What'cha Drinkin'? with Melanie Courtright
Editor's note: Automated speech-to-text transcription, edited lightly for clarity.
Dan Quirk:
Hello, welcome to another edition of What’cha Drinkin’? I'm Dan Quirk, VP, Marketing for Quirk's Media. Today we're interviewing Melanie Courtright, the new CEO of the Insights Association. Well, hello, Melanie. How are you doing today?
Melanie Courtright:
Good, thank you. Hello. Thanks for talking with me today.
Dan Quirk:
Yeah, so what are you drinking?
Melanie Courtright:
I'm drinking a Batman. This is a Batman. I love this drink. I first learned about it at a place called Pluckers. It's a wings joint here in the south. It's an old southern mason jar drink. It's got a little bit of Curacao, some Grenadine, Tito’s vodka made here in Texas, in the great city of Austin. It's just one of those hot summer days, eating hot wings and drinking something a little bit sweet. And by the pool side it's called the Batman. I'll give you the recipe.
Dan Quirk:
That's great. Maybe we can add the recipe at the end of this video for those of you watching. And I'm drinking, interestingly enough, I also have just cranberry and Tito’s in a glass that I bought these I think it was 2001 in Italy at an ESOMAR conference that they had in Rome, so they are some of my favorite glasses.
Melanie Courtright:
Well, my glass is not as beautiful, but it's much larger so I have an advantage from the very large mason jar I have here.
Dan Quirk:
It kind of speaks to rural Texas, right? Yes. Anyway. Well, I wanted to interview you today to find out what you think is going on in the industry. You have sort of a bird's eye view of the industry especially in light of this pandemic.
Melanie Courtright:
Yeah, thank you. So I do, and every day is different for me right now. For those of you who don't know, I'm only about 120 days into my role with the Insights Association, but I am seeing all parts of it, and I'm loving that. What I can tell you is that there are parts of the industry that are growing and so they're doing well. They're expanding, they're hiring. Then there are parts of the industry that are really struggling and they're having to do furloughs and layoffs and they're worried about the viability. And you can imagine that falling out in obvious ways. But it's not quite that simple because the buyers oftentimes are from all the sectors. Even their quantitative research can suffer. And so, some parts are doing well, some parts are doing okay and some parts are really struggling.
What is amazing is that unlike normal competitive times, the industry's really pulling together and people who are doing well are over-investing in staff, in hiring, in advertising, where they can and they're trying very hard to do things like help people get jobs and releasing non-competes. And so, the industry's really coming together as a family and that's beautiful. But the industry is strained right now for sure. But it's beautiful to see us remember that we're a family and to come together and figure it all out together.
Dan Quirk:
And I mean, I'll give you my opinion, I think when this pandemic is over, there's going to be a new consumer out there. We're all going to be changed in some way. And so do you see that the industry actually is getting poised for huge growth, if we can make it through this?
Melanie Courtright:
I do. So we had an interesting conversation about this between Simon and Lisa and some of the people on our board, and Lisa Corte actually said, if we do this right, we can actually come out of it with something special and new and a new normal that can really fuel growth. And the key though is to not just think about where we are today, but to already start thinking about where the consumer's going to land on the other side of this, studying it, following it, learning from it and start to plan for that. There will be parts of our industry that will change probably forever on the other side. The reason they will change forever is because new ways of doing things will emerge and there will be new parts that emerge out of it. And so I think that we'll be bigger and stronger on the other side of it. For sure.
Dan Quirk:
That's sort of how I feel too. I think if we can get through this together if a pandemic teaches us anything, it's that now more than ever, data is so valuable. Not just the data but understanding the data and then being able to tell a story with that data. I think that's where the Insight Association can really help lead this industry.
Melanie Courtright:
Yeah, I did a LinkedIn post on that about if this particular pandemic has taught us anything, it's that uncertainty is apparent of fear not knowing what to do. Confusion is apparent of reactionary fear and there's been just a massive gap in what we need to know and what we actually know and really understanding the facts of how to respond and what to do. And so this pandemic has definitely taught us the importance of data.
Dan Quirk:
Yep. Yep. Well, I'm going to move on to the next question of our interview now, where I have a box with questions. I'm going to grab one out here. Random question for you is, how did you get into marketing research?
Melanie Courtright:
Well, that's fun. I fell into marketing research. I did not go to school to be a data scientist. I was actually in the U.S. Army and I studied languages. And so I speak Persian, Farsi, I also learned Spanish in high school growing up in Florida and in middle school as well. And then I did some Greek when I was in college. And so I've always been good with languages. After I left the military, I worked for Texas Instruments for a little while. And on the other side of that, I started doing translation work for a local research firm. I was translating open-ended comments out of Spanish and Farsi into English and then also doing translation work on their questionnaires. And I spent two years cleaning and coding verbatim comments and translating verbatim comments. And I loved it. I ended up kind of growing into all sorts of roles but it was my languages that got me into it.
Dan Quirk:
Interesting. I always say that there's nobody over the age of 40 who had planned to be a marketing researcher, that now though it is interesting. You're seeing programs in IT and online programs and majors in it, masters in it, which is a good thing. It's bringing professionalism to the industry.
Melanie Courtright:
It is.
Dan Quirk:
I do want to thank you so much for sitting down with us today. Enjoy your drink and we will talk soon. Thank you.
Melanie Courtright:
Cheers.
Dan Quirk:
Cheers. All righty. Bye.
The Batman: Large Mason Jar (32 oz) Grenadine: 1 shot Tito’s Vodka: 2 shots (or 1 shot Tito’s and 1 shot Well Gin) Light rum: 1 shot Blue Curacao: 1 shot Sprite: 2 shots Sweet and Sour: 5 shots Mix well. Fill Mason Jar with Ice. Pour over ice. Garnish with a fruit wedge, umbrella, or straw! Double or Triple the recipe to make a pitcher for a party. It will disappear!