Search Results

A subscription service for clients seeking access to Market Researchers for freelance projects. Thank you for your interest in joining IIC's Freelancer Database. At This Time Your Experience Does Not Qualify you for this Service. Go Back Home

Coming Soon IIC FORWARD was created to give clients the ability to have their research approaches and documents (screeners, reports, discussion guides, stimulus & more) reviewed in real time to ensure diverse and representative measures are accounted for in their work. What it is. A fast, easy way for clients to receive input from experienced BIPOC market researchers on every step of the market research process. Who it's for. For brands and agencies seeking support and inputs to ensure more intentionally inclusive research methods and outputs. RESEARCHERS Get paid to contribute your insights on multicultural consumer research projects. Up CLIENTS Receive real-time inputs and guidance on your research approaches & documents. Up Researcher Application Process To ensure we recruit the right researchers, there is a quick, three step application process. Researcher Portal Step 1: Assessment To determine your eligibility you will be required to answer preliminary questions (below) and do a quick baseline assessment of your skillset. (7-10 mins) Step 2: Register To ensure your information is properly loaded into the system. (5mins). Save this portal page in your bookmarks! PLEASE HAVE YOUR RESUME & ASSESSMENT DOCUMENT READY TO SUBMIT. Step 3: Final Approval IIC Reviews your application and determines placement. (24-48hrs). If approved, vendors will sign necessary terms & conditions agreements before they are eligible to receive research requests. Start the Process Researcher FAQs Client Portal Have your documents reviewed fast and efficiently by IIC Researchers. Client Portal 1 Submit a request in IIC Forward’s Portal. Create a research request based on the number of pages in your document that are needed to review (submit a simple, intermediate or advanced request). 2 Correspond with researchers in real time. Once a researcher picks up your request you will be able to message them or speak with them through the portal about any additional details you may need from them. 3 Receive critical feedback in 24- 72 hours. Depending on the size of the request, our researchers will review your document and submit notes and feedback within 2-4 business days. Explore Pricing Client FAQs

Insights in Color Presents: Falling into Insights A conversation about breaking into the MRX field. A Mimconnect, In Good Company Virtual Career Fair Initiative Click Here to Learn More About Market Research and How You Can Find a Career in This Space In partnership with Mimconnect's In Good Company Virtual Conference & Career Fair ​ IIC Presents: FALLING INTO INSIGHTS: February 21, 2023 WHAT IS IT? A conversation with dynamic research & insights professionals on getting started in the market research and insights field. WHO’S IT FOR: Everyone! HOW LONG IS IT? 45 minutes WHO WILL BE SPEAKING? A dynamic panel of speakers from Meta, Spotify, ESPN, Accenture and Target. Learn more about our panel below. RSVP SPEAKERS A panel moderated by IIC's Founder, Whitney Dunlap-Fowler with speakers from ESPN, META, Target, Accenture and Target! MODERATOR WHITNEY DUNLAP - FOWLER Owner, Touch of Whit Creative Founder, Insights in Color Whitney Dunlap-Fowler is a seasoned semiotician and brand strategist specializing in helping clients build culturally intelligent brands. With more than 12 years of brand building expertise, she equips clients with the cultural strategy and foresight tools needed to insure their insights today will positively impact their bottom line beyond tomorrow. Before becoming an independent strategist, Whitney held roles at Kantar Added Value and Kelton Global and obtained her Masters in Media Culture and Communications at NYU. Today, she continues to work with clients across a wide variety of categories including Sephora, Meta, Target, ESPN, Oribe and more while overseeing Insights in Color, a diversity initiative for multicultural market research and insights professionals rooted in disruption, which she founded in 2020. EDWIN ROMAN Senior Director, Brand Strategy and Content Insights, ESPN Edwin Roman, who joined ESPN in 2004, is a Senior Director of Brand Strategy and Content Insights within the Marketing and Social Media department. In this role, Mr. Roman helps internal clients understand the brand and content landscape as it relates to the ESPN consumer -- ultimately serving as the “voice of the fan”. He is tasked with presenting these clients with strategic and tactical insights based on innovative proprietary and syndicated research solutions. He also serves as part of ESPN’s Inclusive Content Committee, is the People Chair for the SOMOS ESPN employee resource group and was part of the inaugural class of the ESPN M.O.R.E. mentorship program. ​ Prior to joining ESPN, Mr. Roman conducted consumer trends research for RoperStarch, where he was responsible for analyzing and communicating macro level trends and category specific insights across a broad range of industries. Mr. Roman holds a Master of Arts degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Hofstra University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University at Stony Brook. He currently resides in New York City with his wife and daughter. KATHY DINI JAMES Consumer Insights Executive Meta Kathy Dini James is a consumer insights executive currently leading inclusion strategy insights at Meta. Formerly a brand planner, she has developed communications and new product strategies for products and services including hotels, fragrances, pasta sauces and dinners, natural personal care, and developed multi-cultural strategies for spirits and personal writing brands. Prior to Meta she led brand communications insights at Verizon’s wireless division, and worked at Time Inc. (now Meredith) leading brand, content and live event insights at Essence Magazine and People brands. She’s a big believer that what’s is good for people is good for business, and is deeply obsessed with what people want, why they do what they do, and how truly people-centric experiences and brands can move people and do good in the world. Kathy is a recent resident of Oakland, CA from downtown Jersey City by way of Brooklyn, USA. She was born in Toronto, Canada to parents from the twin-island of Antigua and Barbuda in the West Indies. JEFFREY G. SCOTT, PH.D. Director of Product Insights for Food & Bev Target Jeffrey G. Scott, Ph.D. is the Director of Product Insights for Food & Beverage at Target in Minneapolis, MN. Jeffrey has been working in Sensory & Consumer Sciences for 15+ years (spanning across CPG, Vendor/Agency, and Retail), designing customized research plans/strategies to effectively deliver key insights to the business and executive teams. ​ At Target, Jeffrey leads a talented team of researchers that focus on qualitative and quantitative research. Her team strategically partners with product development and other key areas of the business to develop, improve, and launch high quality brands and products/packages that consumers will love! ​ When she is not working, Jeffrey enjoys spending time with her husband and 3 children by cross-country skiing, hiking, dancing/singing, and much more! REGGIE ROMAIN, M.A. Talent Research Associate Manager Accenture Research Reggie Romain, M.A., is a Talent Research Associate Manager with Accenture Research where he helps lead and contributes to thought leadership research to support the work of Accenture’s Talent & Organization/Human Potential practice. He has a M.A. in Industrial Organizational Psychology with a concentration in Organizational Behavior from CUNY Brooklyn College — where he studied team dynamics and processes. In his current role, Reggie focuses on ways to build inclusive and equitable experiences in the workplace so that individuals can reach their human potential, as well as how to best enable employees to acquire skills necessary for the future of work.” ALEXANDRA HORNSBY Insights Manager Spotify Currently an Insights Manager at Spotify, Alex leads a team focused on user growth. Bringing over ten years of experience in insights and strategy, Alex has previously consulted for a range of brands including Snapchat, Apple, L’Oreal and Nike. Her projects have taken her to over 20 countries carrying out fieldwork, with a particular skew towards understanding the needs of users in the Global South. Alongside working with corporate clients, Alex has further consulted for a number of Foundations and nonprofits. Click Here to Learn More About Market Research and How You Can Find a Career in This Space RSVP

Market Research Freelancer Marketplace ​ A new solution for seeking and finding Freelance Market Research & Insights Professionals. Learn More Seamlessly connecting brands and agencies with the freelance talent they deserve at every point of the freelancer discovery process. Own & Manage Your Search Process. A subscription service for clients seeking continued access to our database of freelance Market Researchers. Subscribe Freelancers sign up here Returning client? Log in Here Get The Talent You Need in a Snap. In a time-crunch? Submit a request detailing your project needs and instantly have it blasted out to our database of freelancers. Request Freelancers sign up here Coming January 2024 Do Market Research Better. Seeking constructive inputs on an upcoming or on-going project? Our Portal enables clients to gain feedback on inclusion & diversity considerations. Sign Up Freelancers sign up here Returning client? Log in Here

More Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives are Needed Your projects are in danger of researching consumers and producing insights through a restrictive lens that does not allow for diverse narratives to exist beyond mainstream expectations. There is still work to be done to ensure your research is inclusive to all audiences and accounts for your own teams’ cultural biases. 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 Diversity training may be needed to help ensure your approaches and outputs are as inclusive and as diverse as they can be. 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

Employer Accountability Pledge Everything we do is rooted in intentional disruption - we believe the system is broken, and that there is a need to change the industry from the inside out. Your role within your organization can be a key driver in helping us change the industry for the better. I've Already Signed This As leaders and/or hiring managers, your input and guidance are critical in ensuring that diversity & inclusion remain integral to how the research and insights industry operates. ​ In order for research to truly impact the lives of consumers, there is a need for it to be representative in nature. The effort to achieve representative and impactful outputs starts with you. ​ The only way to foster equality in representation is to ensure a diverse pipeline of talent and a way to support that talent with an inclusive workplace culture built with the needs of bipoc talent in mind. This pledge is the first step of many to ensure the right kind of change is seen in our industry. 1. MAKE A COMMITMENT TO CHANGE Insights in Color is providing access to diverse research and insights talent. In exchange, we are asking that companies accessing this space to be aligned with IIC’s call to action: 2. CALL TO ACTION Insights in Color is asking organizations wishing to align themselves with our initiative to join our mission of disrupting the status quo regarding recruiting, hiring and retaining diverse talent in the research and insights field. IIC does not believe in “participation awards” when it comes to implementing real change around diversity and inclusion. By committing to this pledge, we hope that it will serve as a catalyst for you to continue the conversation around diversity and inclusion within the research and insights space at the highest levels of your organization. The IIC Employer Accountability Pledge We pledge to check our biases and assumptions at the door, question what we think we know, and leave room, space and grace to admit that there are things that we may not fully understand. We understand that until we do this, and step away from, and outside of our “normative ways of thinking” that the market research system and our hiring and retention processes will remain broken and ill-equipped to welcome and create space for future BIPOC researchers in our industry. We pledge to do the work that is necessary to continue making our work environments safe spaces to have the necessary, complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity and inclusion. We will commit to creating a work environment that has the necessary tools, resources, education and mentorship parameters needed to keep BIPOC researchers fully supported and engaged in this space for the long term. We pledge to keep the pipeline of diverse candidates for our organization full and ongoing at all levels, with the right measurement tools to monitor progress and success in these spaces. We recognize that creating truly inclusive environments requires on-going work, substantial budget, and resources to sustain them and how they evolve overtime. Because of this we will commit to ensuring that these areas are always considered and highly prioritized within our organization. We will continue to rethink our traditional ways of working by finding inspiration from other brands and companies seeking to do the same, and then augmenting those outputs in a better, fresher, more provocative way that truly incites change and action within our industry. Company Name Email ​I PLEDGE TO USE MY POSITION IN MY COMPANY AS ONE THAT INCITES CHANGE AND IS COMMITTED TO DISRUPTING THE STATUS QUO WHEN IT COMES TO HOW WE RECRUIT, HIRE AND RETAIN BIPOC TALENT IN THE RESEARCH AND INSIGHTS INDUSTRY I AGREE TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR MY ACTIONS AND/OR THE ACTIONS OF MY COMPANY BY SHOWING PROOF OF OUR EFFORTS TO UPHOLD, SUPPORT AND CONTRIBUTE TO NEW AND MEANINGFULLY IMPACTFUL DIVERSITY & INCLUSION TACTICS THAT POSITIVELY IMPACT AND CHANGE IN OUR INDUSTRY First Name Last Name Your Signature Clear Submit

The Talent Directory A TALENT DIRECTORY FOR BLACK & LATINX/HISPANIC RESEARCH & INSIGHTS PROFESSIONALS Insights in Color is partnering with Mimconnect to contribute to its growing Talent directory by ensuring that Black & Brown research professionals from across the industry are added to the list. Employers Job Seekers

INSIGHTS IN COLOR A DIVERSITY INITIATIVE FOR THE MARKET RESEARCH INDUSTRY Offering resources and insights to ensure a more inclusive future. Founded by a researcher, for other researchers. ABOUT US | OUR PILLARS | WHAT DRIVES US We’re Changing the Research & Insights Industry from the inside out. Market researchers and insights professionals have arguably been the brains behind some of history’s most iconic innovations, ads & marketing campaigns. Despite this, many outside of our industry are not aware that we exist or the roles we play within the advertising & branding worlds. This truth is even more evident in communities of color. There is a tension that exists between our industry, which continues to fail at inclusive recruitment and retention strategies, and the increasingly diverse audiences & consumers whose stories we are tasked with telling. When researchers, analysts and data scientists don’t reflect the audiences they investigate, pivotal nuances and cultural connections become lost, deprioritized, misunderstood and/or misrepresented. This cannot continue to be the case. OUR PURPOSE We are working to increase diversity in our field The insights industry is perpetually behind the shifting consumer landscape. There is a need to bring awareness to our field, to educate others on the work we do, to foster a community of connected researchers & insights professionals of color, and a need to create culturally representative teams with greater intention. IIC is hoping to be the catalyst to ignite some of this change. About Us ABOUT US WHO WE ARE A powerful collective of research practitioners who, in their spare time, serve as volunteers to create the necessary tools, resources and points of action to shift the industry from the inside out. Learn More WHAT WE’RE DOING: Challenging the outdated norms, standards and ways of working in the research and insights industry from the inside out to create a more equitable and inclusive environment built to support the unique needs of BIPOC research and insights professionals. See our Initiatives HOW WE’RE DOING IT We strive to create new tools and systems to help push our industry forward with the goal of building a more inclusive, diverse and representative field and ways of working, for research practitioners today and tomorrow. See our Pillars Our Pillars Pillars Anchor BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH RADICAL TRANSPARENCY A pillar dedicated to supporting current and future BIPOC market researchers by: Building a better, more connected functioning network & community of current, future and prospective BIPOC researchers and insights professionals Encouraging radical transparency from BIPOC researchers by empowering them to use their voice, and share their experiences Read More BRIDGING THE GAP BY DRIVING RELENTLESS AWARENESS A central IIC pillar, “Bridging the Gap” is rooted in cultivating awareness, generating interest and increasing appeal to future generations of BIPOC researchers in order to successfully gain and also retain new entrants. ​ We are pursuing this pillar with three task forces: 1. Education 2. Data is Beautiful 3. Careers & Partnerships ​ Read More INCITING ACTION THROUGH REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE A pillar implemented to disrupt and challenge antiquated practices & ways of working in the market research industry in order to provoke reflection and bring new solutions rooted in intentional inclusivity, anti-racism, equity & anti-bias. Read More

Log In Insights in Color Researcher Gallery Wall IIC Blog Posts Falling into Insights 2023 Tools & Resources Demystifying MRX IIC Lunch & Learns Contact Us

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