Nigel Rahimpour on Immersion & Trust
Nigel Rahimpour is a strategist and Head of Investigative Strategy at Nonfiction Research. Previously he was Head of Strategy at Weber Shandwick Germany; Chief Strategy Officer at TBWA Germany; Global Planning Director at Saatchi and Grey in New York; and Planning Director at Leo Burnett in Chicago. He began his career as a war correspondent for Focus, Spiegel and Stern.
I start all these conversations with the same question, which I borrowed slash stole from a neighbor friend who’s an oral historian, and she uses it to help people tell their story. I borrowed it because it’s really, really beautiful, but it’s also big, so I kind of over-explain it the way that I am doing right now. So before I ask it, I want you to know that you’re in absolute control, and you can answer or even not answer any way that you want to.
Now, the biggest lead-up ever. The question is, where do you come from? And again, you’re in absolute control with how you choose to answer that.
Where do I come from?
I come from two great parents. A mother who happened to experience the worst in her life that can happen to a woman before she met my dad, and hard worker, diligent, extremely smart, and street smart. And a father, also hardworking, very street smart, and they were both very, very loving parents, very loving to me. They were incredibly tough on the outside, but with me, they were beautiful, they were wonderful, and I couldn’t have had better parents.
And I grew up in Germany, in Hamburg, and so I come from a mixed-race marriage, and it wasn’t always the easiest way to grow up, and I think it really always had the sense of I needed to belong. I wanted to belong because I didn’t belong, and I think that has shaped me really throughout my life because I feel like I’ve become pretty good at becoming a chameleon. Throughout my life, I’ve had no problem speaking with people from all different walks of life, be it working class, be it presidents, be it generals, be it intellectuals, just regular people, criminals, bad people.
I can adapt, and I think that has been important, really, for everything that I’ve been doing in my life. Professionally, I started off as a journalist. I wasn’t a trained journalist.
I started off, and I covered the wars in Yugoslavia, and obviously, when you do a job like that, you speak to anyone, from the president of a country like President Tudjman of Croatia to Borislav Herak, a war criminal who killed over 220 people, women, men, children, raped them, et cetera, so you develop a way. You need to be a chameleon in order to connect with people. You need to connect with people in order for them to connect with you, in order for them to tell you something.
If there’s no connection, nobody’s going to tell you anything, right? But I also used that in planning. After that, I went into strategy, and then I went into research, and this has helped me.
It has really helped me. I don’t know, so that was a long-winded way of answering your question.
That’s perfect. I’m curious about growing up in Hamburg. Can you tell me the story about what was it like to grow up in Hamburg, and what does it mean to be from Hamburg, if that’s how you feel?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Growing up in Hamburg was beautiful on the one hand. When I grew up there, there weren’t that many people yet with an immigration background, and so I grew up in a neighborhood that was very, very German. Everybody looked ethnically German, and it took me a few years to realize that I looked different, and it was interesting because then at some point, I was the closest to being different. I mean, look at me today.
I tell you a little story. When I was a kid, I had these big curls, big curly hair, and some people said, my God, you look like a Zorotti, and I was like, a Zorotti? What is a Zorotti?
Until I understood what a Zorotti was. A Zorotti was a character of a chocolate in Germany, blackface, African-looking, and, I mean, real, complete blackface, right? And they said, you look like the Zorotti, and then thinking about it over the years, I realized I was the closest that there was at that time in terms of immigration that could somewhat resemble somebody from Africa.
Yeah.
And even though I don’t look African really, right? But immigration was at such a low level from those countries, from African countries, North African countries, Africa, that people simply, I was the closest thing to it. And it was interesting because on the one hand, as I said, I always wanted to belong, but on the other hand, I always felt like I was different.
I didn’t belong. And that is hurtful. That is hurtful because it is your hometown.
I grew up there. It’s a port city. It’s a working-class city.
It has a lot of working class, right? Like every port city does, right? And it also has a lot of merchants, right?
It has a big merchant history because of the port, again. So you have wealth on the one hand. You have poverty on the other hand.
And they have a very strong accent there. And I had a strong accent from Hamburg. Apparently, I still have it.
When people speak with me, they are like, oh my God, yeah, you’re from there. And it’s funny. So I never lost it.
I do remember I was cast for a commercial as a child, and I didn’t get the role because my accent was too strong.
Your Hamburg accent.
My Hamburg accent was too strong.
But it’s a lovely city. It’s got the biggest red light district in Europe. So you’re growing up with pimps, with prostitutes, with, you know, drugs weren’t really that big yet.
I mean, heroin was around. And then I went to school by accident, literally. After fourth grade, elementary school, you have to choose. In Germany, you have to choose what school you go to.
And there are three levels. There is the Hauptschule, which goes up to ninth grade, and then you’re done. There is the Realschule, which goes up to tenth grade, and then you’re done.
And then there is the Gymnasium, which is, like, the best, right? Thirteen years, and then you’re done, and then you’re allowed to study. So that is the academic path.
I chose the academic path because of a friend of mine who followed his girlfriend, and I ended up by accident in the most prestigious school in Hamburg. You don’t have to pay for the school’s fare, but I started with Latin first, you know? Latin.
I had Latin for eight years, and I still read books about Rome and that sort of stuff. So, yeah, it’s interesting. I grew up as a soccer player, too.
I played soccer passionately, and I’m still doing it. But, for instance, at that school, when I came to that school, to give you an idea, people did not appreciate soccer. Actually, it was looked down upon.
We were not allowed to play soccer there. What people were playing there in their spare time was tennis, was hockey, and water sports, and I didn’t have access to that.
Amazing.
I know, right?
Think of a German city where soccer is not significant.
It was a people’s sport. It was a sport of the proletarians.
Do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up, young Nigel, in Hamburg? What did you want to be when you grew up?
That is interesting. The first thing I wanted to be was, you’re going to laugh, I wanted to be a police officer. And then later on, I wanted to be in the army, a soldier.
What do you remember about the police officer, or what was a police officer to you at that point?
A police officer had a great uniform, a great hat. And he had integrity. He was doing the right thing.
Ah, yes.
Yeah, he was doing the right thing. That’s what it was about.
That’s beautiful. So catch us up. Where are you now? What is the work that you do?
So what I do now is I work for Nonfiction, which is a research company. And we do market research. We do consumer research.
I love the job. It’s a very particular kind of research that we do. I very much enjoy it.
It’s very immersive research that we do. I mentioned that earlier, but I was a strategic planner for over 20 years. And I was one of those planners who actually didn’t like research, meaning I didn’t like the research reports that I would get, that I would see, the presentations by research companies.
Most of them bored me because they were not insightful. And so when I saw Nonfiction’s first report, which was about the secret financial lives of Americans, oh my God, I was inspired by it. I was like, this is what research is supposed to be like.
Can everyone just not do research like that? It was revealing. They went deep.
And I thought they were also really, really creative with a quant. And so I started a conversation. I knew these guys before.
I knew Gunny before. But then when he came out with that, I was really, really obviously excited about it. I tried to sell them here and there, introduce them, because I wanted my agencies to always work with them.
And then sooner than you know, we spoke one time, two times, three times. We tried three times to work together. It didn’t work out.
And then suddenly in ‘23, it was like, yeah, you ready? You ready? Yeah, now we can.
We all can. Let’s do it.
And I love your title, right? Do you have an amazing title?
I don’t know. I mean, I think it’s head of, what is it? Head of investigative research or something?
Investigative strategy.
Of investigative strategy. There you go. Thank you.
Sorry I put you on the spot. But yeah, I remember very well when that financial report, and I guess that was their first report, it landed amazing. It was also super inspiring. And I’ve talked to Gunny and Lindsay.
I’m just curious to hear you maybe talk a little bit more about the before and after, the state of research in your experience as a planner and what it is that makes Nonfiction so valuable and so unique.
Yeah, certainly. I feel like research as a planner, in the beginning, to be honest with you, it was good, you know?
In the 90s, early 2000s, I would be out there in the field. I would do my own research. There were budgets for it.
I was able to do all of that. It was appreciated. And then over the years, I feel like two things happened.
On the one hand, agencies became way too corporate, so things seemed weird for them. Like, why would you do that? For example, Gillette.
At some point, we wanted to understand masculinity, masculine success. The audience were millennials, Gen X, and at that time, all men, but centered a little bit more around that because we were losing those, especially millennials. And I had this idea, amongst other ideas, that I wanted to interview a priest about success, because people evaluate success in many ways, right?
But people who are dying, people who are close to death, right? They lay in their bed, and they can really tell you what a successful life looks like, what really matters, right? But it’s really hard for me as a planner to go there and say, hey, just tell me about this.
So therefore, the intermediary then is the priest, right? So let’s go interview a priest. And it was considered absurd.
Why would you do that? And I explained it, but our target are millennials. I’m like, well, what does a millennial know about success, really?
Shouldn’t we have a circumspective approach to research? Because at the end of the day, we are also talking to all men. So to make it a little shorter, in the beginning, planners were able to do great research themselves because there was a time, there were budgets for it.
But over time, obviously, the budgets went away. The environment became more and more corporate, also within agencies, to dare things, to dare research, to undertake research techniques that were out of the mainstream. And then fasting forward, it really got to the point where planners became really Google planners more, right?
They were really literally doing all their research on Google, not going out anymore and not even making calls anymore, not doing interviews anymore with people on the phone. I remember, it was 2016, I asked one of our interns to go out and do some man on the street interviews. And the young man spoke to one of our senior planners, and the senior planner came to me and he said, X is really uncomfortable.
I heard you’re asking X to go out on the street of Madison to ask people. I’m like, yeah. He’s scared. I’m like, well, you’re over 20 years old.
You have the two questions, but people are just not so used to it anymore. And so now Nonfiction is actually doing the research that planners actually are meant to be doing. Strategists are meant to be doing, which means go out there, go deep, hang out with a target, get to know the target, get to know their feelings and come back with insights.
And that’s it. Come back with insights. An insight is something that surprises you, that obviously moves the business forward as well, right?
And that’s what we do then, right? We go out there and we come back with stories, with experiences that you do not find in most market research reports, because few people go muddying with rednecks, right? Or sit next to patients when they receive news from their doctor, and so on and so forth.
And that’s what we do. And that’s what I really enjoy, to be honest with you.
Yeah, it’s amazing. Nonfiction is inspirational. There’s an analogy I can’t quite get out, but it’s something like a lighthouse: singular in its commitment to going the long mile to get that kind of research, at a moment when, as you’ve described, research has been in decline. I think I benefited from showing up in the early 90s. I love how you described advertising becoming too square to do its own research. I started at a brand consultancy, and we were researchers who did creative development, discovery and validation, because the planners couldn’t. It would have been inappropriate, in a way, for them to research their own work. Which is strange, you know what I mean? It was just one phase in this abandonment of research, the separation of research and planning.
So when would you say you first discovered that you could do this? You were a journalist for a while before you got into planning. So how did you discover planning and brand planning?
I had a friend who was in advertising in Germany, and he had two colleagues that were planners, and he always told me about the interesting conversations they were having at work. And I thought, my goodness, this sounds really interesting.
And I was at a point where, because of the type of journalism that I was doing, which was, I would say, war correspondent, right? At some point I didn’t want to be a war correspondent anymore. I can get into that later if you want.
So I was ready for something new, but it had to be something interesting. That sounded interesting. I read a little bit more about it.
There weren’t books about it yet, but there were articles about it. I read the articles. And I had studied business administration before. So I had a master’s in business administration, and then applied at an agency.
And I got the job as a planner, and I thought it was really interesting. I loved the agency environment back then, because what I loved so much about it was the intensity.
It was intense. First of all, almost everyone who was in the agency was an unconventional type, right? These were all people who didn’t want to work in banks, right?
Who didn’t want to work in an insurance company. They were rebels of some sort. So there was a lot of irreverence going on with everyone.
There was attitude, and I loved it. And then there was pressure, right?
There was pressure to win new business, to work hard, to work fast, to be diligent. And I loved that. Things were at stake, not like in a war, but in an agency environment. And so there was some form of positive stress.
Yeah.
And I really enjoyed it. And the planning that I did there, my first project was a quantitative analysis that I had to do myself. I had to do my own quant.
Which was hilarious. But yeah, that’s how I got into planning. And then I transitioned to the United States.
And I started at an agency called Weisswitten Stagliano back in the day. And then I moved on, and here I am now.
Yeah. Actually, you mentioned the stakes. What are the stakes when it comes to planning? The picture you painted of the intensity and the pressure and the irreverence and the need to get something done for brands. What makes it meaningful?
Well, I think what makes it meaningful is if you think about new business, for example, and the role of planning in new business. Obviously it is about winning the new business. That’s what it is.
So you have the pressure there already. But then you really have to put your best foot forward.
So let’s say if you’re supposed to develop a positioning, man, then it better be a positioning that is going to knock people off their seats. And so what is a positioning that knocks people off their seats? Right.
It has to have surprise. You have to feel it. You have to feel the thing.
You can see you can do great work with it. A creative sees it and he’s like, oh my God, I can see the world. I can see a new world.
I can see how this answers the business problem, the challenge. So it’s this whole puzzle that you need to solve. Here’s the business problem.
Right. That you need to solve. However, here’s the competition.
Here’s what they have all already done. So those are all the roads that you can’t go to. Here is what culture is really into right now.
Here’s what the consumers are into and here’s what they hate. And here is the product and here is the brand. And here’s the truth.
And you are pulling from all areas, looking at it. And then you’re hopefully coming up with something that is different. That is true to that brand.
That is as hell as motivating, compelling, driving as possible. And that is positioning. And that in itself is pressure.
That in itself is a challenge. And that in itself is fun. And then you have to look at it and say, is this actually going to solve the business problem?
Right. Does it have the potential to do that? Right.
So that is the beauty of it to me, coming up with that, doing the research in order to get there. Sometimes you do research.
Sometimes you don’t really. You read other people’s research, which is what I have done in strategy departments as well. Depending on what your capabilities are, what’s available.
Yeah.
What do you find clients are coming to you guys for? What kinds of problems do you think brands are facing today that maybe they weren’t in the past? What are they coming to Nonfiction for?
Let me tell you what they don’t come to Nonfiction for. They don’t come to Nonfiction to validate work.
To let’s say, we need to prove to our CEO that this is blah, blah, blah. No, they don’t come to us for that. They don’t come to us for focus groups.
They don’t come to us to tell us what to do and just have us execute. They usually come to us because they don’t know. They really don’t know.
And they want to know, and they need help. They need guidance. They have heard about us.
They know we work unconventionally. And what we do is, and Peter, we do whatever it takes.
We do whatever it takes to answer the research question. And all too often, people think like, okay, so yeah, we do have a plan and we share that plan. And yet we tell our clients that plan is subject to change.
Because along the way, we might have to pivot. We might throw in some research techniques that we didn’t even know exist, but now we’re coming up with them. We are developing them because the project is just going down that road.
And they’re coming to us from all different categories. Whether it’s healthcare, whether it’s food, whether it is technology or defense, everything.
Is there a good story, a Nonfiction story that demonstrates that case? I love what you just said. “We do whatever it takes” is magical. Is there a story you can tell that people would enjoy that gives them a glimpse into what Nonfiction does?
Oh, goodness. I can give you a couple of indications. We have a client, defense sector, needs to understand skilled tradespeople, needs to understand their culture, because they need to speak to them, right?
Well, we don’t know them either very well yet. So we need to get to know them, right? Well, apparently welders are skilled tradespeople.
So what I did was, I went to Chicago. I hooked up with these welders. I put on a welding mask.
I welded with them, learned welding, and embedded myself with them. And it is interesting, you hang out with these people, you look at their helmets, you look at all these little details of their fingers, their hands, how big they are, how dirty they are, what it says on their helmets. Like this one guy had a pipe fitting company, and his slogan was lay in the pipe till they are satisfied. And the company was called 69 Pipe Fitting or something.
But that is for humor. That is for humor, you know. And so we are really gathering everything.
Another project, this was for Mother actually, so I can talk about this. Mother was trying to understand what do 18 to 24-year-olds in flyover America find cool that people in the big coastal cities don’t know about, right? And at some point we understood that mudding was a big thing, like going on four by fours, going through a mud bog, and doing all of that.
So I went to South Carolina, and I went mudding in a mud bog, right? I was hanging out with people. I looked at their fashion.
I looked at what they talk about, what they look like, how they tick. You embed yourself with them. You listen to how they address one another, how they address their parents, how they address people that they don’t know, and all of that.
And then you realize, oh, my God, none of that is reflected in advertising, none of that at all, right? And you find out how they feel treated by people from the big coasts, right? I took all of this, and then I threw it into quant, and I got some surprising numbers, like 20% of them say people in the big coastal cities think that we are ancestors, that 60, you know, like, I don’t know.
They feel disrespected. They feel misrepresented by the media, by advertising. And there are real grievances there.
And their culture, their lifestyle is not reflected at all, you know? And that lifestyle is very, very different, right? You ask a kid there, hey, what do you do for fun, right?
They live in the countryside. And this kid says to you, we shoot Roman candles at one another. And you’re like, Roman candles?
Yeah, we do. And you hear that once again, and then I put that into quant. And what?
Then I see that 17% shoot Roman candles at one another. Now, is that a big number? No.
Is that a small number? No. It’s one out of five, right?
But compare that to the big cities, right? They simply don’t have these game halls where you go put on a suit and then play shooter games with one another. That’s what they do. Riding the scooters into Walmart, right, and doing shit like that.
It’s fun, you know. They make their own fun. And you realize how creative they are actually, right?
They’re incredibly innovative. And then when you look at where all the innovation money goes in America, it goes to the big coastal cities, to Boston, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin. But we are not seeing what’s right there in the middle.
We have millions of incredibly innovative people. I’ve seen people create their own Formula One cars there. It’s unbelievable. And that’s just in the countryside.
It’s so beautiful. And I love listening to you talk about this. Because it’s so distinct from, air quotes, research, the way it’s practiced conventionally and mostly. Who do you become when you’re doing that? What’s happening when you’re there that’s useful? How do you think about what you’re doing and what’s happening to you? And how do you bring it back?
That’s interesting that you say that because I have an answer for that. For instance, staying with that topic, when I came back from that trip, I came back to New York.
I spoke with my boss, Gunny, and he said, how are you feeling the day after or two days after? And I said, man, I’m back here, and I just all feel so, I’m looking at DeKalb Avenue, and everything feels so fake and so unreal and so pretentious, I said, so pretentious. And Gunny said, good, good.
That means he went deep. He went deep. And that’s what we do, right?
It changes you. You come back. It’s really hard leaving every time because I make friends with people.
I develop deep relationships with people. That is really the saddest thing for me, going on these trips, hanging out with people for a day, two, three, whatever it is, and we often have intense experiences, right? And then leaving all this behind. I’m bonding with people.
I’m there in Laredo. And I’m hanging out. So I’m investigating corridos, actually, corridos zumbados, which is a form of music.
And I’m hanging out with people, with musicians, with young people, with older people, with a bandito, right? The motorcycle gang, the banditos. And you have this incredible bonding experience, and you leave it all behind.
But you become part of them. You become part of them. And that’s really what matters, because when you become part of them, they feel normal.
They feel like they can let their guard down. And that’s what you want. And then, obviously, they only do that when they trust you.
And that’s the most important thing. And that’s what I learned as a journalist. In Bosnia, I interviewed people.
So Bosnia was a war where Bosnian Muslims, Croats, and Serbs were fighting one another. And I was on all three sides all the time, all the time. And I could get interviews with all three groups from anywhere, as I said, from the mass murderer to the president.
And the reason why I was able to do that was because I never burned anybody. I never, ever burned anybody. Never.
And they knew that. And so trust is really at the core of journalism. But trust is also really at the core of research as a researcher, because otherwise nothing happens.
They don’t open up to you.
Nigel, this has been amazing. We’re right at the end of time. And I’m wondering what to do with the last few minutes. You’ve been so articulate. I just love everything you just shared. And I feel like you’ve already answered the one question. I have this one question I always ask. It’s like, where’s the joy in it for you? And I feel like you’ve been saying this the whole time.
I love it. I love what I do.
I might invite you one more time. What do you love about the work? Where is the joy in it for you?
Oh, my God. The joy every time is in just talking with people, diving deep into their lives. That’s the joy.
Just diving into other people’s lives, walking in their shoes, feeling what they are feeling, seeing what they are seeing, and bringing that back. And often it is incredibly sad. Sometimes it is absolutely fun and joyful, and you are laughing your ass off with them.
I’ve recently had a father cry in front of me. But all of these are experiences, and they touch you deeply. So I think that’s what it is.
I do research. My job enables me to touch people deeply and to be touched deeply, and that fulfills me.
Yeah, it’s so beautiful. This is what I really appreciate about you and about Nonfiction, that it is so deeply human, and so obviously human all the way down. Not to bring the AI conversation into it, but maybe we were talking about this when we just saw each other, it is so rare. This is what research is meant to do. It is meant to be about people, being changed by people, and that is only really possible when you go out into the world and engage with it the way that you guys do.
So I really appreciate you accepting the invitation, and it’s just been a real joy listening to you talk about your work.
Peter, thank you so much for giving me the time. It’s a pleasure meeting you on stage, off stage, every time it is. Thank you so much for the privilege to be on your podcast. Hope to see you soon.
My name is Peter Spear
For more than 25 years, I have been helping teams communicate and innovate more effectively.
Through imaginative & ethnographic face-to-face research - which I call brand listening - I help teams see their customers in new ways.
I’d love to help you discover the deeper, more enduring forces that drive your customers.
Please, let’s find a time to get into a conversation.
THIS WEEKS CONVERSATION
My conversation this week was with Marc Hershon on Curiosity & Improvisation.
Marc Hershon is Director of Naming and Verbal Identity at Landor. Previously he was Creative Director at Lexicon Branding, where he worked on names including BlackBerry, Swiffer and Dasani; and an independent naming consultant. He co-authored *I Hate People!* (Little, Brown, 2009) with Jonathan Littman and wrote the Hallmark Channel film *Santa Jr.* (2002).
You’re currently a free subscriber to THAT BUSINESS OF MEANING.
EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE
Every week for six years, I have been sharing the 15 most wonder-full things I’ve found about who we are and what we do. You can now explore all 5k of these links in THE ARCHIVE.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT WORKING WITH US
It was an absolute pleasure working with Peter. He is professional, authentic, courteous, and kind. He is also an exceptionally skilled ethnographer! Peter's innate ability to be genuinely present and engaged with people helped us to gain insights into our current and potential consumers. Peter has a deep empathy for others that invites people to share real and meaningful feedback. His intuitive grasp of human behavior goes beyond surface-level observations, allowing him to uncover the underlying factors that drive consumer decisions. He also possesses an extraordinary ability to distill these complex motivations and mindsets into a simple and actionable framework. I highly recommend Peter to anyone looking to understand their consumers better and see where their brand fits with their consumers' needs.
Maude Manoukian, Chief Community Officer, The Forager Project
“Peter is a truly exceptional ethnographer. if you are looking for BREAKTHROUGH & DEEP CONSUMER UNDERSTANDING, not just the same ole same ole “consumers feel like a better mom when they.....”, then Peter is your man. He combines wicked intelligence with empathetic listening and a super power to get people to reflect and openly share......AND he links the consumer understanding with business insight. I will personally hire Peter for any project requiring deep consumer knowledge.”
Suzanne Sengelmann, Chief Growth Officer, Lundberg Family Farms
“Peter is scary good! The entire team was blown away by the depth of understanding of our domain he came to in just a couple of days. This is more so impressive given that we’re a deep tech product, catering to developers, founded by developers, and communicated very technically (to a fault), all the while being in the very new and dynamic blockchain space."
Andrej Bencic, Co-Founder & CEO, Tenderly
“Peter led us on a thoughtful and inspiring journey to develop The Palace Project brand for our new platform and initiative, highlighting libraries are Palaces for the People. We worked with Peter and his team over a 4 month period, and brought in a outside group of stakeholders to validate our path several times in the process. Peters leadership was steady, never wavering and always thoughtful. He was able to listen to multiple points of view, yet bring us all together on what key messages and impact we wanted for the field, which ultimately led to a great brand and logo. I would recommend him whole heartedly to lead your brand strategy.”
Michele Kimpton, Senior Global Director of The Palace Project
“It takes a special person to navigate and uncover true insights while conducting qualitative research in someone’s home and Peter was masterful at this. His sense of empathy and understated confidence allowed him to hold meaningful conversations with people while getting them to open up about their needs, desires, and behaviors. Peter was organized, very professional, and a pleasure to work with. Peter was masterful. I would work with him again in a heartbeat.”
Mitchell Murphy, VP Design & Founding Member, Leesa Sleep (at the time)
“I thoroughly enjoyed working with Peter. The first project Peter and I were engaged in was a fundamental piece of consumer work to confirm the relevance of an iconic brand positioning. It required to thoroughly understand the meaning of that positioning, its relevance to individuals as consumers but also to individuals as shoppers and then help the brand team codify the positioning and its implications on all the elements of the mix. Always putting the human truth first, Peter was able to help us to decipher hours and hours of interactions with consumers to help us structure a very strategic and fundamental piece of work.”
Philippe Harousseau, CMO GoGoSqueeZ at the time
MY THINKING
What is Brand Listening? I was invited to kick off the Concept Bureau series of Talks. I went for it, and talked about brand, myth and meaning.
“Art & Imagination in Online Qualitative Research”I collaborated with a performing arts group to adapt their digital experience into a research tool, and wrote about it for EPIC.
"The Question of Why"I wrote a short essay on why I never ask why, and what to ask instead.
MY CONVERSATION SERIES
Anthropologist Grant McCracken on Multiplicity & the Future of Culture
Inventor of the TrueMirror, John Walter on Eye Contact & Authenticity
Anthropologist, Kirsten Bell on The Anthropology & the Everyday
Brand Anthropologist, Richard Wise on The Empathy & the Power of Gossip
Namer, Anthony Shore on Linguistics & Names
Brand Mythologist, Ben Doepke on Brand & Archetypes
Brand Strategist, Zoe Scaman on Empathy & the Outsider
Brand Scientist, Ethan Decker on Brand Science & Symbols
Scholar, Jeffrey Kripal on The Humanities & The Impossible
Advisor & Teacher, Inaki Escudero on Mentors & Heroes
Founder of Synthetic Users, Hugo Alves on “Real & Synthetic Users
Philosopher & Professor, Stephen Asma on Monsters & Imagination
Researcher & Strategist, Farrah Bostic on Decisions & Change
Researchers & Analysts, Helen & Dave Edwards on AI & Complexity
Journalist Colleen Hagerty on Disasters & Listening
Founder, Noah Brier on Brand & AI
Strategist, Eliza Yvette Esquivel on Leadership & Protopia
Researcher, Gunny Scarfo on The Unknown & Unvalued
Digital Ethnographer, Alessia Clusini on People & Tribes
Mythologist, Joshua Michael Schrei on Myth & Meaning
Presentation Consultant, John Bowe on Rhetoric & Democracy
Reluctant Futurist Henry Coutinho-Mason on Optimism & Trends
Writer Joshua Tanzer on Headlines & Politics
Professor Joseph Ānanda Josephson Storm on “Myth & Metamodernism
Strategist Ed Cotton on Creativity & Chaos
Researcher Jakob Voldum on Design & Curiosity
Strategist Phil Adams on Strategy & Simplicity
Anthropologist Kate Sieck on Theory & Practice
Psychologist Michael Lipson on Astonishment & Surprise
Marketer Phil Barden on Science & Behavior
Researcher Sam Ladner PhD on Qual Data & Strategy
Theorist Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel on Culture & Struggle
Ethnographer Karen Faith on Love & Power
Researcher Lindsey Wehking on Truth & Feeling
Strategist Ben Dietz on Brand & Superformats
Urban Planner Mike Lydon on Change & the City
Legend Clotaire Rapaille on Quantum & Codes
Researcher Sam Peskin on Questions & Others
Civic Pioneer Peter MacLeod on Democracy & Deliberation
Civic Innovator Philip Lindsay on Crisis & Innovation
Strategist Christopher Owens on Teaching & Strategy
Evryman Lucas Krump on Men & Emotions
Strategist Lyubov Sachkova on Monogamy & Taboo
Strategist Eugene Healey on Chaos & Meaning
Researcher Maggie Garner on Listening & Culture
Namer Caitlin Barrett on on Names & Meaning
Pathfinder Jay Hasbrouck on Ethnography & Innovation
Linguist Michael Erard on Words & Ritual
Philip Lindsay on Democracy & Innovation
Reid Litman on Youth & Culture
Alkisti Stolp on Listening & Creativity
Strategist Beth Bentley on Risk & Culture
Spiritual Creative Director Eliot Aronow on Spirit & Genius
Strategist Jean-Louis Rawlence on Value & Attention
Strategist Zach Lamb on Meaning & Crisis
Professor Jason Ãnanda Josephson Storm on “Revolution & Happiness
Researcher Angie Meltsner on Patterns & Insights
Survey Designer Sam McNerney on Surveys & Story
Researcher Jesse Caeser on Connection & Insight
Strategist Carina Bhavnani on Power & Community
Writer Russell Davies on Words & Strategy
Researcher Niobe Way on Curiosity & Connection
Founder Chris Lindland on Creativity & Play
Strategist Michelle Mattar on Design & Identity
Writer Peter Trachtenberg on Art & New York City
Planner Martin Karaffa on Identity & Culture
Strategist Joe Burns on Creativity & Networks
Researcher George Nguyen on Youth & Access
Marketer Arielle Jackson on Tech & Positioning
Researcher Cyril Maury on AI & Place
Ethnographer Oliver Sweet on Confession & Surprise
Anthropologist Michael Powell on Listening & Anarchy
Strategist Natalie Black on Curiosity & Culture
Foresight Researcher Thomas Klaffke on Imagination & Reframing
Adam Talkington on Conversation & Interaction
Author Tara Isabella Burton on Language & Enchantment
Urban Planner Diana Lind on Cities & Trust
Author Andy Crysell on Meaning & Nightlife
Strategist Shannon Gallagher on Truth & Strategy
Utopian Elle Griffin on Imagination & Systems
Facilitator Linn Davis on Ownership & Empathy
Ethnographer Meg Kinney on Instinct & Emotion
Connector Sam Pressler on Place & Renewal
Anthropologist Philip McKenzie on Brooklyn & Discovery
Anthropologist Melissa Vogel PhD on Anthropology & Business
Creative Director Remi Carlioz on Luck & Contradiction
Anthropologist Grant McCracken on AI & Culture
Researcher Graham Booth on Research & Creative
Herdmeister Mark Earls on Herds & Change
Human Rights Activist Sam Gregory on Deepfakes & Human Rights
Urban Planners Tanu Kumar & Nepal Asatthawasi on Place & Wellbeing
Design Researcher Erika Hall on Fear & Ignorance
Musician Tess Posner on Creativity & Humanity
Strategist Chuck Welch on Outsiders & Bridges
Anthropologist Yuliya Grinberg PhD on Human & Machine
Strategist Darrel Rhea on Judgment & Coherence
Innovator Sam Ford on Place & Transformation
Strategist Katie Dreke on Humanity & Time
Anthropologist Lucy Neiland on Invisibility & Ethnography
Strategist Nazy Frakondeh on Identity & Antithesis
Copywriter Carissa Justice on Voice & Craft
Researcher Alexi Gunner on Signals & Culture
Anthropologist Katarina Graffman on People & Meaning
Cultural Analyst Matt Klein on Ambivalence & Mythology
Strategist Nick Liddell on Architecture & Anthropomorphism
Strategists Annie Auerback & Adam Chmielowski on Rifts & Futurelessness
Qualitative Data Scientist Indi Young on Listening & Cognition
Creative Director John Dutton on Utopia & Nowhere
Anthropologist Dr. Jonathan Taee on Rhizomes & Meaning
Bar Owner Nick Bodor on Strangers & Institutions
Data Scientist Igor Kuvychko PhD on Bateson & AI
Namer Nina Beckhardt on Systems & Words
Strategist Chris Danton on Building & Mattering
Insight Expert Amy Daroukakis on Difference & Signal
Fractional CMO Jelena Veselnović on Truth & Brokenness
Strategist Baiba Matisone on Translation & Community
Journalist Gideon Lichfield on Fairness & Storytelling
Researcher Ben Jenkins on Creativity & Play
Professor Jason Anânda Josephson Storm on Critique & Listening
Researcher Preeti Varma on Listening & Belonging
Michael Anton Dila on Conversation & Governance
Civic Organizer Richard Young on Place & Agency
Creative Mark DePace on Community & Creativity
Host Freddie Pikovsky on Hospitality & Work
Entrepreneur Reuben Steiger on Movements & Recovery
Strategist Mary Meehan on Values & Measurement
Strategist Paul Worthington on Organizations & Identity
Sociologist Josh Packard PhD on Listening & Faith
Is there someone you think would enjoy this?
© 2026 Peter Spear
Hudson, New York The Friendly City