Alex Foss says good research starts with good questions
About this episode
In this episode, Alexander Foss discusses the importance of good research and starting with clear questions.
In this episode of How Brands Are Built, I talk with Alexander Foss about research—why it matters, what makes it valuable, and a few pitfalls to avoid. Alex and I first worked together at Interbrand , where he was on the strategy team before moving more deeply into research and insights. In our conversation, he explains what pulled him in that direction: the feeling of backing up recommendations with something stronger than a "finger in the air." We talk about the shift from agency work to client-side research, and how different it is when you're responsible not just for delivering against a brief, but for defining the business problem in the first place. A big theme throughout the episode is purpose. Alex makes the point repeatedly: research should start with a clear question. If you don't know why you're conducting a survey, for example—what decisions it's meant to inform—you probably shouldn't be doing it. We also dig into a naming research study I conducted last year—research on research—and the tensions it revealed between how namers and researchers think about the topic. Why are experienced namers often skeptical of quantitative testing? Which methodologies do namers and…
Topics covered
- research
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