MRMW NA 2019 Conference Series – Ludovic Depoortere - Haystack Research Consulting

Welcome to the MRMW NA 2019 Conference Series. Recorded live in Cincinnati, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Ludovic Depoortere, Founder and Executive Chairman of Haystack Research Consulting. Contact Ludovic Online: LinkedIn Haystack Research Consulting [00:00] Ludovic at Haystack.  This is one of my favorite presentations that I’ve ever seen in my entire career, by the way.  I can’t recommend it enough. He passed out chocolate to the entire audience and had us eat it based on different stimuli such as changing music.  And that chocolate actually wound up tasting different based on the music which impacted the mood of the listeners. So, it’s a really cool concept.  In his business, they focus on multi-sensory research, consultancy, implicit, emotive, contextual research. It’s basically how you can drive positive business and decisions that have good impact for customers, connecting their emotions to your deliverables.  I hope you find a lot of value in this episode. [00:50]   What we mainly do is we try to help companies innovate in sensory space.  So we support companies in innovating by using multiple senses, like combining fragrance with taste to have a great customer experience because that is what is today, more than, very important. [01:11]   Yeah, for sure.  So, you’re dealing with actual like physical products.   [01:15]   Yes, physical products, but we can also talk about an app development where you say, “OK, let’s focus at the design of the app.”  Make the design better, but, if possible, try to use other colors or use other senses like have a tactile property. Later on, when we can add virtual reality, maybe one day we will also be able to have a fragrance connected to that.   [01:38]   Oh, that’s interesting. [01:39] Help doing that type of thinking. [01:41] Have you actually done anything and played with around with VR, AR, anything along those lines? [01:45]    Absolutely.  We work for real estate and there we can check whether...  what is the fit between a specific fragrance and the type of atmosphere you want in your real estate project.   [01:57] Oh, that’s fascinating.     [01:59]   Like hotels are using that; co-working spaces also use that.  So, that’s how we apply that and we have VR equipment to project that environment.  Then we have capsules that we can have a fragrance in the room to match with that. [02:15] That’s super interesting.  Do you see that as a space that’s going to be expanding in the near future?   [02:21] Oh, yeah, absolutely.  Because it’s one of the big disadvantages of sensory research is that you have to rely on center location testing, and it’s very physical.  But more and more with digitized, we also try to bring that in. And I think VR is the perfect solution to that.