WHO WE ARE

IN TUNE WITH THE TRANSFORMATIVE SPARKS

With every research mission, I’m Research is moment-by-moment linked to a world that’s in perpetual change as we speak. In each undertaken endeavour we await, capture and adapt to the imminent future events in a seamless manner. We believe in research that is fast-tracked, purposefully aware and digitally connected with life goings-on. Due to the given active and open attention to the present, I’m Research captures the emerging trends from flashes to prospect breakthroughs. But most importantly, our research highlights understanding people as people, instead of only as consumers, shoppers or respondents. It is research designed to reflect UHTs, universal human truths and not USPs, unique selling propositions, as we believe the more things change, the more some stay the same.

In today’s overstimulated environment, the keys to leverage assets are clarity, transparency and insightfulness. I’m Research stands for all these, thus helping our partners differentiate and align to a higher purpose, be it an ideal or just a fundamental human value that impacts day-to-day life. Likewise, we ensure correctly timed actions and flexibility since both are crucial to enhance the achievement of a fulfilling business strategy.

I’m Research opens the gateway to growth as it uplifts businesses’ potential by getting into synchronised here-and-now relevant, powerful and unclaimed observations about categories, brands or retail with unaddressed hidden tensions of human existence.

Experience

EXPRESS NOT REPRESS EMOTIONS

After consumer research and shopper research now it’s time for experiential research. Experience leads to emotions and emotions play a crucial role in everything we do, inclusively in what we call “rationality”. Make no mistake: rationality is often just an “a posteriori” explanation and even a defence of our actions. As psychologist Daniel Kahneman says, “we think less than we think we think”. Much in life is about what we feel rather than what we think. Emotions are the ones that make us feel alive and represent a reliable indicator of how things are going on in our lives.

This is why I’m Research focus is on how to set up, capture and explore experiences in every research project. By doing this, we connect with what people cannot change or control: emotions. We aim to uncover feelings by digging at their roots and discover the underlying meaning: if it’s about love-based or fear-based emotions as all the rest are variations of these two basic types we all experience. I’m Research points out to the opportunities to express and not repress emotions and by connecting positive emotions with categories and brands, businesses are given the chance to generate an honest sense of fulfilment and satisfaction.

Interaction

PASSIONATELY IMPERFECT

Considering that consumers have left behind the ‘collective economy’ and currently are immersed in the ‘economy of experiences’, I’m Research keeps an active eye on the emergent stage that announces their transformations as people: the ‘social economy’. This is of utter importance since brands struggle with social because they aren’t human. That’s why even if brands would settle with a “lower share” of consumers’ affection they keep on staying in the ‘friend zone’. Humans are complex and messy and full of flaws. Plus, we are incredibly social and connection driven, being “wired”, while brands are unidimensional with their guidelines and “editorial voices”.

Therefore, by means of research missions carried out, I’m Research supports brands to find ways to engage in micro-interactions with people and fit within new ‘social economy’ landscape. This way brands are given the opportunity to become viral especially if having the bravery to show and recognize imperfections.

Soulful

WHY THE WHY?

If we look around, we see today more and more companies and brands that shift from “what” to “why” and this is more than just a fly-by-night trend. It’s a paradigm change as the “intangible & emotional” side of brands and companies gains higher relevance compared with “the tangible & rational” one. This reflects a modern marketing golden rule: consumers do not buy a product but buy the idea for what the brand stands for and how it reflects their own values.

@ I’m Research we address by the way projects are designed to follow the need of brands to pursue this soulful and in the same time meaningful direction. This allows the trade type of relationship between people and brands to transform into transactional ones that connect individual landmarks.

This way brands are given the chance to leave the tactical area and enter the wide-open strategy field and to claim in the future a moral authority on the new consumer, a prosumer.