Q&A with a corporate researcher

Editor’s note: Jason Alleger was awarded the 2021 Researcher of the Year, end-client, award and the 2021 Transforming Insight award. He was recognized for his achievements at the Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards Virtual Celebration. To learn more about the awards, visit quirksawards.com.

Jason Alleger

Senior Director, Consumer Insights, Traeger Grills

Traeger Grills went public earlier this year. Can you describe your role throughout the process? 

Helping take a company public is a career highlight, and there are many parts that require consumer insights and storytelling. All the work takes place under tight deadlines and scrutiny. I worked with our executive team, investors and banks to ensure we had the right data and story. You can see a lot the work in Traeger’s S-1 filing.

Just to name a few of the highlights – market sizing, competitive landscape, marketing strategy, customer retention, NPS, referral rates, etc. I had always wanted to publish a book, and after working on this I feel like I have helped publish things that will be seen by so many more people than my book ever would.

Here’s one story just for fun. Part of the process is an analyst day, where you’re effectively pitching the company to a bunch of analysts. You receive very specific instructions from your lawyers with what to say. In the Q&A the analysts asked some great questions, some of which we hadn’t received instructions for, and I still remember about dying as I fielded a particularly hard question on upgrades and pellet usage. I was expecting the lawyers to swarm in. Thankfully they didn’t. When we all went to New York to ring the bell it felt like my whole career had been leading up to this point. 

What is the most challenging part of working in the grill category? 

After spending time at General Mills where you have a world of data, coming to Traeger the grill category feels like a barren desert. The major grill retailers don’t report grill sales. There are not even many third-party reports! Working in consumer insights therefore requires a lot of primary research. I’ve been able to lead of number of large studies, with topics ranging from pricing, segmentation and fuels. Many of the studies are a mix of quantitative and qualitative research, which means I’ve spent countless hours with grill owners. 

One especially unique part about working for a disruptive brand like Traeger is that you’re constantly looking for unmet needs. My team and I have space to explore. Tesla, Netflix and Peloton are successful because they solve unmet needs. I love that Netflix has reinvented itself three times now – first DVDs, then streaming and now content production. I’m guessing most consumer insights professionals working in the sleepy grill category were working on minor improvements to existing products and love that Traeger’s consumer insights is focused on solving unmet needs and waking up the category.  

How does teaching as an adjunct professor impact your role as a consumer insight professional? 

It goes without saying that teaching at a university is intellectually stimulating and keeps you sharp. Let me focus on one thing I didn’t expect when I was asked to be an adjunct professor. 

I didn’t expect it to make me better at my day job. I thought it would be taking time/attention away, where in reality it keeps me grounded in core business principles. You simply cannot teach the 4 Ps of marketing without thinking about your business. You refresh your teaching material by looking at new case studies and research. You have students ask brilliant questions. All of this gives new light to problems you’re solving every day. 

What new tools/methodologies would you like to explore in the next year and why? 

I’ve got a short answer and a long answer. 

Short answer: we always look at new tools. I see AI growing in relevant ways, I’m really enjoying chat-based platforms, and feel that panel management will hit its stride next year. 

Long answer: Consumer insights should be focused on finding unmet needs, guiding strategy and building consumer empathy. When I think about next year I’m less interested in the shiny new tool and more interested in how I can scale our current tools to fit the needs of my business. 

In “Switch” there’s an example of a procurement manager trying to enact change. He just couldn’t with data and a presentation. So, he brought in 424 pairs of gloves and stacked them up on a conference room table. This sparked a productive conversation and change. 

I’d like to get the Traeger team away from their computers a little more and get them in people’s backyards, listening into customer service calls, being in retail and generally having those moments of discovery that are vital to an innovative company like Traeger.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read through this piece. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach to me at jason.alleger@byu.edu.

If you’re an end-client researcher and interested in participating in a Q&A with Quirk’s, please e-mail me at emilyk@quirks.com.