Nearly every issue of Brand Experience magazine ends with a list of the brands earning the most buzz in social media. This editorial has quickly grown to be one of the most loved by our community, and The List is powered by data from the Nextatlas service, from research firm iCoolhunt.
In this issue, Luigi Garella, insights manager for Nextatlas and the man behind the numbers in The List, upped his game by providing analysis of the premium beverage market in the article, “Drinking in the Luxe Life,” which starts on page 40. Luigi and I also took some time to chat about what motivates him as a researcher. Peer behind the curtain with me to get to know the man behind the numbers.
What interests you about consumer marketing research, and how did you prepare for a career as a researcher?
What is fascinating is the variety! It gives me the possibility of delving deep into industry specific traits. To provide accurate and useful information, we have to first understand the underlying currents, the history and shoppers’ expectation. That means getting to know all that surrounds a brand, an industry and modern consumers’ attitudes. With a great team working on content, Elena Marinoni and Marina Camicado, and some very talented data scientists, we can provide humanly intelligible answers backed by robust data. Given such complexity how does one prepare? It takes love for the matter, knowledge of how different industries work, and passion for raw data with stories to tell.
What was your launching point for beginning the research for the luxury beverage article?
Having a tool such as Nextatlas gives the opportunity of having multiple contemporary starting points. Like our subscribers, I could roam many concepts and then juxtapose or combine my findings. Plus Nextatlas had data for each point I touched during my first research phase so filtering in and out becomes sort of a natural process. I started with general beverages, wine for example, and then combined results with other relevant concepts to answer questions such as, what is luxury nowadays? What do affluent consumers expect?
What surprised you during your research?
I was expecting health related products for sure, but the sheer variety of offerings and novel ideas were a true pleasure to discover. I especially liked the idea that a premium beverage may be directly tied to a culinary tradition or be a new take on how to source ingredients for a drink.
How did you incorporate Nextatlas and Nextventures’ unique capabilities into the article research and analysis?
Nextatlas helps in understanding the molecular composition of the object of our research by giving details on correlated topics, the demographic composition of the target, including that groups’ values, lifestyles and so on and so forth. Nextventures is a powerful tool that builds on Nextatlas to guide you into finding groundbreaking new brands and organizes their development on a timeline to keep track of their progression. We used both to follow step by step the evolution of the narrative outlined and inform it in detail.
What do you hope marketers will take away from your article?
First, that sincerity is key to having loyal and satisfied consumers: You want to be transparent and approachable. Second, cutting-edge technology can mix well with the idea of preserving nature and getting the best out of it, sustainably.