Rob Kitchen
Business Founder
Rob has spent almost 20 years in market research and communications, driving insight-led decisions for organisations including the BBC, Nestlé, Sky, Microsoft, Disney, Expedia, Child Poverty Action Group, and British Airways.
Before founding Boscombe Insights Advisory, he was Vice President at Edelman Intelligence, leading global thought leadership, brand and comms research programmes. He has also held senior roles at leading agencies specialising in mixed-method research, SaaS-enabled CX research, and behavioural techniques.
Working across a wide range of sectors, cultures and methodologies, Rob’s expertise spans quantitative, qualitative, hybrid, and advanced research techniques applied in both B2C and B2B settings. Rob has a vast international network of respected insight professionals and experts in specialist fields. This allows him to convene expert teams uniquely well-suited to either wide-ranging, or more niche insight needs.
In his spare time, Rob loves surfing, skiing and Tottenham Hotspur.
Case Studies
Challenge
A large FMCG business needed a fresh understanding of food-to-go meal deal consumers to keep its brands and new product development relevant in this fiercely competitive space.
Solution
We brought the client closer to the consumer via an online community. We then built on these insights with a market segmentation to quantify audience characteristics and under-served needs.
Impact
Bringing high potential segments to life during an insights workshop, we worked with the business to size revenue opportunities and develop strategies to help their brands win more share of wallet.
Challenge
We worked with a leading international provider of English language courses to help optimise their student recruitment campaigns in key Asian and European markets.
Solution
Dynamic survey design allowed us to evaluate a multitude of campaign design elements and creatives to identify the best combinations. Profiling and key driver analysis helped inform updated brand positioning and message prioritisation.
Impact
Our creative best practice playbook, developed from the research, helped our client combine globally effective brand and campaign guidelines with design elements that enhance appeal in each local market.
Challenge
One of the world’s top travel brands wanted to launch a SaaS customer experience-driven program that would enable it to address customer needs at speed, whenever and wherever they occurred.
Solution
Piloting and then rolling out a project of this magnitude required deep expertise to engage and work with stakeholders across the business. This included customer-facing, operational management, insight, and IT teams as well as agency-side tech experts.
Impact
New capability to address issues faster than ever via the CX closed loop platform. Generated a multitude of strategic and tactical actions with statistical analysis to determine which to prioritise at each customer touchpoint, and overall brand level.
Challenge
A global resource services business, needed to amplify its brand positioning as an organisation with its finger on the pulse of the changing world of work.
Solution
Senior expert consultations, thought provoking insight, engaging visuals, and white paper editorial were combined to create compelling, distinctive storytelling to cut through the increasingly crowded space occupied by this topic.
Impact
Study size and profile grew year-on-year attracting vast global webinar audiences and media coverage. Exceeding business expectations, this work cemented brand reputation as global go-to experts on workplace trends and advisory services.
Challenge
To help raise awareness of the dangers of drink driving, a leading insurance business wanted to explore the attitudes and behaviours of drivers in England, Scotland and Wales.
Solution
We devised an innovative approach that brought to life the stark contrasts between subjective judgement and reality when participants saw their own live breathalyzer test results mid-survey!
Impact
This study generated significant media coverage, bringing more attention to this important topic which now forms a key element of the UK Government Road Safety Strategy Review.
Challenge
One of the world’s leading online travel agents wanted to revitalise their customer experience programme. Goals included replacing rigid junior-led agency service with more senior, agile management and moving from rote reporting to actionable insights.
Solution
Partnering closely with the client-side CX team and utilising our senior research expertise, the research programme was redesigned and streamlined with vastly improved response volumes, quality and value of insights.
Impact
The success of the programme led to wider rollout across countries and subsidiary brands. Faster, more valuable insights helped the business make better decisions across more lines of business while substantially reducing research expenditure.
Challenge
With over one quarter of UK children in poverty, we helped a charity emphasise the plight of children and their families in or at risk of poverty.
Solution
This study surfaced wider, richer perspectives than before by encompassing parent and child perspectives. This included in-survey video to fully bring to light the real-life emotional and practical impacts of living in poverty.
Impact
Allowed the charity to show the human stories and impact of child poverty with greater cut-through and influence than had been possible before. This has proved invaluable in their lobbying efforts, and over a longer time-period than anticipated at the outset.
Challenge
In a fiercely competitive media marketplace, keeping a favourable, front-of-mind brand perception is vital to both consideration and customer retention.
Solution
Innovative techniques in emotional brand mapping and campaign evaluation built a deeper understanding of competitor positioning and relationships between brand health and campaign impact.
Impact
This combination of in-depth brand and campaign-level insights allowed us to provide a highly valued range of strategic and tactical insight-led guidance to brand and marketing client-side teams.