For those who have been following, PinPoint has been taking the month of September to reflect on equal pay – September 18th being International Equal Pay Day.
These facts say it all.
$0.82 – the amount women earn for every dollar men make in America – US Government Accountability Office, 2022 20 years where that number hasn’t budged, despite more women graduating from college than men – Pew, 2023 Yet, only 14% of Russell 100 companies disclosed and adjusted women-to-men pay ratio in 2022 – Bloomberg, 2022
It’s time to do something about it – share your voice, empower one another, and fight for what you deserve.
Our PinPoint Team shares an unstoppable curiosity about why people make decisions. Involved decisions about household spending and less involved decisions about pumpkin spice fascinate us. By asking why, we see how long-standing ways of doing things impact all of us. We remain positively optimistic about the uniquely positive impacts we hear across our projects. We also remain sensibly grounded. We’ve seen how steely, entrenched processes produce unintended outcomes. Those outcomes get passed on to audiences left wondering whether their voices can be heard.
One of the entrenched processes we’ve set out to evolve is research recruitment. In your role, you’ve likely interacted with The Old Recruitment by default. Think back to the last research webinar or trend report that grabbed your attention. What excited you: the bottom-up breakdown of sample size or the top-level statistics? How did you incorporate both ‘main character’ data and footnoted demographics in your decisions?
We too believe in the value of quantitative insights. But the voices behind those demographic footnotes drive our commitment to equity-centered innovation. We prioritize the whole person – not the demographics – as the first touchpoint to knowing an audience. Doing so means we learn more than who is underserved. We learn whether we are even solving what that audience sees as the problem. We want fewer fine print footnotes about demographics and more bold footsteps into people’s worlds.
Our Evolved Invitation
Meet Research Voices, PinPoint’s approach to seeing people as individuals and amplifying their voices on their terms. The original meaning of “recruit” resonates with us: to strengthen, reinforce, repair by fresh supplies. In our recruitment reframe, swap out supplies for voices. Research Voices is a tangible solution that activates equity-centered innovation. We need companies to listen for underrepresented voices in their decision-making processes. Through equity-centered innovation, we listen with who else needs to be heard. Traditional recruitment is ill-suited with what equity-centered innovation values. Through Research Voices, we are “all ears”. Research Voices gets us to hear equitable perspectives and learn from voices that otherwise go unheard.
Think about Research Voices less as a static database and more as a dynamic dataset. Since PinPoint began, we’ve organized the voices we hear during our research into a tool that captures nuanced lifestyles. This allows us to invite people to purposeful research conversations, informed by how they see their authentic identities.
How Does Research Voices Work?
The reach of Research Voices comes in part from our digital intentionality. As consumers increasingly approach media use with mental wealth in mind, we also navigate the hyper-fractured internet with deliberate care. To invite people to engage with our Research Voices database, we blend:
1. Customized social and SEO scrubs: We scan for lifestyle patterns aligned with project goals, always aware of the nuance outside the Instagram box. We’ve recently heard parents explain how valuable recommendations from Facebook groups can be when it comes to selecting enrichment programs for their children.
2. Personalized email communication: We humanize our outreach to appeal to each person’s whole identity. A PinPoint team member crafts, sends, and responds to all messages. When we invite restaurant owner-operators, for example, we can’t expect an immediate response. Restaurant owners don’t have concentrated desk time. They operate front and back of the house!
3. Inviting screeners: Checking the box on demographics is second to enticing prompts that encourage people to think in new ways. We invite people to freestyle responses or engage in “this or that” statements. We build their responses into future conversations.
Why Does Research Voices Work?
That blend differentiates Research Voices from recruitment as usual. People trust us with their authentic voices because we first share our authentic PinPoint voice with them. Society’s widespread trust gap touches every swipe, post, and like. Research Voices addresses that gap and goes beyond one-off transactions. Through raffles, meaningful incentives, and recognizing lots of big small wins, Research Voices builds collective effervescence. There is overt appreciation to be celebrated when we connect around a shared purpose. As niche becomes norm, we see the Research Voices community as a unique touchpoint.
Establishing rapport during research isn’t novel. But, how might we create connections with unheard voices before research officially begins? And, how might we maintain that connection after a project finishes? It’s questions like those that drive us to evolve and expand Research Voices. Nothing is too precious for iteration.
If you feel some FOBO (fear of being obsolete) about traditional recruitment, let’s chat! We’d love to hear your voice.
