Editor’s Note: The following interview features a GreenBook Future List honoree, Danielle Rissmeyer. The GreenBook Future List recognizes leadership, professional growth, personal integrity, passion, and excellence in the next generation of consumer insights and marketing professionals within the first 10 years of their careers.
Introducing Danielle Rissmeyer of The Logit Group/ Zamplia
Danielle Rissmeyer of The Logit Group/ Zamplia has been one of the youngest Presidents of the Insight Association Chapter in Greater New York (GNY) history. For many years she has served as a part of the GNY Chapter Board (now Central Atlantic) as a Volunteer, Secretary, President-Elect, President, and Past President. During her time volunteering in the GNY Chapter, she focused on establishing mentorships and connections between tenured researchers and those newly entering our industry.
Between 2016 and 2021, she was involved as programming chair and contributor for more than 40 networking and educational events for market industry professionals, focusing on skill sharing, connecting, and cross-promoting strengths from various disciplines to the MR community. In her most recent role at The Logit Group, she built on the trend of collaboration and mentorship by authoring the first of a quarterly edition of Industry Insiders’ Guide. The Guide highlights up-and-coming new technology and independent practitioners helping to push MR forward.
Outside of insights, what are your passions and interests?
Outside of work I love to cook. Monday through Thursday, after my work day is done, I love to cook a good meal. I like to make meals with fresh ingredients also that don’t take a ton of master skill. Famous for being my own version of Chop’t with my fridge and making something that looks gourmet but took me 40 mins. I love to make infusion foods and try new vegetables. One day I would love to do a cooking blog going through the alphabet representing different vegetables. I try to be representative of my food groups and try recipes from all different cultures.
It takes me a while to repeat recipes because I am always experimenting with different flavors. Whenever I travel, I make sure to make a pit stop at the local grocery store and bring back a spice, a cooking tool, or a unique delicacy to incorporate at home. I also love having a guest for dinner and having simple conversation. I am a social person and enjoy the art of storytelling over a meal. Nothing quite brings people together like the way food (and sometimes a glass of wine) does.
A home cooked meal for someone you care about is is the best expression of love. Listening to my family or friend come for dinner and hearing about what they are feeling or what their week is like over a warm meal is my favorite! I also love taking walks and exploring different small businesses in my neighborhood. Love to support locally, especially if its an off night from cooking, I love to try new restaurants.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned from market research?
The outcome may not be what you expect. Always prepare for the unexpected and always look at things from the perspective of multiple people. For example, in screening on surveys, sometimes feasibility drops from simple human perspective mistakes. If you are doing a study for example on a product and ask about buying habits but maybe the size of the product is much larger or much smaller than what people are accustomed to it may throw off the participant.
Know the cultural impacts of what you are asking and use local partners. Ask questions about the audience you are studying, the product and the cultural nuances. I did a study once where the client wanted to ask about mega size bottles of the product and usage but the norm for that geographic area was to buy mini bottles in a six pack weekly.
The buying habit and the size of the bottle was vastly different than the assumption. Another example if you are asking participants about how often they use an outdoor patio set but they are in an area, let’s say the Northeast where its chilly, for 4-5 months out of the year. If you asked how often it would be dependent on the season rather than thinking about the whole year. So, if it was summer, they may use it every day in that time period. Don’t assume, and always double check screeners to make sure you are thinking about it from another perspective. And always include “other” or “none of the above”!
What do you think the key characteristics or qualities of a leader are? How does this play into MRX?
The key characteristics are positivity, humility, and communication. Positivity creates a caring environment where people can feel comfortable where they work and want to come to work everyday. Sometimes that means positive reinforcement and encouragement when your team, coworkers, or reports do something out of the ordinary. Giving Kudos and a round of applause makes people feel good about themselves and the work they are doing. In a positive environment, it allows also for when negative things like conflict resolution to happen to not feel imitating.
Humor and having a friendliness allows for people willing to help, willing to share, and a trust amongst the team. Laughing literally relives stress and motivates people. Having empathy for inside and outside of the workplace goes along way as well. When it comes to your clients, vendors, or even internal coworkers when you are relatable it allows for projects and partnerships to go a long way. When it comes to humility, being a human manager will allow you to have a lot more respect at the workplace. We are all human and make mistakes and are not perfect.
Showing imperfection allows for relatability and breaks down barriers of fear. And communication goes along way, people learn differently. I am a big fan of verbally saying things out loud for the verbal learners, showing it in a ppt or doc for the visual learners, and saving it in a team file for those who may not be present. Allowing questions, and overly communicative information will go a long way in MRX and any professional setting.
What challenges do you see facing newer MRX professionals as technology advances?
I think for newer MRX professionals they will be entering a mainly remote world in the workplace and will need to encourage more connections within their own outreach. They will need to take extra care in fostering relationships with face to face events and video calls. They will also need to be adaptable and willing to be open to new technologies and change. They will need to identity what is something that can easily be automated and weigh in when the human interaction is necessary. Also they will need to keep up even more so with privacy standards because of so much data being collected and analyzed.
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