Insights Interview: Q&A with Laura Aguiar, Roche

We sat down with TMRE: The Market Research Event speaker Laura Aguiar who is also the Senior Leader of Pharmaceutical Research & Early Development at Roche, to discuss how the market research industry is being disrupted. Aguiar is responsible for Data Science Decision Support Services and well as project management of Data Science projects delivered to a diverse team of Scientists located across the globe [NA, Asia, Europe].

How has market research been disrupted? 

Aguiar: Democratization and paradigm shift in MR as consumers and professionals are providing actionable, continual, real-time feedback via social media, 'wisdom of the crowd’ and data via IOT - with the Google and FB effects in every facet of society, everyone is an MR participant, everyone is connected and everyone is communicating!

How has digital impacted market research? 

Aguiar: MR experts refocus on formulating the key questions and contextual framework - then the data scientists can provide the most relevant and actionable answers.

How can market researchers thrive in the “Trump Era”?  

Aguiar: Polls and predictive tools suffered from election prediction fails - MR needs to probe sentiment and answer the 'whys' and provide the relevant context to the data, and insure broad representation of research participants.

How are consumers shaping the future of market research?  

Aguiar: Consumers own the future of MR - social media and real-time continual feedback are the key drivers.  In Medicine, as Dr. Eric Topol has written,” the Patient will see you Now” and it's the same phenomenon in MR.

Where do you see market research moving in the next 5 years?   

Aguiar: Hard to predict which innovations and breakthroughs will change our world - but MR will need to be ahead of the curve and constantly revise methodologies to maintain relevancy.  The utilization of newly developed tools such as VR/AR will revolutionize the accuracy and prediction capabilities; IOT will be widespread and enable feedback that never has been available to researchers - again, experts will be still needed to ask the right questions and guide the data scientists/analysts.  Real-time feedback will result in instant changes in strategies.  In Medicine, the 'IBM Watson robot will see you now.' Progress will be dizzying!

How has technology helped or hindered market research?   

Aguiar: Technology has been essential for MR progress - but MR needs to always strive to out-smart the tech - or data analytics/polls will continue to fail in predictive capabilities

How is Gen Z impacting market research?  

Aguiar: These digital natives have been born holding a device and are constantly giving feedback and communicating w/each other- certainly don't use land-line phones to contact this generation - suggest involving Gen Z in MR planning early on and evolving methods to meet their needs! 

Want more on market research? Attend TMRE: The Market Research Event this fall in Orlando. With the most comprehensive agenda (120+ sessions!), it’s no wonder why over 1,100 MR & Insights executives from your industry unite each year to create research-led organizations and deliver the business value of insights. Learn more: https://goo.gl/38SGUz