Bio

In market and consumer research, it’s quality that matters most. As much as I’ve furthered best practices throughout my career, I know that quality data is the foundation of actionable insights. I am an advocate for quality research, but now more than ever, that is under threat. Quality research demands robust research with real people, not mechanical farms running upwards of 30 surveys simultaneously. Many new panels fail to verify identities, and the outcome cannot be accurate when one person pretends to be three, foreigners pretend to be Australians and bots pretend to be people! Overcoming this threat is a huge challenge but I care deeply about the integrity of research and its power to solve problems. When speaking at conferences and seminars, I champion better questions and better analysis because that’s what drives objective outcomes. I have explored this in several significant research papers over many years - notably nominated for a co-authored best paper at ESOMAR Congress, Barcelona, 2006 ''Attitudinal differences: Comparing people who belong to multiple vs. single panels.'' In 2009 and 2013, jointly awarded ‘best paper’ at the annual AMSRS Conference. With vast experiences across different areas of market and consumer research, I am most excited about ‘research on research’ – about actioning my learnings and leading a great team at QOR in the provision of the best quality online research. In today’s landscape, that means we do things differently. Our respondents have been built over many years. In the early days, this was by invitation only and through key partnerships with Australia Post and MYOB. We are always looking to stay ahead of bots, identify false actors or those undertaking fraudulent activity, and to ensure they are excluded from our surveys. We follow all guidelines and are quality assured under the Australian Market & Social Research Standard ISO 20252. In short, the research we design, collect, and analyse is vetted and verified, giving our insights credibility. Building high integrity online panels is what I’ve done since 1999, but it’s not the only way I’ve advocated for quality over the decades. I’ve also been in various key roles partnering with leaders in customer satisfaction (JD Power and Harris Interactive), online polling (Harris Poll), audience measurement (Media Metrix), social values (Yankelovich/DYG) in Australia, and corporate reputation (Reputation Institute/Reptrak). If we have crossed paths before, I’d welcome an invitation to connect. 📧 brian.fine@qor.com.au