBLIC SERVICE When teams are truly diverse, and made up of more than one BIPOC team member, then the outputs for each of those touchpoints have a greater chance of reflecting the true world of consumers by recognizing their nuances, and speaking to their unique, sometimes overlooked experiences and truths. THE RESULT IS A MORE VIBRANT, REPRESENTATIVE FINAL OUTPUT. It is always necessary to step back and examine who is in the room, who is at the table, and who is allowed to speak at the table. Understanding the impact of power dynamics within each touchpoint is crucial in determining how diversity will or will not show up in deliverables and outputs. TRULY EQUITABLE DIVERSITY ENABLES BIPOC TEAM MEMBERS THE ABILITY TO SHIFT OR IMPACT DECISIONS, INPUTS OR FINAL OUTPUTS AT ANY POINT. Ensuring diversity and inclusion in the research and insights field is a necessary step, but is not as impactful when the teams the insights are passed to remain moderately diverse, steeped in unequal power dynamics or, not diverse at all. FIXING ONE SPOKE ON A BROKEN WHEEL CAN PROVIDE LITTLE TO NO CHANGE WHEN THE REST REMAIN UNATTENDED, UNCHANGED, AND UNDIVERSE.

Insights Inside Sessions Learn More Where are all the Men? A conversation with men in the MRX space about the importance of BIPOC men in the research and insights space, sponsored by Suzy. Learn More IIC Presents: Insights Inside- An Intimate Conversation Elevating Black Voices with Moderator Dee de Lara and IIC Founder, Whitney Dunlap-Fowler

TOOLS & RESOURCES Knowledge & information for insights professionals seeking new diversity solutions. Visit our FAQ page for more. Inclusive Research Standards An IIC Lunch & Learn Session For Market Research Professionals Learn More Download Empower Yourself Follow our guidelines to ensure success as you navigate your career in the research & insights industry. View More Download Inclusive Research Standards Changing The Rules Of Sampling In The New Identity Economy in partnership with Lucid & Thinknow. View More Download Attracting BIPOC Talent Download our tips and insights for free! View More

What's the Story Behind That? A series that supports our education pillar and is dedicated to highlighting the stories behind some of your favorite commercials, brands, products and innovations with the goal of showing you how you can be a part of a growing, dynamic industry. WHO’S IT FOR: BIPOC students and young professionals who may not be aware of the MRX field or how important their voices and perspectives are in the field of research, strategy and insights. WHY IS IT DIFFERENT? Instead of focusing the conversation on research and insights first, we start with the end product - something young consumers all know, use or have seen. We then and talk about how research and insights were used to create something we love. WHEN IS THE NEXT SESSION? We have slots open for this coming April & September 2022. ​ With over 100 RSVPs, and 7+ educational institutions, IIC secured a 60% attendance rate throughout the entirety of our previous session and plan for a higher success rate in the future. See Previous Session HOW CAN MY COMPANY BE APART OF THIS? Research & insights brands/ agencies wishing to partner with us will need to have an "end product" in that can be shared with the public in mind. Once you have this, register, pay a small fee and work with the IIC team to secure the final logistics . Sign My Company Up HOW CAN MY STUDENTS JOIN THIS SESSION? Contact IIC to make sure your school and students are included in our "What's the Story Behind That?" initiative announcements. ​ Finally, if you're not yet apart of the IIC community, be sure to join our mailing list. Sign Us Up Past Sessions On October, 14, 2021 at 12pm EST IIC was joined by Microsoft to present to students across the country on how some of their most memorable campaigns came to life with the help of insights and researcher. SPEAKER RENUKA IYER Renuka Iyer is a Director of Market Research in Microsoft’s Research + Insights team. During her tenure at Microsoft, Renuka has held several positions within the team and has proven experience in both consumer and commercial business areas. Her superpower lies in building strong relationships and bringing diverse data and people together to drive one coherent customer insight and story. She has drawn on these superpowers consistently to build complex programs from (sometimes an ambiguous) idea. As a leader, she is hands on, authentic and passionate about promoting a diverse and inclusive work culture. ​ Prior to Microsoft, Renuka worked at Unilever, India. Renuka lives with her family in Seattle, Washington. She is a mom to two teenagers with wide interests ranging from food, travel, reading, running, hiking, Zumba and deeply involved and interested in causes that benefit education, especially for under privileged children. SPEAKER STACEY TERRIEN Stacey Terrien is the Director of Global Advertising at Microsoft. During her tenure at Microsoft, Stacey has served as a Product Marketer in mobile devices where she was granted a patent for innovative production techniques, and has also overseen global advertising creative development across multiple award winning campaigns for Windows, Microsoft Teams, Edge, Bing, the Microsoft Holiday campaigns and the Superbowl spot “We All Win” which won five Cannes Lions, including the prestigious Titanium Award. Most recently Microsoft was awarded Cannes Lions most prestigious award – Creative Advertiser of the Year 2021. Stacey is known for her keen creative sensibilities, passion for storytelling and leading and inspiring diverse teams to greatness. Prior to Microsoft, Stacey worked at Mastercard on the highly decorated “Priceless” campaign, Verizon Wireless in music and lifestyle marketing, AT&T, the NBA, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Sparks where she helped to launch the WNBA. MODERATOR KALIL VICIOSO I bring over 20 years of experience and expertise in integrating consumer stories and data, cultural currents, and category trends to informing, inspiring, and guiding brand strategy. Throughout my career I have applied a social science approach to consumer and health research to ensure insights are action focused. ​ My consumer research specialties include brand positioning and comms development, new product development (NPD), and global/multicultural insights and strategy. I have led multi-disciplinary projects across categories such as financial services, automotive, entertainment, tech, and retail. Clients included Visa, American Express, Lucasfilm, Microsoft, Google, and the Gap. In health research I have worked in HIV prevention, substance use interventions, and medication adherence. ​ My foundational training is in Cultural and Developmental psychology.

A Need for Increased Diversity Resources Though you have thought about diversity somewhat, you have not put enough resources into your research process and team structure to ensure your research is truly inclusive and void of bias. Without additional diversity considerations, your projects may not yield the most accurate results. NEW! Download IIC’s Standards for Inclusive Research! UNIVERSAL TRUTHS ​ CHECK YOUR BIASES & ASSUMPTIONS AT THE DOOR There will always be things that you won't know, or won’t know to ask yourself. Ensuring that your team is diverse will ultimately help to solve for these blind spots. Never assume that respondents will voluntarily (or honestly) reveal all of the tensions that exist within the intersectional parts of their identities. Always ensure the right probes and researcher dynamics are in place to promote information sharing in a way that fits the diverse needs of your respondents. Never assume that a person of color is as affected, or as impacted by racial trauma as other BIPOC consumers (this includes the BIPOC researchers on your team/client team). Race and identity are complex. The dynamics of American racial tensions are not the dynamics as BIPOCs in other countries. The experiences of minorities and minority immigrants should never be generalized or categorized as the same. CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT Given the diversity of the new mainstream, no research can be done without integrating cultural context into the process. Without this, your outputs will struggle to maintain relevancy and will miss opportunities for richer, more nuanced storytelling. Always ask yourself, "why is this the case?" and find the historical data, context or BIPOC subject matter expert to back up and support your insights. TELL THE STORY CORRECTLY Always interrogate your story tellers. Research is often commissioned based on vendor-client relationships, and not on capability. If your research supplier or research team is not diverse enough to support or guide your projects, seek outside BIPOC resources, teams and/or experts to play lead roles in your work - from commission to completion. Interrogate your storytelling methods. Utilizing old frameworks and outputs to tell complex, multilayered consumer stories will often fall flat with audiences who may not be able to see the bigger picture. Along with utilizing more BIPOC researchers, creative & dynamic storytelling techniques are encouraged. THINGS TO CONSIDER There may be a need to increase diversity within your organization, your research team or your client's team. Hiring diverse talent may take a while but using outside resources & experts could potentially solve some of the issues you may be running into or, that you may not be aware of. Reexamine your screeners, surveys and overall research approach to ensure your project is setup to capture the full breadth of diverse responses from your consumers. Ensure & insist that diversity is included in all touchpoints of your projects as much as possible, including the teams who will receive your outputs. Ensure that diverse talent is present to tell the story of the consumers in your research, especially if your work has a multicultural focus. Researching the new mainstream can be expensive, and when budgets get cut, so do opportunities for unique consumer stories & outputs. Make sure to push for, and insist on budgets that can guarantee the necessary over recruitment and readable base sizes to yield relevant solutions and truly accurate recommendations. If your project is not focused on multicultural consumers, continue to interrogate your findings to see if there are any nuanced stories that may stand out on their own based on consumers' identity (race, ethnicity, cultural background, life experiences, disability, acculturation, sexual or gender identity), a part from the mainstream findings and then investigate those stories. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES CULTURAL RELEVANCE IN MARKETING NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER NON-INCLUSIVE AD TESTING: REAL CULPRIT BEHIND TONE-DEAF ADS DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE SUPPORTING A CAUSE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP FROM TOUCH OF WHIT CREATIVE INTERESTED IN A RESEARCH CONSULTATION? EXPLORE IIC FORWARD Up

A BIPOC Researcher Checklist Given the increased need for BIPOC researchers, Insights in Color wanted to provide a way to empower prospects, candidates and job seekers with a list of factors to consider when navigating new job opportunities. This list is meant to: 1. Establish a foundational set of factors for BIPOC research and insights professionals to consider when seeking or transferring to a new role. ​ 2. Provide a comprehensive way for researchers of color to examine how the outward facing statements made by a company may or may not match their actions or efforts especially when it comes to diversity and inclusion. ​ 3. Arm BIPOC researchers with the right consideration tools to make better, well-informed judgement calls on the companies & departments seeking our unique talents and expertise. It was created for: CANDIDATES SEEKING NEW ROLES This list is meant to empower you to ask the right questions during the interview process or to at least be on the look-out for specific cues and codes on how welcoming/ inclusive your experience will be should you be asked to join a company or research request. ​ RESEARCHERS EXPANDING INTO DE+I FUNCTIONS This list is meant to encourage you to properly vet & examine the origins of the need and to guage your current company’s vision and commitment to the space, and the extent to which your efforts will be successful. Free Download

CAREER CORNER For job seekers and companies seeking new talent. For tips and tricks on diversity, equity & inclusion in market research, click here. Companies Brands, Agencies & Insights Departments Researchers BIPOC Market Researchers, Strategists & Insights Professionals COMPANIES Clients Multicultural talent solutions for brands & agencies Post Advertise a Role Post a role on our job board to recruit multicultural research talent. View More Hire Hire a Freelancer For short-term/ project based engagements consider reaching out to our freelancer database. View More Browse Freelancer Gallery Use our Researcher Gallery Wall as a free tool to find your next candidate. View More RESEARCHERS Researchers Career Resources for current and prospective BIPOC researchers Apply Visit our Job Board Find new career opportunities posted by IIC every week! View More Sign Up Sign Up as a Freelancer Join our freelancer database to be contacted for future work projects & IIC initiatives. View More Join Join the Researcher Gallery Add your face and name to our growing gallery wall. View More For tips and tricks on diversity, equity & inclusion in market research, click here.