Insights Business Founder

Rob Kitchen

Business Founder

Rob is approaching two decades of experience in market research and communications. He has helped drive insight-led decision-making for organisations including the BBC, Nestlé, Sky, Microsoft, Disney, Expedia, Child Poverty Action Group, and British Airways.

Prior to founding Boscombe Insights Advisory, he was Vice President at Edelman Intelligence where he led a multitude of global thought leadership, brand and comms research programs. He has also held senior roles at leading agencies specialising in mixed-method research, SaaS-enabled CX research, and behavioural techniques.

Having worked across a wide range of sectors, cultures and methodologies, his expertise spans quantitative, qualitative, hybrid, and advanced research techniques applied in both B2C and B2B settings. Rob has a vast international network of highly respected insight professionals and experts in specialist fields. This allows him to convene expert teams uniquely well-suited to particularly wide-ranging and/or more niche insight needs as and when they arise.

  • “Rob is one of the most attentive and data driven researchers I have ever worked with. His dedication to solving client problems with tailored methodologies and evidence-based approach make him one of the strongest researchers out there.”

    - VP, Brand & Marketing

  • “Rob is a really committed and engaging researcher, with a fantastic attention to detail. He consistently delivers for his clients and builds strong, long lasting client relationships.”

    - Senior Research Team Director

  • “Thoughtful, committed and flexible. Rob is an asset to any insight program and he has a depth of experience few can match.”

    - Cultural Counsel, Strategy & Planning

Case Studies

Audience segmentation

Challenge

A largescale FMCG business needed a fresh understanding of food-to-go meal deal consumers to ensure its brands and new product development stayed relevant and successful 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 a multitude of strategies to help their brands win more share of wallet.

Campaign evaluation research

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 allows our client to combine globally effective brand and campaign guidelines with design elements that help maximise appeal in each local market.

Customer Experience Research

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.

Thought Leadership Research

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.

Hybrid research.

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 were shown their own 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.

Fast cost effective research

Challenge

One of the worlds leading online travel agents wanted to revitalise their customer experience program. Goals included replacing rigid junior-led agency service with more senior, agile management and moving from reporting to actionable insights.

Solution

Partnering closely with the client-side CX team and utilising our senior research expertise, the research program was redesigned and streamlined with vastly improved response volumes, quality and value of insights.

Impact

The success of the program 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.

Social Impact Research

Challenge

With over ¼ of UK children in poverty in 2024, helping a charity emphasise the plight of families in or at risk of poverty was a crucial societal priority.

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 emotion and impacts felt by those 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 term than was expected at the outset.

Brand Equity Research

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.