Global Presence for Your Global Brands

CarbonSix Frequently Visits:

Being based in Chicago, we go everywhere in North America. If a town is large enough to conduct research in, we’ve probably been there. Under the “Virtual” tab, you can see how we’re getting into the most untapped parts of North America for fresh and unexpected insights.

Meeting Regional Challenges:

Many market research companies simply mine the same doctors in the same cities in North America over and over – we constantly mix and match panels to draw fresh respondents from, even if it cuts into our margins.

It’s not always cost-effective to travel to small or mid-size markets for a day of research, so we’ve developed our ReFocus tool to reach deeper into untapped markets while saving your teams time, money and the wear and tear of travel.

Mature markets can mean jaded respondents – our moderators are skilled at probing beyond the pat answers to get at valuable insights below top-of-mind responses.

Partners & Affiliates:

Our headquarters in Chicago contain a full-service, complete focus group facility: Survey Center Focus. The world-class amenities and technology frequently elict raves from clients. One New Jersey-based global pharma manager mentioned he’d rather take a flight to our facility than take a train to any facility on the East Coast.

Sharing a building with our parent company LJS Strategic Research also allows us cross-pollination with some of the best market research minds in the retail, CPG, Legal and Financial sectors, letting us bring innovation in those categories to our healthcare market practice.

CarbonSix Frequently Visits:

We spend lots of time in the “big five” – Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. But to keep insights fresh, we also delve into less-mined areas like Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Meeting Regional Challenges:

Despite a unified EU, many countries still have complex individualized regulations and guidelines for conducting research. We know the ins and outs of these variations, and navigate them efficiently to provide cost-effective research in less time.

Outside of the UK, physician respondent pools tend to be small. We constantly monitor our sample partners to keep our qualitative data relevant and fresh.

Subtleties of governmental health care systems demand a high-level of knowledge. Our moderators and interpreters have the regional expertise to communicate these nuances into our resultant data.

Partners & Affiliates:

Unlike our “big-box” large-firm competitors, we hand pick the best facilities in every market – we’re not restricted to using a local office. We’ve spent years vetting our European partners and have developed very close working relationships with them. They are as smart, dedicated and creative as we are.

In global research, the insights are only as good as the translators. Our translators are outstanding. Quirk’s article “Lost in Translation” notes the the fine line between consistency/standardization and cultural relativity. We brief, our moderators watch some US interviews and then we brief again. When appropriate, we personally supervise on the ground. Unlike many firms, we don’t rely on moderator’s notes. We use their input to understand local nuances, but CarbonSix strategists do the analysis.

CarbonSix Frequently Visits:

You'll most often find us in China, Japan, and Korea.  But we've been all over, including: Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Australia to name a few.

Meeting Regional Challenges:

Each nation present varied obstacles. In China, corruption is still a problem in some areas.  In Japan, it’s timing. Typical U.S. scheduling timelines simply won’t work.  We navigate cultural norms and regulations on when, where and how you can talk to people we get research done in the most timely and economic way possible—while still getting great results..

Partners & Affiliates:

We use the best of the best on the ground—even if that company happens to be an affiliate of our competitor in the US.  If they’re the best in their market, we use them. We have a strong relationship with a trusted partner in China, allowing us to confidently stand behind our work even in the more emergent areas of that nation.

CarbonSix Frequently Visits:

Brazil, China, Mexico, India.

Meeting Regional Challenges:

In emerging economies, there is often a diminished market research infrastructure. There may be issues with corruption waylaying respondent incentives. Recruits can often be poor or mismanaged. CarbonSix is committed to stay hands-on and manage our research very closely.

Partners & Affiliates:

We find trusted partners in emergent markets, looking for small firms we can build a direct, personal relationship with. We know them as people, and constantly monitor to make sure our own level of service standard is being upheld. A former Chicago-based employee has even relocated permanently to start his own programming and data processing business in the Philippines, and is now a primary provider for us in the region.

CarbonSix Frequently Visits:

Virtual research can theoretically go anywhere, of course! However, the technology infrastructure requirements means most of our virtual interviewing takes place in the US and EU – but we’re adding new markets all the time.  

Meeting Regional Challenges:

Internet-based interviews are still not possible in emerging markets (Brazil, China) because of bandwidth or restrictions, and undesirable in some areas, such as Japan, for cultural reasons. We determine the best project fit for virtual interviews, and only use them when they add to learnings by expanding our geographic reach or respondent scope.

Without actual in-person face time, it can be tougher than usual to pick up on emotional cues or subtle speech patterns that might belie an answer. Our moderators have decades of experience in the art of human interaction, and get excellent results whether interviewing face-to-face or over a webcam.

Partners & Affiliates:

We’ve tried all the vendors, and tested just about every Virtual IDI platform there is. CarbonSix worked directly with a single source partner to develop own platform that we can use with any recruiting source.  We have tech support involved on every call, making sure the respondent is set up correctly, heading off any avoidable technical issues.