Join Future List Honoree and Senior Consultant, Erik Fraser, a skilled researcher, who helps clients using knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research.

by Karen Lynch

Head of Content at Greenbook

Editor’s Note: The following interview features a 2024 Greenbook Future List honoree, Erik Fraser. 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 Erik Fraser, Senior Consultant at Narrative Research

Erik is a highly skilled market and competitive insights researcher, project manager, and consultant. Throughout his diverse career, Erik has consistently delivered results by helping clients in various industries find answers to their most challenging questions. With expertise in strategy development, project management, and both qualitative and quantitative research, Erik brings a wealth of experience to each engagement.

He is committed to staying current with the latest research technology and methodologies, ensuring clients benefit from new insights and compelling storytelling. Outside of his work at Narrative Research, Erik enjoys spending time outdoors with his family and dog, pursuing ceramics, and writing a weekly Customer Insights Newsletter that highlights the industry's latest developments.

What's a fun fact about yourself that would surprise people to know?

When I was living in the UK, I got involved in background acting to help pay the bills. I’ve taken part in a lot of theatre growing up and I thought it would be a fun way to earn some money while seeing how movies are made. If you are looking for me, you can find me running behind a tank driven by Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf in Fury, dancing in a nightclub with Ismelda Staunton in PRIDE, or reading a Spanish romance novel in a bomb shelter in London for The Imitation Game. Even working background in these films gives you a strong appreciation of the level of detail they require, right down the hair styling and costuming of a background actor in a rushing down some stairs in a 2-second cut scene. The biggest downside, however, was being asked to grow a mustache at a point in my life where I should have been asked to do the opposite.

How has market research changed since you first started your career?

Since I first joined the insights industry eight years ago, a lot has changed. The pandemic really forced researchers to reevaluate our approach while simultaneously nudging us to think what else is possible. While a lot of the technology itself is new, what has surprised me even more is the evolution of people’s openness to explore different ways of doing market research. First, surveys started moving online with broader functionality including the use of video open-ends and built-in advanced analytics. Clients were suddenly open to doing qualitative work online, starting with interviews and focus groups to broader only testing platforms or online qual at scale. Now the rapid adoption of ChatGPT and AI in the industry has led to more curious clients who are more-open to seeing what this new technology has to offer.

Tell us about any advocacy/volunteer/association work you're doing within the industry. What issues are you trying to solve? Why is this work critical for the industry?

I am a firm believer in making market research more accessible. Market industry professionals often assume that our skillset has little potential for helping the outside world, which is why I often try to encourage those in the industry I meet to explore ways to apply market research to things they are passionate about or their community. Market research should not only be accessible to multinational companies. At Narrative Research, we have undertaken pro-bono and discounted research activities that allow small businesses and non-profits to learn more about their clients. I have offered to run surveys for my kids’ daycare service and soccer leagues. In addition to giving research professionals a stronger sense of purpose by seeing the direct impact their skills can have in their community, it makes our industry seem more approachable and less self serving.

What challenges do you see facing newer MRX professionals as technology advances?

I think one of the biggest challenges facing MRX challenges is balancing our commitment to data privacy and security with our desire to leverage the incredible technology advancements that are becoming available. As researchers, it is our primary duty to protect our research participants who entrust us to collect, manage and use our data the way we said we would. Working with government clients as made me even more aware of the importance of understand what is being done with our data at rest and in transit as we seek to leverage new research tools. It is important to understand what data is being passed to these vendors, where they are storing data, for how long, and who is responsible for ensuring data policies are maintained and enforced. While I am worried that in the coming years that we will see some alarming examples emerge of misuse or mishandling of client data, I think there is opportunity now to ensure we are doing our due diligence to ensure participants continue to trust us with their voices.

market research innovation market research industry qualitative research quantitative research

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Karen Lynch

Head of Content at Greenbook

292 articles

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The views, opinions, data, and methodologies expressed above are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official policies, positions, or beliefs of Greenbook.