At The Future of Consumer Intelligence 2013, IIR’s Marc Dresner sat down with Beth Schneider, Director of Corporate Customer Market Insights at Intuit, to discuss the role traditional market research plays in a world of big data. 

At Intuit, Scheider and her team get a huge amount of behavioral data, what she calls the “what” data. This kind of data brings up so many questions such as “who?” And “why?” “I think that market research can really step in and answer that,” she explained. “Understanding why something is happening helps us make the right decision at our companies.”

Schneider advises fellow researchers to find out exactly what Big Data is available at their company.  In the past, a researcher’s role has been designing a qualitative or quantitative study for clients. But today, the first thing researchers should ask themselves is: What is the right data to be able to answer that question? Additionally, Schneider said you should really understand how that data is useful. Then, figure out how to pull it in to answer the business question so that are you aren’t just relying on a single source of information.

At Intuit, the researchers have been on the journey of combining Big Data with market research. In fact, the company combined its analytics with its market researchers into a community of customer intelligence with a goal to bring all of the data that is available together.

Schneider said, “I think if we are in the room at the same time in the beginning, I think it works beautifully.”

Check out the full interview below:

This spring, The Future of Consumer Intelligence 2014 will explore the emerging role of decision science and the convergence of knowledge points - insights, foresights, social science, marketing science and intelligence with technology as a central driving force and profound connector.

Right now, it's about connecting ideas to data to culture to the future of your business and this, is the real data revolution. This year represents the year of the multi-dimensional marketplace, and just as the market researcher's role evolves, so does our third annual event. FOCI is a gathering of the "consumer culture" collective exploring common ground across roles and industries for translating behavioral information into business opportunity.  We hope to see you there!

Join us at FOCI 2014 in May in Los Angeles! To register, click here: http://bit.ly/MupKSc

About the Author: Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist of the Marketing Division at IIR USA, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. Amanda is the Editor at Large for several of IIR’s blogs including Next Big Design, Customers 1st, and ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the technology industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.