“Dr. Varan instills thoughtful understanding through clear articulation in public speaking and in writing… While being able to connect and effectively communicate with senior executives within the industry, Dr. Varan is able to maintain a collegiality with the academic research world and motivate his own research team.” – Daniel Bulgrin (MediaScience)

“Martin Renaud joined Mondelēz International (MDLZ) at a pivotal moment in the company’s young history, and since then, he has led the transformation of its marketing function into an insight-led, data-driven organization – harnessing its broad knowledge estate to invest in the right opportunities to maximize category & brand growth. The foundation of this transformation was putting consumer & shopper data at the heart of decision making for the commercial organization.” – Nick Graham (Mondelēz International)

Grounded in PepsiCo’s proprietary, always-on listening tool, the team was able to bring innovation closer to consumers than ever before. Known as the Attribute Engine, the in-house tool served as the first step in the discovery process, bringing confidence, clarity and focus to the entire innovation framework and uniquely positioning the Dew teams to respond in real-time with a breakthrough product. By curating online data sets through machine learning, the tool reveals signals and identifies trending flavors and ingredients that are relevant to what consumers want/need today, while also uncovering emerging trends that offer a clear, competitive advantage.

“…Steph…is a fierce advocate for our industry and the ARF’s amazing YP community. She’s a brilliant researcher and represents the future of primary market research leadership.” – Danny Gardner (GSK)

A  JAR Best Reviewer is selected by the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, John B. Ford, for making excellent contributions to the quality of peer-reviewed papers by providing in-depth, constructive  reviews in a consistently timely manner.

“A solid piece of research which can have significant effects on how targeting in TV is used.” — Peter Calius (Kantar)

“Makes a significant contribution to a growing body of evidence that the most effective advertising media campaigns aim not to maximize overall reach, which is the conventional view, but instead aim to hone in on current users who are not the heaviest users but middle to lighter users.” — Grame Hutton (Universal McCann)

“An excellent review and analysis … thorough empirical grounding for a topic that has long been debated/challenged, especially by CEOs.” — Mike Hess (Hess Consulting)

“This paper is interesting overall and nicely done.” — Colleen Kirk (New York Institute of Technology)