Backing the future: Conversations with a trendsetter

'Until about five years ago, I would have said that nothing had really changed except speed. In the good old days, you would go door to door with pencil and paper questionnaires. Then the computer came, but it was still questions and answers. The computer just made things a little faster, a little more accurate,' he explains.

The real value add for Stan has only appeared very recently. 'In the last five years, suddenly we can get answers without asking any questions,' he says, referring to the information now available through social listening, call centres and consumer journey tracking. 'We can access information in places where people are talking about you, but not necessarily to you.'

The privileged conversations that used to take place at the bus stop, in living rooms or in the shops, are increasingly taking place online. 'They were never captured systematically before,' explains Stan. 'But now everything is being put down in writing. The opportunity lies in systematically mining and making sense out of them.'

And because of the way conversations are shared, Stan feels much of the information gathered tends to be more honest and consequently more valuable. 'Because they are in a more natural environment (as compared to being asked questions), the feedback you get is probably more reflective of what people think,' he says.