Our Approach

We are a boutique qual agency with global agency resources behind us. This means we can do cutting edge qual when and where our clients want it - on a vast range of topics. We have the capability, resources and experience to deliver pretty much any qualitative methodology out there. 

For example, our full time dedicated ethnographer leads our high quality, ethnography offering. We have experts in semiotics, biometrics and discourse analysis. We have our own Retail Lab, next to our viewing studio. This allows us, among other things, to link the worlds of shopper research and pack evolution in new ways. We also use it for qual-quant communications development groups, where we observe initial press-button responses and move in with some guerrilla qual to nail the crucial issues. 

We have joined up programmes like the Shopper Suite of techniques and the Compass programme for innovation and concept development, which we can deliver internationally across the Ipsos network. Some of the team are also part of the Horizons unit, Ipsos MORI’s cross-specialism team that helps clients grapple with long-term future scenarios and trends. 

But we are not precious about methodologies. We are not in the ‘online camp’ or the ‘offline camp’ – we just choose the best way of solving a client’s problem: sometimes online, sometimes offline. For us co-creation is not a methodology - it is a reality, a philosophy of working with consumers and clients. The Hothouse adds value in analysis – interpreting what people mean, providing insights and explanation so clients can make the right business decisions.