Mark Reed-Edwards: I'm Mark Reed Edwards. Welcome back to Confessions of a Marketer. Today, I'm joined by Tim Hoskins (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-hoskins-quester/) and Brett Townsend (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettrtownsend/) of Quester (https://www.quester.com), an insights and strategy company that specializes in human conversation. They've just released a new book called Insights on the Brink: Revitalizing the Market Research and Analytics Industry (https://www.amazon.com/Insights-Brink-Revitalizing-Research-Analytics/dp/B0DC5RD2KX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=17WW5SUWY9CCR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.MmrMQHBmOQBnW1heHgNoId0OefNIJzm_Xy5NbwQvQOE8l27uML5xepbvi4oyUxOkGY8BIJqoFlJzIsIeDiN3wOCZG8AQVtR98LS4HZQ32BJ6CBfgg8BFvV-A0jb9IHdykdd86IbYxMn16eRXxwrcBY-xEpgdGOl4M5tyHw26TB1RC2ztonh3e2ddOorwLbsz4i4MuFjad6FS5UtuPxjzDsKYypO7hzKvZk3QxSCcRmo.ooAdGxQz8yeF7zkmwIKL1fZdhUhuQoo-1jLqnF9PwNY&dib_tag=se&keywords=insights+on+the+brink&qid=1727387017&sprefix=insights+on+the+brink%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1). As someone who has worked in and around analysts and market research for a long time, it's a subject near and dear to me. Tim and Brett, it's great to have you here. Brett Townsend: Thanks, Mark. Mark Reed-Edwards: Can you share your backgrounds and how you both ended up at Questor? Tim, maybe we can start with you. Tim Hoskins: I came from the information security space and worked at a startup for several years and then made the jump over to quest or to lead their sales and marketing and about four years into the job, I was grateful to be promoted to president and then acquired the company in 2022. Mark Reed-Edwards: Brett? Brett Townsend: Yeah, I started my career on the agency side and then spent 15 years in corporate insights where I was a client of Quester's for 10 to 12 years, going back to my early days at PepsiCo and Tim and I became good friends over the years of being a client together and always kind of had this conversation, this ongoing conversation, about if I ever wanted to leave corporate, how it would be great to work together. And so we made that happen about two years ago. Mark Reed-Edwards: So, Brett, can you tell me, exactly what Quester does? Brett Townsend: Well, I think we both could definitely take this one, but we are a branding and innovation strategy consulting firm where we work with a number of clients on: How do they build their brands? How do they innovate, properly, more effectively? And we really focus on consumer narratives and what are those stories behind the research that are really driving decision making? And then we layer that in with a number of different things. So it's a very holistic consulting type of view where insights are the backbone of what we do, but we're not a full service agency, so to speak . Insights gives us the tools to help consult our clients on a number of different things, whether it's jobs to be done, demand space work or whatever. But at the heart of it all are these consumer narratives and really helping people tell better brand stories and, and create very meaningful, long lasting innovation. Mark Reed-Edwards: So has it been the dream come true that you thought, leaving corporate life and working at Quester? Brett Townsend: It really has been, you know, I mean, it's been fun to work together with Tim finally, after talking about it all these years and just being back on the agency side, after being on the corporate side for so long, I really have a lot of empathy for what our clients go through and what they face. And so it's really led to great, meaningful conversations where we're really able to help our clients in a way that's very beneficial to them. Mark Reed-Edwards: So Tim, I'd like to ask you about this book that just came out. What prompted you to write it? Tim Hoskins: Well, it all goes back to just a number of conversations that Brett and I had had through the years about the industry and the state of the industry and where it needs to go. And I've had the fortunate opportunity to be a co chair of the Insights Association's largest conference, the Corporate Researchers Conference. And one day I called Brett and I said, "Hey, you should be a keynote and take all of the things that you believe in your heart and that we've talked about and get up on stage in front of hundreds of people and just kind of have a drop the mic moment." And so that's where it started. And I think that Brett received a lot of accolades and feedback. And it was some of those attendees in the room who said, "you should put this into a book." And when he joined Questor, he started talking to me about it and I said, Why not? Let's do it. And about halfway through the writing process, Brett called me up and he said, "Hey, I'd love for us to write this together." And to not only bring together his client side experience, but also my agency experience. And so he wrote the first draft and we sat in a room for three straight days with a colleague of ours and we went back and forth and rewriting ...
