News

      As the adoption of the cloud continues to grow, we asked our Insight Exchange members how they plan to handle their legacy applications. See what they had to say! 

With the continued growth of Big Data in the Enterprise world, we asked our community of Senior IT executives how they are approaching Big Data within their organizations. Check out our latest infographic to see: Barriers to Big Data usage Current utilization of Big Data Current and future Big Data investments Big Data trends enterprises plan […]

We asked our community of Senior IT executives a series of questions about innovation in 2016:  How innovative is the Information Technology market in 2016? Which technology companies are leading the market in innovation? How innovative is your organization? Which of your organizational initiatives do you consider to be innovative? What are your organization’s goals for these […]

Learning about New Technology: Learning about new technology has become a pull-down medium as IT Executives are seeking information customized to their needs and organization. So how do CIOs find out about new technology? Where do they go to find what’s interesting to them? Illuminas asked their Insight Exchange IT Executives and the answers might […]

Illuminas Chairs BHBIA Members Exchange Dan Coffin, BHBIA Board & Head of Illuminas Health, and Guy Murray, BHBIA Board & Director, Market Research and Analytics, Operations and Compliance, MSD today chair the UK healthcare research body’s members exchange event, which this year focuses on engaging customers to enable market research to deliver actionable insights that […]

Illuminas launches new website… and we couldn’t be more excited! We now are featuring comprehensive research insight, information and tools that make your work – and your life – easier.   Our new website helps you navigate the complex process of identifying your ideal research partner by presenting you with information about our capabilities and experience […]

Thank you to all who attended our webinar ‘From Practioners to the C-Suite: Who really Influences B2B Purchases?’, Illuminas’ webinar will be available to view on our site for anyone wanting to learn more and you can always email us at [email protected] to find our more!

From Practitioners to the C-Suite: Who really Influences B2B Purchases? As presenters and exhibitor of this year’s 1st Quirk’s Event, Illuminas was proud to present, “From Practitioners to the C-Suite: Who really Influences B2B Purchases?”. We saw an amazing turnout and interest in this topic. Because of it’s success, Illuminas will be hosting a webinar […]

The Inaugural Quirk’s event launches February 23-24 in Brooklyn, NY and as founding member and an exhibitor, Illuminas will be presenting on the topic of B2B purchasing and decision making, Our presentation, ‘From Practitioners to the C-Suite: Who Really Influences B2B Purchases?’ will use data from the hundreds of qualitative and thousands of quantitative interviews […]

TV futures: The prospects for live TV viewed through the lens of Behavioral Economics Households with children have more choices than ever before when it comes to viewing  TV content. Given the changing landscape of media consumption, , the BBC partnered with Illuminas to conduct primary research that would offer them a greater understanding of […]

Illuminas will be presenting at this years Corporate Researcher’s Conference September 17-19 in Chicago, IL. Our presentation, “Infographics as A Research Function” will be on the importance of data visualization, and how researchers can harness the power of infographics as a research function. Join us in Chicago for this exciting presentation!

Illuminas at MRS Healthcare Research Summit The Market Research Society (MRS) is presenting a one-day Healthcare Research summit in London today tailored specifically to the healthcare industry, focused on discussing the challenges facing healthcare researchers in light of recent ongoing issues of trust, competence and management.  Conducting ethical and effective research that keeps the patient needs at the forefront is the primary […]

Menu-Based Conjoint: When There Are Just Too Many Choices An overview of the new methodology we’re showcasing at next month’s Corporate Researchers Conference in Dallas. Marketing research projects must inevitably strike a balance between scheduling, cost, and rigor.  The growth of DIY research and data-centric analytics continue to pressure agencies to deliver insights quickly, within […]

In less than three weeks, leaders from all facets of the research industry will come together to discuss one thing and one thing only:  online sample.  As the first event of it’s kind, the new SampleCon event being hosted by Federated Sample is a participant-driven conference bringing together creators, technologists and users of online sample […]

Infographic: Identifying & analyzing key drivers can provide answers to critical business questions By uncovering the current and hidden motivators behind market behaviors like purchase, satisfaction, preference, etc.  Our latest infographic describes the mechanics of Key Drivers Analysis and outlines the various ways you can benefit from the insight powered by this effective tool. (Click the […]

Industry observations and predictions from Illuminas UK Managing Director, Jonathan Fletcher, upon receiving the MRS Fellowship award. On June 11th Jonathan Fletcher, Group Managing Director at Illuminas, was awarded the prestigious MRS Fellowship at the Excellence Awards in London. The Fellowship, MRS’ highest reward, is given in recognition of dedication to the research profession and […]

As Patrick Comer recently stated on the Federated Sample blog, “Mobile is the second coming of online research.”  While we have already been through the transition of phone to web, now we are experiencing the next paradigm shift:  web to mobile web. We saw Patrick present at the CASRO Tech conference last year, during which time […]

Seasonal greeting cards are a well-established tradition of tidings and salutations. Typically, these pithy aphorisms do not generate a great deal of discussion and analysis. However, around the Illuminas offices, seemingly mundane topics can reveal a groundswell of unexpectedly strong opinions. The annual creation of our holiday greeting card elicited such a response. “Seasons Greetings” […]

 Illuminas welcomes Dan Coffin to its London office to lead a new global Healthcare practice.  Dan has 14 years’ global market research experience, as well as domestic UK expertise.  He formerly headed up Pharmaceuticals at Holden Pearmain, and was a Healthcare Director at Hall & Partners, Senior Executive at Isis Research, Marketing Executive at LifeScan […]

Illuminas has won the prestigious Commercial Context Award at the AURA annual awards 2012. AURA, the association of client side research and insight executives, named Illuminas as the winner at its annual conference on 27th June 2012. The commercial context award is given to an agency that “makes a habit of talking in terms of […]

Sophia Michael joins the London office as a senior research executive working on telecoms and financial accounts. Sophia graduated from the University of Warwick with a BA Hons. (1st) in Sociology and followed this up with an MSc (Distinction) in Social Research Methods at LSE. Prior to joining Illuminas Sophia worked as a research executive at […]

Victoria Maxey, an Associate Director at Illuminas’ London Office, became an MRS conference awards judge for the first time in 2012.  Victoria commented, ‘I was delighted to be asked to take part in the awards judging at this years MRS Conference and found it both motivating and exciting. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but really […]

Improve your understanding of consumer decision making with Menu Based Conjoint. Menu Based Conjoint (MBC) is a new conjoint method designed to take account of some of the more complex real life purchase decisions that consumers face today. Consumers nowadays often purchase goods and services using a mix and match approach; whether in the form […]

Illuminas has been running a research internship in its US offices for a number of years with great success and more recently, started a similar scheme in its London office. Find out the benefits for both the agency and the intern in the article in the link below; published on the Market Research Society website. […]

A paper written by Jonathan Fletcher from Illuminas London Office has won the MRS/BIG Business-to-Business Research Award at the MRS Research Awards 2011. The Award recognises outstanding research specifically in the area of business-to-business. To make the shortlist, entrants needed to demonstrate research quality and vision and its effectiveness and application to the business-to-business sector. […]

Jonathan Fletcher from Illuminas London Office will present a paper entitled ‘Culture-mapping: A framework for understanding international B2b decision-making’ The paper will present a framework for understanding decision-making in different business cultures. When UK B2b businesses expand into new overseas markets, they need to develop an understanding of local businesses rapidly and cost-effectively. There often […]

The credit crunch has led to a loss of confidence and trust with financial providers. There is a clear need to change communication long term to address new consumer needs. In times of anxiety consumers’ needs are heightened around service delivery as they seek signs of reassurance and trust from financial providers. In many financial […]

by Matthew Carr, Managing Director APAC, Illuminas Global The last time I wrote one of these articles we were just entering the business end of the GFC. Two years on and Hong Kong’s energy and pragmatism are undimmed – as illustrated by economic data. Numbers of unemployed are now back down to where they were […]

Illuminas recently conducted a study for Royal Bank of Scotland – Corporate and Institutional Banking division, to understand how UK Corporate businesses were responding to market changes as a result of the economic environment Over 300 interviews were conducted with business leaders from a range of organisations with an annual turnover in excess of £25m. […]

John Connaughton, CEO Illuminas presented a paper entitled ‘Global attitudes to Financial Services 2010′. The paper explores attitudes to financial services in the last 12 months across UK, USA and Asia. It discusses shifts in perception and behaviour over the last year and potential changes over the next 12 months. Specifically looking at the UK, […]

At Illuminas, we take pride in remaining a proven leader in testing and analyzing new research capabilities in the research industry.  As the industry has seen a shift in online panel sampling options, we set out to rigorously test and analyze these new options before we could trust their validity and recommend the online panels […]

In this paper the author outlines a new approach to enable manufacturers to identify the optimum range in store. With ever-increasing pressure to innovate and supermarket shelf-space at a premium the manufacturer’s dilemma is to optimise the range of varieties and formats and still improve the margin. Illuminas have developed a technique using conjoint analysis […]

Semiotics works by identifying links between deep emotional consumer needs and the signals used in branding, advertising and other media to convey them. It looks from the outside-in, exploring the context in which consumers operate, looking at the culture which influences consumers. In this way it can access insights which are not directly available to […]

Critics had a field day with the Conservative Party’s poster campaign featuring an airbrushed David Cameron “We can’t go on like this. I’ll cut the deficit. Not the NHS”. These ads, of course, were launched when the Conservatives held a significant poll lead and they seemed to do no favours to the Tories. Numerous doctored […]

Illuminas have won a year long contract with EDF Energy to monitor and measure electric vehicle and charging usage in London and the South East. EDF Energy in partnership with Mercedes Benz and the Technology Strategy Board are trialing electric vehicles with 60 residential customers in London and the South East in one of the […]

Many countries and cities around the globe have experienced growth and productivity as a result of information and communication technology (ICT), but many emerging markets have yet to fully realize technology adoption. The Cities Net Opportunities study was executed for Cisco to gain insights on internet use, as well as on current and future demand […]

Pete Maginn, Research Director, Head of Child & Youth will be presenting the results of an internal initiative “Who’s the Daddy?” at the annual Children: Seen & Heard conference organised by Research magazine. Now in its fourth year, this event showcases cutting-edge case studies, airs insightful opinion and hosts stimulating debate whilst demonstrating how to […]

Financial Service providers need to re-build trust as consumer confidence falls in the economy and financial institutions The latest consumer confidence survey from financial research experts, Illuminas confirms that falling consumer confidence has dented trust in financial service providers compared to 12 months ago. Illuminas conducted the research among 600 adult consumers in the UK in […]

A paper written by Jonathan Fletcher and Andrew Reynolds, from Illuminas London Office has scooped a prestigious award at the latest BIG Conference. The paper entitled ‘Can we justify the ROI of Market Research’ outlines how we should help clients more to calculate the ROI of their decisions in the context of commissioning Market Research. […]

In this paper the authors outline a new approach to measuring the value of research and identify the future conditions under which it might gain widespread acceptance. The paper discusses the issues that reveal this to be a complex area as well as offering a solution. The authors define the conditions required to measure the […]

Jonathan Fletcher, Managing Director, Illuminas, gave a presentation entitled ‘Risk, Recovery and Relativism – ten key business issues on the horizon and their likely impact on Market Research’. The presentation outlines the author’s views on a number of key business issues affecting the industry. Topics include: What sort of recession we can expect and how […]

John Connaughton, CEO Illuminas presented a paper entitled ‘The Hybrid Consumer – discretional spending priorities – An international perspective’. The paper outlines how consumers have changed their behaviour in a downturn across the UK, USA and China. A study was commissioned in all three countries in January 2009 and explored consumer attitudes to spending and saving, […]

Gordon Smith joins as Associate Director. Gordon brings over 10 years of consulting and research expertise. He offers experience across a broad range of sectors including IT, Telecoms and Financial Services. He joins from Anderson Lyall, strategic business consultants and has previously worked at Sweeney Pinedo and NOP Business. Claire Jones joins Illuminas as Research Manager. She […]

Jonathan Fletcher and Andrew Reynolds, from Illuminas London Office will present a paper entitled ‘Can we justify the ROI of Market Research’ at the BIG Annual Conference. The paper will outline how we should help our clients more to calculate the ROI of their decisions in the context of commissioning Market Research. The paper will expose the […]

Jo, Associate Director at Illuminas London office was part of the Pecha Kucha team that won the Market Research Society Award ‘Special Contribution to Conference’ at the Research Awards 2008 held in December. This involved each member of the team presenting 20 slides, each for 20 seconds, on the subject of…’And that’s why I love market research’. […]

The latest consumer trends research from the global research firm Illuminas has confirmed retailer concerns about declining US consumer spending, most likely as a result of the national and global economy, extraordinary stock market volatility and rising unemployment. The results suggest that retailers should be prepared for a more frugal holiday season, with almost half […]

John Connaughton, CEO Illuminas and Dave Riley, Nokia presented a paper entitled ‘The Green Shoots of Technology – Nokia’s Response to the demand for Eco-Friendly Brands’ at the recent ESOMAR Annual Congress The paper outlined the link between attitudes and behaviour towards environmental issues amongst consumers in 13 developed and developing countries, and compared results using a specially […]

The paper explores the role of research in organisations without a formal hierarchical structure; how new trends in business architecture and management are making new demands on internal research functions and calling forth a new generation of client side research leaders and practitioners. Download PDF 

The changing requirements of both clients-side and agency researchers are reflective of wider technical, economic and cultural trends impacting on the way businesses are organised. In particular, it has been argued that researchers need to develop a range of new skills in order be more effective in the future. In addition, numerous and more sophisticated […]

Jo-Ann, an Associate Director at Illuminas has been nominated following her assured performance at this year’s conference in London. She has been shortlisted for ‘Best Newcomer’ for her presentation at the Pecha Kucha session: And that’s why I love market research! The judges said ‘Jo-Ann’s high octane ‘Pecha Kucha’ presentation got this innovative session off to a cracking […]

Nick Bonney, Orange UK and Jonathan Fletcher, Illuminas, presented a paper entitled ‘Client 2.0: the client side researcher in a ‘flat world’ The paper explored the role of research in organisations without a formal hierarchical structure; how new trends in business architecture and management are making new demands on internal research functions and calling forth a […]

Internet enabled communications have long been regarded as the panacea for market research – providing access to hard to reach audiences in a timely and cost effective manner. But while technological advances in survey software have engendered much debate on the data production line, the market research industry has a duty to itself and its […]

The Internet promises to be a commonplace feature of conducting business in the near future. In a recent telephone study conducted by DVL Smith Ltd amongst a representative sample of UK small and medium sized businesses, over 2/3 of all businesses had internet access. The US based Boston Consulting Group predicts that by 2003 one […]

This paper examines the increasing use of usability studies to aid the development of new media products and services – predominantly websites – and looks at whether the growing distinction of usability as a discipline in itself is counter productive to today’s requirement to provide more holistic and integrated marketing research services.  Specifically we will […]

Lee Brumwell, Barclays Bank and John Connaughton, CEO, Illuminas will present a paper entitled ‘Developing the optimum customer proposition for Business Banking’. The paper will outline how skills in data mining and meta-analysis delivered a highly effective piece of research. Using customer and non-customer data from continuous and ad hoc research, as well as internal data […]

Nick Bonney, Orange UK and Jonathan Fletcher, Illuminas, will present a paper entitled Client 2.0: the client side researcher in a ‘flat world’. In this paper the authors will explore the way in which trends in business architecture and management are making new demands on internal research functions and calling forth a new generation of […]

Following China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation earlier this year, foreign banks were finally allowed to offer some local currency products and services in China. A number of UK and US institutions have already entered the retail market, but how does the Chinese banking consumer behave at present? And how does he or she […]

When Apple first announced the iPhone in January 2007, it was widely expected to be an industry-changing phenomenon. Illuminas New York decided to test that theory by tracking public response in the period leading up to and immediately following launch. We learned that the Apple brand itself and its reputation for innovative, intuitive design were […]

Nick Bonney, Orange UK and Jonathan Fletcher, Illuminas, presented a paper entitled ‘Designed with algebra; built with a slide rule; flown with a hammer! – a case study in the development and application of a mobile telecoms segmentation’. Download now

How important is brand in financial markets? Consumer product marketers have long realized the value of branding—the brand is why consumers pay more for Nike trainers than they do for a generic product. In the consumer world millions of pounds are spent each year to define and reinforce various brands in the consumers’ minds. Branding […]

Measuring brand performance and communication effectiveness in B2B markets Building a B2B brand Branding has been defined as naming a product or service so that it is distinct from its competitors. However it is never that simple. In the real marketplace a brand is more than a name; it is the emotions and intangibles that […]

Following China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation earlier this year, foreign banks were finally allowed to offer some local currency products and services in China. A number of UK institutions have already entered the retail market, but how does the Chinese banking consumer behave like at present? And how does he or she view […]

Illuminas study highlights uniqueness of social networking and how Brands need to fit into ‘’the community’’ The remarkable success of social networking has attracted a great deal of attention in the marketing industry. But why has social networking been so uniquely successful? A recent study conducted by Illuminas traces its popularity to its ability to […]

In this paper the authors share their experience of developing Orange’s European mobile consumer segmentation and applying it to the UK market. The process started in 2003 with a major study in Orange’s 6 main European markets. In 2006 the segmentation was fully operationalised in the UK and formed the basis of Orange UK’s highly […]

The remarkable success of social networking has attracted a great deal of attention in our industry. But why has social networking been so uniquely successful? A recent study conducted by Illuminas traces its popularity to its ability to replicate group behaviour. The qualitative study amongst regular users of networking sites aged 15 – 55 uncovered a variety of […]

How ‘A’ level students make decisions about universities to attend – Illuminas sheds light on how A level students make decisions about universities to attend. In work sponsored by the Universities Marketing Forum, Illuminas has tracked 6th form students over the last 18 months while they made their decision about going to university. “Illuminas sheds light on […]

Gavin Mulholland (director of Illuminas) and John Buckle (head of marketing research at Alliance & Leicester) debated at the MRS Field conference the implications of tight deadlines, the quest of cheaper research and the quality of online research. Link to full article >

Jonathan Fletcher, Group Creative Director at Illuminas has won the award for best written paper at the 2007 BIG conference.

| By Jonathan Fletcher Introduction One of the stereotypical images of a corporate buyer in the middle part of the last century was of a man who never had to buy his own booze at Christmas or pay for a round of golf in summer, because his suppliers catered to his personal needs as well […]

In May 2007 Jonathan Fletcher, Group Creative Director and Julian Kenway, Director, Child and Youth presented an exciting paper at the ESOMAR Consumer Insights Conference 2007 entitled ‘Marketing to the Inner child’. www.esomar.org Click here to see the paper

Download Paper Abstract Humans are a ‘neotenous’ species, retaining youthful traits well into adulthood. This paper explores the juvenile elements in adult motivation and behaviour, outlining the implications these have for consumer research and marketing. Consumer societies are becoming more immature; consumer decision-making in many situations resembles pre-adult patterns of thought. The paper concludes with a segmentation of […]

A number of staff from Illuminas decided a few days before Conference to cycle to Brighton, to re-enact the days of the London – Brighton cycle rides of past conferences, which were organised by the MRBA. On Wednesday 21st March, the day before Conference, the Illuminas cycle team, led by CEO John Connaughton set off […]

One in three Americans report that internet has changed the way they manage their health care. Illuminas has completed a research study sponsored by Cisco regarding how technology is being used in health management and the impact technology has had on health / healthcare management among US consumers. This research was conducted for the 2007 […]

Research Award Winners demonstrate ROI for Client With NPD for Fruity Smarties Redballoon, the child and youth research practice of Incepta Marketing Intelligence (now Illuminas) have scooped the prestigious prize of Best NPD Research at the Marketing Research Awards 2005. Using a novel approach to understanding children, the research revealed deep insights that informed strategic decisions, […]

The University of Manchester and DVL Smith (now Illuminas) have won the top award for ‘Market Research and Testing’ with their research programme conducted throughout the ‘Branding The University of Manchester’ campaign at the recent annual HEERA Marketing Awards Conference. This research programme resulted from the challenge to express a name, brand, character and visual […]

Halifax is the cream of the UK investment crop 2005. Halifax has been rated the UK’s most powerful investment brand in the inaugural Citigate Investment Brand Power League Table… Halifax has been rated the UK’s most powerful investment brand in the inaugural Citigate Investment Brand Power League Table. The high street giant was the surprise […]

Preparing the market research industry for the dream economy Jonathan Fletcher, Citigate DVL Smith“The unconscious depth messages of ads are never attacked by the literate, because of their incapacity to notice or discuss non-verbal forms of arrangement and meaning. They have not the art to argue with pictures”. (Marshall McLuhan)Introduction As products and services become […]

In this paper the authors will argue that much public sector intervention in the small business sector is based on a flawed understanding of how small businesses actually operate (May and McHugh, 1991). We argue that as a result of this misunderstanding SME policies and strategies are ‘blunt instruments’ destined to fail when applied to […]

 | By Jonathan Fletcher and Diana Goult Small is bountiful? The paper summarises the way in which research was used to support a Department of Environment (DoE) initiative to promote energy saving innovation amongst small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK high temperature sector (e.g. smelting, manufacturers of metal, heat treatment industries). See […]