... was not only the motto of this year's German Marketing Day (DMT), but would also have been the appropriate headline for the event there on the topic of market research. Official title: "The new role of market research - why marketers should have us on their radar" - with Eva D. Bock (September), Jason Modemann (Mawave Marketing), Dr. Kai Hudetz (ECC NEXT) and Jens Krüger (Bonsai Research). The panel discussion was moderated by Prof. Marko Sarstedt (LMU Munich).

In a world that has become more complex, in the age of hyper-individualization, one of the most important tasks of market research is to understand the real motives of consumers and to actively advise companies on how to meet these needs. There was agreement on this at the DMT panel, to which almost 700 marketers traveled to Augsburg today. How to get there, however, was discussed quite controversially. Are AI-generated surveys to be treated with caution or are they state of the art? Jens Krüger, CEO of Bonsai, has a decided opinion on this: "As long as we know the risks and side effects, we can work effectively with it. As researchers, we need to analyze and evaluate the data - and not least validate it with qualitative research or behavioral data - so that companies can work with it in a meaningful way."

In general, Jens Krüger would like companies to have more courage to make real innovations. Not only because of the exciting research field, but above all because companies can find potential here that they have never seen before.

More about Innovation Journey, as we understand it at Bonsai , can be seen in the video - and in our webinar series on the topic, which starts on Friday: