U.S. Hispanic Holiday Shopping Trends

We polled members of MySoapBox to find out how people are giving and gifting this holiday season. This year we focused on Hispanics  – the fastest growing consumer segment in the U.S.

 

SoapBoxSample Announces Two Promotions Following Year-Long Hiring Initiative

Newly appointed Vice President and Senior Research Director Promoted from Within

After a year of strong growth resulting in major hiring initiatives throughout 2017, SoapBoxSample announced the promotion of two employees. Mike Chavarria has been promoted to Vice President of Business Development and Valerie Hanson has advanced to Senior Research Director. Both are effective immediately.

Mike has an extensive background in Market Research with over 10 years in the industry. In his role as Director of Business Development since 2014, he has distinguished himself as an expert in high touch research approaches, including Insight Communities, Mobile Research, and Digital Passive Metering.

Valerie was the first employee of SoapBoxSample’s Full Service department. She joined the company in 2014 following the acquisition of CickIQ. Valerie’s vast experience and in depth knowledge of client of key client’s business, has continued to result in year of year account growth.

Over the last year SoapBox has been on a hiring kick, and has increased the staff by 25% since January. Last month, SoapBox celebrated their 5-year anniversary.

Jacqueline Rosales, COO, commented, “SoapBoxSample’s staff expansion allows the company to focus on optimizing new products and services while continuing to provide high-quality, customized solutions for our clients. The addition of new talent, along with the incredible success rate of internal advancement and promotions has allowed us to build an amazing staff.”

Over the course of 2017, SoapBoxSample has been focused on adding enhancements to MySoapBox Meter, their Passive Metering technology. MySoapBox Meter tracks consumers’ step-by-step interactions as they move across the digital world. Clients can build a detailed roadmap of the path to purchase without disrupting the process.

In 2016, the SoapBoxSample and icanmakeitbetter (ICMIB) operations were integrated following the acquisition of ICMIB by SoapBox’s parent company ISA. With the addition of Insight Community platform capabilities, SoapBoxSample now offers an even more diverse portfolio of products.

ISA Marks 35 Years

Watching the next generation of ISA flourish has been fun. Many were born in the 1990’s, and soon we will have the first who were born in this century.

After 35 years at ISA, and almost 40 in market research, what keeps me motivated and looking to the future? Technologies that once seemed like science fiction are now an everyday occurrence. It’s not just the growth of the company and the expansion of our offerings that excites me, its seeing our clients and employees flourish.

When I began my career at Suburban Associates at the Bergen Mall in Paramus, NJ, everything was completed on paper. The company did not even have hand-held calculators! Tabulations were done with punch cards. Move ahead to 2017 — where paper and pencil are considered the dark ages and where ISA completes projects involving passive metering, insight communities, our own MySoapBox Mobile app, projects in Somalian, Urdu and Hmong and large complicated automotive clinics. Diversification is part of our business culture. Our offerings will continue to change and grow in response to dynamic changes in the industry.

We have amazing clients and employees. It would be great to acknowledge all of them by name, but that would take 25 pages. You know who you are. Several of our clients have been with us almost as long as I have. There are ten employees who have been with us for over 25 years and four of those for over 30. It has been a privilege to watch many of our employees meet their significant others here, (or while employed here) and have children. I met my wife, Taylor, at ISA.

Reflecting back on the 35 years of our growth and accomplishments, I am pleased with our ability to continue advancing our expertise in multicultural research. ISA has completed projects in 67 languages, to date, and has been awarded three Researcher of the Year Awards by the Asian American Advertising Federation. (The 3AF) Our four divisions, ISA, Q-insights, SoapBoxSample and icanmakeitbetter, all continue this tradition by offering their services in multiple languages.

Watching the next generation of ISA flourish has been fun. Many were born in the 1990’s, and soon we will have the first who were born in this century. Viewed through the lens of five different decades of being in market research, I feel very fortunate to be a part of this growth and change.

By my rough estimate, in 35 years we’ve conducted around $400 million dollars in research for our clients. That’s not a big number when you look at the entire industry but it’s significant to us.

None of our accomplishments were done in a vacuum. Alongside me were accomplished, supportive partners; Arnie Fishman, Dave Sackman, Tony Kretzmer, Michael Liebergall and Sy Lieberman. They need to be acknowledged as well. ISA would not have thrived without them.

It’s been a great ride and it’s not over yet! I can’t wait to see what our team has planned for tomorrow, next week, next year and into the future. With warmest regards and respect to all our friends, colleagues, current and former employees, thank you for allowing me to join you on this journey.

 

Michael Halberstam

Chairman, ISA

SoapBoxSample Adds Industry Specialist to Team

Anthony Bean Joins the Sales Team as Senior Account Executive

March 14, 2017, Los Angeles, CA – SoapBoxSample, part of the ISA family of companies, announced today an expansion of their sales division. Anthony Bean will join the team as a Senior Account Executive. In this role, he will manage client accounts and build relationships with key industry players to achieve aggressive sales goals for 2017.

Bean says: “I’m thrilled to be able to join the SoapBoxSample team. The company is well-regarded within the market research industry making some bold moves over the past few years to lead the way in new methods to solve client problems. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity to work with SoapBoxSample’s expansive portfolio of products and services to deliver world-class solutions to our clients.”

Anthony is a result-oriented team player with 12 years of experience under his belt. Most recently from Toluna, Bean’s background includes positions with Harris Interactive and J.D. Power and Associates. He has distinguished himself in the Market Research industry with his extensive expertise across automotive, financial, film industry sectors and his community solutions awareness.

Jacqueline Rosales, SoapBoxSample Chief of Operations, added “We require talent who can ask the tough questions of clients and really understand the core of their business to recommend the best approach and combination of methodologies. We are super excited for Anthony to join the team. With the changing landscape of research, our clients need forward-thinking thought partners and Anthony has had great success building relationships on this premise.”

SoapBoxSample’s continual staff expansion allows the company to focus on optimizing new products and services while continuing to provide high-quality, customized solutions for their clients. In 2016, the SoapBoxSample and icanmakeitbetter (ICMIB) operations were integrated following the acquisition of ICMIB by SoapBox’s parent company ISA. With the addition of insight community platform capabilities, SoapBoxSample now offers an even more diverse portfolio of products.

Last year SoapBoxSample added multiple new capabilities to its product lineup. MySoapBox Meter seamlessly collects behavioral data from PC, mobile and tablet devices, gathering a holistic view of a consumer’s path to purchase. SoapBoxSample also expanded their mobile missions’ features last year, by enhancing their mobile app MySoapBox Mobile. The app captures respondent’s digital journeys in real-time. Respondents can upload photos and videos securely through the app, to a cloud-based storage solution. MySoapBox TV stores respondent’s photos and videos, which clients can easily view, tag and edit.