What'cha Drinkin'? with Kelley Styring
Editor's note: Automated speech-to-text transcription, edited lightly for clarity.
Joe Rydholm:
Hello everybody, and welcome to What’cha Drinkin’? I’m Quirk's Editor Joe Rydholm. What’cha Drinkin’? is our way to make social distancing a little less distant by chatting for a few minutes with people all across the marketing research industry. My guest today is Kelley Styring, principal of Insight Farm, a consumer strategy and market research consultancy based in Newburg, Oregon. First off, Kelly, we have to clarify, that's not a fake background.
Kelley Styring:
Not a fake background, no. So this is my family farm. We call it the Family Farm. This is a Pinot Noir vineyard in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and that's what I'm drinking. So I'm drinking some Mighty Fine Estate Pinot Noir.
Joe Rydholm:
Oh, nice. Very nice. I have a bent Paddle Golden IPA from the Bent Paddle Brewing Company just about two hours north of here in Duluth. I've been trying to support the local breweries they have, their tap rooms are closed because of COVID-19 and everything. So I've been trying to buy local. I kind of do that anyway, but I’ve been kind of trying to do it more lately.
We've worked together many times over the years on articles, and I've always, I've loved the deep dives that you take with consumers. And so, I was wondering, because the effects of COVID-19 are so psychological and so emotional on so many of us. Do you have any thoughts on what consumers will be like coming out of this?
Kelley Styring:
Well, such a great question. There are tons of people who would probably have more actual expertise because they're measuring, so there's a lot of monitors and measures, and I read all of them. I get all of them. I read my Mackenzie report. They're putting out two to three a day since they must be off the road too. So lots of incoming information.
My belief is twofold. One is, I think there, well, I guess overriding my twofold idea, I think there will be segments. And so I think there are people right now who when, so I'm still doing tons of interviewing all online right now. And so we pivoted fast from, I actually got stuck in Phoenix on March 10th when my client canceled the project while I was in line to get on an airplane to go to the next city. And so I came home and we quickly pivoted to online.
So a couple things are happening. One is I think there are people, for who it's a great relief to set it aside a few minutes and talk about something else for half an hour. I think it's a little hard in some ways to rely on current behaviors. And a lot of what we do is behavior based so we have to use projective techniques, so we have to put them in a different frame of mind.
Our current state right now, I think, we're a little bit bifurcated. I think we've got people who throw caution to the wind and aren't following any of the guidelines. And you see that on the news, and I think the majority of people are either taking precautions or just still not going out. I'm still talking to clients who are at home working, and sure, lots of restaurants are closed also just because it's not economically viable to run a restaurant at 50% capacity. I think that the notion that, if we build it, they will come is false as well. Just because we open doesn't mean people are going to come out. I think you're going to see segmentation but it's not going to be a normal curve. I think you're going to see a skew toward caution, and that's probably good for the health of the nation and of the people that we love.
Joe Rydholm:
Sure. Sure. And because I feel like, again, the psychological and emotional nature, do you think that something like qualitative will be maybe more popular because you really need to take a deep psychological dive with consumers rather than just asking them sort of surficial, did you buy this? Did you not buy this kind of thing?
Kelley Styring:
Yeah, I think it's always going to be a combination of both. It gives you the strongest answer. So I think of it a little bit like the way we see with our eyes in three dimensions. In order to see an object in three dimensions, you need both of your eyes to do that. So if you cover one eye, you have no true depth perception. So I think there are some notions in the marketplace that we're going to rely more heavily on quantitative, because qualitative will be changed in some way or riskier in some way. I think that is going to fall pretty quickly, and it'll still be this kind of combination of qual and quant, but qual might be more vital to explain the quant because we can't really rely on some of the simple comparisons that we've made in the past.
So we have to be careful how we design our studies, and most of my clients are integrating, I do quant as well. Most of my clients are integrating some kind of, usually either video interviewing live or popup videos that we capture and analyze on the backend. So a little bit of both.
To answer your question simply yes, I think we're going to see a ramp up in qual. I think it'll be calibrated with, or it'll be used to calibrate quant in a lot of cases. Sure. So we get that kind of 360, that kind of three dimensional view.
Joe Rydholm:
Sure, sure. Have you seen generally just, does your business level about the same? Did it drop off precipitously or are people still interested in finding out things?
Kelley Styring:
Yeah, it's such a great question. So as I mentioned, I had a project, the fieldwork was canceled while I was in line at the airport, but the project wasn't canceled, so the project pivoted and it was a really big project for me. So I wrapped that up. The first couple weeks I was at home, I was still interviewing, I think I did 40 online triads or something, like an insane number of interviews. And then it took a couple weeks to process that. And then lo and behold, another project turned on.
It wasn't the cadence that I normally have where I'm putting out a steady stream of proposals, but it was kind of, people putting their toe in the water and getting adjusted to what they could do and what they couldn't do. Sure, I had three or four projects put on hold indefinitely because of in-store research, maybe unless you're studying COVID-19 effects, maybe not the right time for it.
So I had some things delay that were better done in person. I proactively spent quite a bit of time pitching how we could actually do that online and I have a couple of teams considering that now. And then I've had a couple new projects come in the door that I just don't know would've even come my way because I'm so well known for qual. So I'm doing some executional work behind the scenes and some things to help technology teams do a better job.
And then the other source of business is synthesis of what people already know. So I did put together a pretty strong marketing campaign around that that says, this is a good time to harness what and then use some projective strategic grids that we can perform to say, okay if your product is of the old world and is not going to survive COVID-19, what are your options?
If your product has become more popular, what are your options? If it's popular now, but we think it'll wane, what are your options? And so doing some war games or role playing, I guess, of the outcomes to pressure test your strategy, this is a great time for that because you've got the time and having those options in front of you gives you some decision points in the future when you need them, rather than trying to figure it out on the fly when you need them. So it's kind of good to think about that stuff ahead of time.
Joe Rydholm:
Right.
Kelley Styring:
So let me see if I can answer your question simply. My business has declined in its previous state. New opportunities are opening up every day, and I'm working hard to create my own opportunities. I think that there's another principle that suggests, and I think I got this from an Insights Association webinar where a gentleman said, a crisis is an opportunity to demonstrate your values through your actions. And so the first few weeks, all I did was send out reassuring e-mails to my contacts, and I've been working at home for 17 years, a lot of people are learning to do that now. So here are five ways to do better, be more efficient at home, and sure, here are some tips for how to run excellent zoom meetings. So just trying to be supportive and then working hard to create opportunity where I can.
Joe Rydholm:
Sure. Well, I could probably talk to you forever, but I guess to wrap up, okay. Typically we have some questions that we ask people. And I think the one that I would love to ask you is what is a quirk of yours that not many people know about you?
Kelley Styring:
Yes. Oh gosh I feel like I've been on this earth long enough that there are so many but I think it's related to travel, and I do have kind of a funny story. So I am a big fan of forensic files and any kind of true crime stuff. I love figuring out the puzzle from the pieces that are there. And I think that's made me a little freaky when I travel, especially when I arrive in a hotel room that's empty. And so I lock the door, and then I look in every nook and cranny. I look in the shower, I push all the curtains against the wall and then I drop on all fours and look under the bed, and you will find some significantly gross things under there.
But one time I was in Louisville, Kentucky, and I had finished all the rest of my check and checking the windows. I don't want a room on the first floor. I'm very particular. I dropped all fours. I look under the bed and there is a face looking at me. And I, you know how when you can see lightning before you hear the thunder, like you have two different options, so I screamed bloody murder and crab walked across the room while my brain was processing the fact that it was my own face that I saw because the bed was on a box and the box was covered in a mirror.
Joe Rydholm:
Oh my gosh.
Kelley Styring:
And it just scared the Jesus out of me. So it hasn't stopped me. I still look in every nook and cranny of the room, and I think that's a little quirk that, I don't know if anybody finds that interesting or not, but it's a little weird.
Joe Rydholm:
Oh my gosh.
Kelley Styring:
Yeah. Oh, and nobody came to my rescue either, by the way. I screamed bloody murder and nothing happened except me realizing that it was my own face.
Joe Rydholm:
Right, right. Yeah.
Kelley Styring:
Thanks.
Joe Rydholm:
But probably better universe, better that nobody did come, because then you don't have to explain. Well, I just, I'm guessing I saw my face.
Kelley Styring:
Oh, I don't know who was screaming. I'm sorry.
Joe Rydholm:
Right. Exactly. It was the TV. I had the TV up really loud.
Kelley Styring:
Seriously.
Joe Rydholm:
Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you stay safe and healthy, and I hope we can meet and see each other again in person sometime before too long. Well, thanks again.
Kelley Styring:
Thank you. Cheers. Thanks. Thank you so much.
Joe Rydholm:
Yep. Yep. Cheers.
Kelley Styring:
Bye-Bye.
Joe Rydholm:
Bye.