Cultural Dialogue
Andreas Honegger, Head of Market Research, DENNER
«BrainE4 surfaces what lies hidden in the depths of people's minds.»
DENNER is Switzerland's third-largest retailer by revenue. Its tills generate around 160 million receipts per year, and over 76% of all Swiss households shop at DENNER at least once a year. Market research is therefore central, and its head Andreas Honegger holds a key position. This time, however, DENNER wanted to survey its management team and chose a still little-known method to do so. The results vindicated the pioneers.
Mr. Honegger: As Head of Market Research at DENNER, you are at the heart of measuring the effectiveness of sponsorship campaigns. The Swiss national ice hockey team players wear the DENNER logo on their helmets, making it visible to the whole world. How do you measure the impact of such a campaign?
We collect classic funnel KPIs, measuring among other things awareness, activation, and the brand fit of the sponsorship within the population. We also measure the number and quality of contacts by communication channel and calculate, for example, an advertising equivalency value in CHF.
«BrainE4 consistently relies on user-generated content.»
On the subject of surveys: what is, for you, the fundamental difference between the way BrainE4 works and the traditional methods you use every day?
The crucial difference lies in a core function of market research: the so-called confirmation function. In classical market research, we almost always go into the field with a fixed hypothesis. Put simply: when it comes to questions about brand attribution, people can simply tick "Yes" or "No". We then check whether we have achieved the target figure we set – for example, an aided awareness of 95% among hockey fans.
«The multi-client live dashboard is very well done.»
And with BrainE4?
With BrainE4, the principle is different, because it consistently relies on user-generated content. Of course, the framing of the question still sets a space for thought. But participants are not locked into a predefined set of answers. They bring their own unfiltered views and solutions directly into the system. That is the advantage: alongside validating our own assumptions, completely new aspects, qualitative sweet spots and approaches suddenly come to light that we at management level had simply not had on our radar before. BrainE4 surfaces what lies hidden in the depths of people's minds – and does so with high efficiency in one seamless process.
Do you see any further differences?
A key characteristic of BrainE4 is its collective, almost dialogic nature. In this form of survey, participants communicate indirectly with one another by rating each other's answers and ideas in a gamified pair duel. With conventional quantitative market research methods, people interact strictly in isolation with the institute, and you as the analyst then have to distil the essence from thousands of individual voices.
How do you assess this collaborative approach in practice?
At the end of the day, we are harnessing the wisdom of the crowd – the collective intelligence of a group. Participants don't have to struggle through endless free-text fields or get bogged down in laborious debates. Instead, they rank the submitted ideas in direct comparison. Through this mathematical tournament system, the community filters out the most viable approaches entirely on its own. An organic dynamic emerges that is simply impossible with conventional questionnaires.
«This is a genuine, modern dialogue at eye level.»
DENNER recently used BrainE4 for a comprehensive internal survey of its entire management team.
The starting point was demanding: against the backdrop of subdued revenue development, the aim was to deeply analyse process weaknesses and cultural barriers, and to develop viable solutions.
What experiences did you have during this process, and how did the managers respond?
The response exceeded my expectations. We had an excellent participation rate of almost 75%. For a survey at management level on such sensitive topics over the Christmas period, that is a very good figure. When you engage with managers in a structurally challenging phase, you need a tool that feels fresh. The tool performed well in the field.
«Here we are harnessing the wisdom of the crowd – the collective intelligence of a group.»
How did participants react?
People quickly understood and embraced the system. They took a lot of time to evaluate the theses and contribute their own suggestions. It has a noticeable gamification quality that simply draws people in. You can see immediately: this is not an administrative box-ticking exercise, but a modern, eye-level dialogue.
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Were there any problems?
Not a problem, but a learning: the question design. We had eight questions in the field, which turned out to be too many because some topics overlapped in content. When you ask people to choose in a pair duel between very similar operational theses – such as "improve product availability" versus "stronger new promotional campaigns" – they struggle with the weighting, because in retail both are of course business-critical. My clear takeaway for next time is therefore: stick to just five or six questions, but make sure they are sharply distinct from one another in content. This reduces the time commitment for participants and sharpens the mathematical ranking.
«An organic dynamic emerges that is simply impossible with conventional questionnaires.»
As a professional, you followed the development of the data in the online cockpit in real time. What impression did this technological agility leave on you?
The multi-client live dashboard is very well done. I logged in repeatedly during the survey period to follow how the rankings were developing. Watching the collective opinion settle organically over the course of days is fascinating. The presentation of rankings and the filtering options are implemented intuitively and in a user-friendly way.
How was working with the BrainE4 team?
What impressed me most was the flexibility during live operations. During the survey, a user gave feedback that a particular comment function should be improved. The BrainE4 team took that input on board and updated the user interface live in the field within a single day. That is genuine agility. In terms of speed and customer proximity, BrainE4 operates at a comparatively very high level.
«BrainE4 is ideally suited to the strategic interim phase of large projects.»
DENNER is the third-largest retailer in Switzerland. Moving from the internal management team to millions of Swiss end consumers: where do you see the greatest potential for using BrainE4 as a strategic tool for customer research?
I see exciting and valuable areas of application that go far beyond the classic filling-in of wish lists. We regularly conduct surveys in our stores – for example by distributing cards with printed QR codes. If we run a small prize draw alongside it, we receive a very large number of responses in a short time. That is a tremendous data set. BrainE4 is ideally suited to the strategic interim phase of large projects, where you already have initial ideas but need to uncover the blind spots of your customers.
Which areas specifically?
Range design & own-brand innovation: When we evaluate new product lines or restructure existing own brands, we can let customers rate packaging designs or product range directions in direct duels. This immediately shows us where the real consensus lies and which products work at the point of sale.
Evaluation of new store concepts: Before investing millions in the refurbishment of hundreds of branches, new concepts are tested in pilot stores. With BrainE4, we can ask customers who have actually visited the test store specific questions about the store layout, wayfinding, or product placement and have them weigh these against each other.
Measuring service quality at the front line: We can ask customers directly which behaviours or services from our staff at the checkout have the greatest impact on a positive shopping experience.
That is a broad field you are mapping out.
«The tool performed very well in the field.»
Indeed: BrainE4 offers a compelling middle ground wherever the aim is to bridge the gap between large-scale, standardised quantitative market research and exploratory-qualitative approaches. To moderate this cleanly with tens of thousands of participants, a clear structure for removing duplicates is of course needed in the background – but the system is absolutely ready for that.
What is your final verdict on the collaboration?
My verdict is decidedly positive. The tool presents the results visually and to the point in the cockpit. The integrated management summary delivers an extremely deep text analysis. For the top management level, which needs to make fast decisions in the dynamic retail environment, I would recommend condensing the insights further.
Who would you recommend BrainE4 to?
I would definitely recommend BrainE4 to every company and every HR or marketing manager facing complex strategic decisions. It is a genuine tool for developing concrete recommendations for action. The only important thing is that management commits from the outset to engaging intensively with the results – because only then does the survey ultimately translate into successful implementation in practice.
Interview: thk
Online Dialogue:
8
open questions
237
digital interviews
74
%
participation rate
665
ideas and arguments
44,428
idea battles
Contact:
Andreas Honegger
Mail: Andreas.honegger@denner.ch
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