Sponsor Impact report for example, by replacing the moderator with a bot during online research, adds Braune. However, in the case of the seldom heard, I think that would be largely counterproductive, as it removes the personal touch that is essential if this audience is to have a voice and be heard. In the case of people with serious health conditions, Brandspeak may approach relevant charities (Mind or Age UK, for example), associations and support groups, to enlist their help in recruiting members of the target audience. If these organisations regard the research as important and non-commercial, they are often keen to lend their support, particularly if there is likely to be an indirect benefit to the people they support. Fear of offence and Ali shared that she is the eldest, where she was born, and where she grew up in the UK. This was enough to establish trust and understanding, and for the participants to agree for her to visit them. Qualitative research is about building respect, trust and relationships, expands Ali. What many may call a challenge or barrier to recruitment is not that at all, but an opportunity to use our skills as experts in connecting with people and to find a different way. For far too long, research has been driven by a fixedmindset approach. Making participants fit into methodologies when, in fact, we should be creating approaches to fit around who we want to engage with. Its important to apply the growth mindset to the way in which we design and navigate our studies. Brandspeak managing director Jeremy Braune says that technology can be a barrier when recruitment requires a more personal approach in order to create trust and openness. In the case of certain groups, however, the prospect of taking part in an online interview or community, for example, can be particularly attractive if it provides the opportunity to contribute while remaining anonymous. Artificial intelligence [AI] provides the opportunity to anonymise the market research process further Kathryn Hall, director of True Insights, has a hidden disability. She says the insights sector has come a long way in the past few years, with a growing acceptance that hard to reach was a bit of a cop out and that such participants were simply underrepresented in research. Yet some agencies still lag behind the curve, and shy away from seldom-heard audiences through a fear of getting it wrong and embarrassing themselves or offending somebody because they use the wrong language. There are still a lot of small companies I know that will not touch it [seldom-heard groups] because they wont put themselves into what they consider a vulnerable situation, says Hall. They say they cant afford consultants. They dont realise that you dont have to spend a lot on consultants. You dont have to get them to write the whole thing. As well as considering the importance of intersectionality, and having somebody on your team who can identify with participants, Hall says its not expensive to have a consultant cast their eye over the language used. As well as her own network of contacts, Hall sometimes accesses relevant expertise through the Independent Consultants Group of insight professionals (the ICG). Steven Lacey, founder of The Outsiders, describes himself as an archetypal outsider, being workingclass, physically disabled and neurodiverse. Where researchers can go wrong, he says, is believing they possess the superpower of empathy to understand people with whom they have little in common. Lacey argues that there are more and more groups in the UK that we do not understand. The best approach when researching such audiences, he believes, is to treat it like an international project. With international, we dont make the same kind of judgements or have the same kind of biases. We 22 Impact ISSUE 44 2023_pp20-27_Report.indd 22 07/12/2023 14:52