Q-insights Welcomes In-Person Research with the Official Re-opening of Their Sherman Oaks Facility

After 16 months of closure due to pandemic safety, ISA’s Q-insights focus facility is now open for in-person interviews, focus groups, and product testing

ISA announced today that their Q-insights office is fully open for clients and respondents after more than a year of closure during the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to vaccine adoption and falling transmission rates in-person research is now safe. This means no more physical distancing, no capacity limits on businesses and relaxed mask guidance. The Q-insights facility, located in Sherman Oaks, CA will be a mask-free environment.

“We are thrilled to be getting back to in-person research,” said Jamie Quider, Vice President of Q-insights.  “During the pandemic, we were able to fulfill projects by tapping into our in-house online and telephone capabilities, and now being able to offer our clients the opportunity to see respondents’ live expressions is truly gratifying.”

Q-insights provides a unique combination of solutions to their clients and partners including in-person quantitative and qualitative research, specializing in car clinics, large recruits with hard-to-reach audiences, and multicultural recruiting and interviewing. They’ve served hundreds of brands across key industries and specialize in automotive, multicultural recruiting, and field management research. When face-to-face research was no longer an option during the pandemic, Q-insights was able to adapt their research methodologies to keep projects running smoothly.

 

The Q-insights office is located at 15060 Ventura Blvd #125, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403.

 

ISA Announces Speaker Lineup for April 29 Edibles Webinar

Industry experts from Undefined Inc, Wana Brands and dreamt will discuss the future of infused edibles

ISA and Vertosa announced today the speaker lineup for their upcoming webinar “Form, Function & Flavor: Edibles for 2021 and Beyond.” Dorian Morris, Founder and CEO of Undefined Inc., Mike Hennesy, Vice President of Innovation at Wana Brands and Carolina Vazquez Mitchell, MS, Chief Science Officer at dreamt will join the live event starting at 2 pm PST on April 29, 2021. This engagement is the second in a series of webinar events stemming from a strategic partnership between ISA and Vertosa, announced in November 2020.

“Our speaker lineup brings together a diverse group of powerful industry leaders, each with their own unique perspective and in-depth knowledge of both the edibles market, and the cannabis industry as a whole,” said Jacqueline Rosales, President of ISA. Jacqueline will moderate the event and lead the conversation about product development in the edibles market and how the products of the future will fit into consumers’ lives. The event is free and open to the public. Attendees can register here.

In 2021, we’ve seen an explosion in new edibles products that address specific needs – sleep, anxiety, creativity, energy, diet support and immune support. Innovative brands are embracing new delivery forms, flavors and functions to meet consumers’ evolving interests.

“With stress at an all-time high, accessibly priced, plant-based solutions are even more important now,” said Dorian Morris, Undefined Beauty Founder and CEO. Morris was recently featured in the Target Takeoff Beauty cohort, in which she discussed her new collection, focused on adaptogenic mushrooms for stressed skin.

MEET THE SPEAKERS
Dorian Morris

Founder and CEO of Undefined Inc. A true champion of inclusivity within wellness, Dorian Morris is a beauty junkie with deep expertise across categories from cosmetics to haircare to skincare to food/wellness. She is the Founder/CEO of Undefined Inc which includes Undefined Beauty, a clean, conscious, inclusive lifestyle brand focused on democratizing wellness and destigmatizing plant magic.

Adriana Hemans

Vice President of Demand at ISA, where she heads up the Cannabis Research Division. She helps cannabis brands build more customer-centric businesses through data and insights. Adriana’s work has been published in numerous industry publications including mg Magazine, Marijuana Venture, and The Cannigma. She has been invited to speak onstage at cannabis events across the country, including NECANN (Northeast Cannabis Business Conference) and the NCIA’s Annual Cannabis Business Conference.

Austin Stevenson

Chief Innovation Officer at cannabis and hemp infusion technology company Vertosa. Austin plays an integral role in the business development of Vertosa, facilitating partnerships with leading brands to produce top quality cannabinoid-infused beverages, topicals, edibles and more. Prior to joining Vertosa, Austin leveraged his bio-tech experience building the regulatory Hemp/CBD testing program for Eurofins – a world leader in food, environment, and product testing services – where he worked with CVS and Walgreens to test and verify the quality of their retail CBD topicals. Austin and the Vertosa team are also committed to community action and industry leadership. He serves as a Member on the City of Oakland’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission, for which he supports the licensing of equity partners and works to break down financial barriers to entering the industry by championing grant funding. He is also an Advisory Board Member on EAZE’s Momentum Program, a business accelerator designed to support and empower underrepresented founders in the licensed cannabis industry, as well as a founding board member of the Cannabis Beverage Association.

Mike Hennesy

Vice President of Innovation at Wana Brands where he oversees their research and development program, new product design, educational training content and growing partnerships with new cannabis technologies. Hennesy led the team in creating Wana’s new Quick line of gummies and tinctures that use innovative encapsulation techniques to increase the bioavailability of cannabinoids that bypass liver metabolism and take effect quickly. He developed Wana’s online interactive training program for budtenders and employees that covers the science of the endocannabinoid system and directed the development of Wana’s vape line, including the line’s unique proprietary terpene blends.

Carolina Vazquez Mitchell, MS

Founder and Chief Science Officer at dreamt. A gifted academic with deep experience in the developing regulatory standards of the cannabis industry. Carolina’s areas of specialty include organic chemistry and biochemistry research, laboratory testing and laboratory practices, quality assurance, and R&D for cannabis products, pharmaceuticals, foods, and beverages. She has more than 10 years’ experience with organic synthesis and extractions and has extracted DNA, RNA, proteins, terpenes, and other pharmacologically active molecules. Carolina is a nationally recognized cannabis scientist, and has been a featured expert in Rolling Stone, HelloGiggles, mg and Forbes, and was named one of Dope Magazine’s “Outstanding Women in Cannabis.”

ABOUT VERTOSA

Vertosa creates industry-leading active ingredients for infused product makers. Their catalog of patented and patent-pending nano-emulsions are carefully designed  for the specific needs of each customer, with pre-suspended aqueous solutions that create incredibly homogeneous and stable products while maximizing bioavailability, clarity, and taste. Vertosa works closely with their lab partners and clients of all sizes throughout the manufacturing process to achieve target potency and successfully bring consistent, reliable, quality infused products to market.  Learn more about Vertosa at vertosa.com.

ABOUT WANA BRANDS

Wana Brands is the No. 1 edibles brand in North America. Wana leads the industry in quality, consistency and potency, providing a range of different options that enable customers to create the specific cannabis experience they want. Wana products offer diverse product forms, four different CBD/THC ratios as well as a variety of different dosages, onset times and duration of effects. The portfolio is designed so products can be used singly or in combination to address specific health, wellness, and recreational needs. Wana products are available in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Arizona, Oregon, and Oklahoma dispensaries, with Massachusetts among the states imminently coming online. Wana Brands is available internationally in Canada. For more information or to subscribe to Wana’s e-newsletter, visit www.wanabrands.com.

ABOUT UNDEFINED INC

Undefined is clean, conscious, inclusive plant magic. We live at the intersection of wellness meets adaptogens (like beautiful CBD) meets purpose-driven conscious capitalism. My mission is to “undefine” and democratize beauty and destigmatize plant-based solutions through an unapologetic, uncompromising, unfiltered approach. Wellness shouldn’t be illusive or exclusive—let’s democratize it.

Undefined Inc partners with BIPOC founded, female-led, LGBTQ+ suppliers from their manufacturing partners to their creative team.

ABOUT DREAMT

dreamt is an award-winning sleep aid made with cannabis. The science-backed formula is a precise blend of THC, CBD, and other sleep-inducing compounds, such as melatonin, valerian root, and L-theanine. This unique formula was created by dreamt’s founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Carolina Vazquez Mitchell, to treat her insomnia during her chemistry PhD at USC.

dreamt is a female and minority-owned social equity business based in Los Angeles.

4/20 Celebrations Rebound After Covid

Poll results from ISA indicate significant boosts in dispensary visits, gifting and trying new products for 4/20/2021

There’s a dramatic shift in the way cannabis consumers across the U.S. will be celebrating the 4/20 cannabis holiday this year, according to poll results from insights firm ISA, a Material Company. This year more consumers plan to host friends at home, visit dispensaries and celebrate in public places, such as live events or restaurants. This comparison is based on survey results from another ISA study fielded in April of 2020.

The percentage of cannabis consumers who say they will celebrate the holiday in some way has now outpaced pre-COVID-19 levels. In 2019, 70% of cannabis consumers said they would celebrate the 4/20 holiday. That percentage has jumped to 78% in 2021.

The most significant variance from 2020 poll results has been among people who say they are planning to celebrate 4/20 with friends at home. In 2019, before the pandemic, 58% of consumers who planned to participate in the holiday said they would celebrate at home with friends. That number dipped to 29% in April of 2020, and has now rebounded to 55%, indicating a return to normalcy for cannabis consumers who celebrate by hosting private events.

The findings could indicate the cannabis industry will experience a significant uptick in sales on and around April 20th, with more people venturing out to their local dispensary. The percentage of cannabis consumers who say they will visit a dispensary to celebrate 4/20 rose from 13% in 2020 to 30% in 2021, coming in slightly above the 2019 percentage of 26%. Additionally, more consumers plan to purchase 4/20 gifts for friends and family in 2021, compared to 2020. The 2021 poll revealed that 37% of consumers who celebrate 4/20 plan to buy gifts for others, while 16% reported doing so in 2020. Another positive sign for dispensaries and cannabis brands is that a significant number of consumers (40%) are planning to try a new product as part of their holiday celebration, up from 21% in 2020.

“The cannabis industry grew steadily throughout the pandemic,” said Adriana Hemans, ISA’s VP of Demand. “What’s exciting about the early poll results from 2021 is that cannabis consumers are coming together again for 4/20, seeking novel experiences with new products. Those products could potentially become part of their regular cannabis routines, providing additional growth opportunities for brands.” ISA will continue to gather data and insights from cannabis consumers in the days leading up to April 20th, providing business analysts, industry experts and media outlets with ongoing updates on consumer behaviors related to the 4/20 holiday. Figures presented in this press release are based on three studies – a nationwide poll of 1,001 cannabis consumers fielded April 26th through April 29th of 2019, with a 3% margin of error at a 95% level of confidence; a nationwide poll of 420 cannabis consumers fielded April 18th through April 20th of 2020, with a 5% margin of error at a 95% level of confidence, and a nationwide poll of 420 cannabis consumers with a 5% margin of error at a 95% level of confidence. To qualify for inclusion in all of these studies, participants indicated that they are over 21 years old and had purchased or consumed cannabis in the last 90 days. Participants in the 2021 study were gathered through ISA’s proprietary cannabis research panel – The Green Time.

 

Cannabis Consumers 4/20 Celebration Plans

ISA conducts 2020 Police and Community Relations Survey for StudyLA at Loyola Marymount University

ISA conducts 2020 Police and Community Relations Survey for StudyLA

This survey was conducted to measure public opinion toward the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) policing in Los Angeles, California

The Study

In the fall of 2020, Interviewing Service of America (ISA) conducted a survey on behalf of The Center for the Study of Los Angeles (StudyLA) at Loyola Marymount University to better understand the public’s opinion toward policing in Los Angeles. The questions asked in this survey covered topics such as trust in the police, community engagement efforts by the local police, race relations, and personal experiences with the police. The reason for the study was to gauge how residents feel about the job the LAPD is doing in relation to their mission: “to safeguard the lives and property of the people the LAPD serves, to reduce the incidence and fear of crime, and to enhance public safety while working with the diverse communities to improve quality of life.”

Methodology

The survey was conducted from August 21 to October 25, 2020 and administered in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Korean. It utilized a mixed methodology to ensure representation of the diverse LA population, consisting of a 20-minute telephone interview, online surveys, and face-to-face interviews with 1,753 adults who reside in the city of Los Angeles. A minimum of 400 residents from each of the four LAPD bureaus were surveyed.

Results

When residents were asked how things were going in the city of Los Angeles, only 48.8% said it was going in the right direction. The level of optimism has been steadily dropping since 2017. Residents have more trust in their neighbors (64.6%) than the LAPD (51.2%) to do what is right. A huge number of Angelenos support community policing (88.2%), which focuses on having officers build ties and work closely with community members. Even with the overwhelming number of those who support community policing, only 9.8% say the LAPD’s role is to work with and be part of the community. A large number say that their role is to serve, protect and enforce laws (71.1%).

To learn more of the results of this study, visit StudyLA’s full article here.

Lets See What’s New in 2020 from CES

Highlights from CES 2018 and Why Researchers Should Care

Where can you play ping-pong with a robot, fall into love with a mechanical puppy and see inside a refrigerator without opening the door? At CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. Every January tech companies from around the globe convene on Las Vegas to showcase their products — gadgets and gizmos that consumers can look forward to one day owning — sort of. They won’t be coming to a store near you anytime soon, and a lot of them leave you wondering – who would actually want that? In the aftermath of CES 2018, many critics pointed out that most of the products on display would only appeal to two types of people – people with money to burn and lazy people with money to burn. But we don’t have to rely on guessing who would buy these things, because we can actually ask people and find out. (Yay research!) SoapBoxSample conducted a mini poll* to gauge people’s awareness of CES and to find out if consumers would actually buy any of these high-tech gadgets. (You’ll find the results sprinkled throughout this article. I had to find some way to get you to read the whole thing.)

The research industry has been accused of being slow to adapt. While analysts are locked in rooms figuring out how to produce non-biased sampling frames, people are out making robots with Artificial Intelligence. The very same robots you can see at CES. The tech industry could benefit from paying attention to what consumers actually want (something research can supply), but researchers should be paying attention to the tech industry because big changes in the way people use tech in their everyday lives provides new opportunities for gathering data.

“Alexa, let’s do a survey”

At CES this year, Google came out looking like they were trying too hard. They built a three-story installation in the Las Vegas Convention Center parking lot. They also clearly shelled out big bucks for an advertising presence that plastered the entire town with the phrase Google wants you to remember – Hey Google. Amazon didn’t exhibit at all. They didn’t need to, because every other device at CES boasted about being “Alexa compatible.” All the free marketing garnered by Amazon, in contrast with Google’s flashy displays made Amazon look like the cool kid who doesn’t have to try to be cool.

People love the Amazon Echo. They consider Alexa to be a trusted part of their family. This is good news for researchers. When people are taking voice-activated surveys through Alexa (coming soon), the higher levels of trust will evoke more accurate, detailed, and honest responses from respondents.

Car tech – knowledge drives enthusiasm

You can’t talk about CES without bringing up the cars. They’re sleek, they’re stylish, they glistening under the showroom lights. I’m not a car person at all (my car has roll-up windows), but these vehicles were really beautiful. As a non-car-person, what I appreciated about the new smart dashboards and infotainment systems is that they were built to provide the driver with more insight into the inner workings of the car, something that I wouldn’t be able to assess by opening the hood.

As car manufacturers are scrambling to bring the first self-driving cars to market, they also have to convince people that self-driving cars are safe. Last quarter SoapBoxSample published the results of an internal study on the public’s perception of self-driving cars. Almost half of those surveyed believe that self-driving cars are dangerous and would not feel comfortable sharing the road with them. Only 28% said they looked forward to owning one. Developing smart dashboards that give drivers detailed information about how the car is operating is one way that car manufacturers can combat negative views of their product’s safety.

Related: Who’s in the Driver’s Seat? An Infographic About Self-driving Cars

Beauty tech – look better, feel worse

I tried out the HiMirror, one of CES’s #beautytech products. The HiMirror measures your pores, dark spots, wrinkles and dark circles. Just what women need, right? A super judgy mirror. Their marketing promised that the in-depth analysis would result in better “skin care goal-setting”. But what is the goal, to stop aging, or to sell products? The next generation of the HiMirror will probably show targeted ads for skin care products. I think I would rather skip the recommended products, and not know that my dark circles had increased by 3%. Turns out most people agree with me. Our poll showed that 68% of respondents would not want to use a high-tech mirror that measures skin imperfections.

It’s not so much consumer electronics, as it is competitive electronics

Is there really a consumer demand for a laundry-folding robot the size of a washing machine that requires you to manually tag each item of clothing you own, and can only fold adult-sized clothing? (And by the way, it takes longer than folding by hand.) Of the nearly 1,000 people who answered our poll, 79% said no thank you to the $980 laundry-folding robot.

Are the companies that produce these robots more focused on giving consumers what they want, or trying to out-do their competitors? What you might notice about this year’s line of robots is that their designs are very similar. White casing, black trim — almost without exception. Did the robot manufacturers forget to do their competitive analysis? (Shameless plug – did you know that SoapBoxSample’s passive metering application is great for understanding how people interact with your brand’s competition online?)

Can Americans fall in love with a robot dog?

I’m not a dog person, or even a pet person, so I didn’t expect to catch feelings for SONY’s robot dog Aibo. But it won me over instantly. Aibo is life-like, expressive, and responds to voice and touch. Knowing that his OLED eyes were mechanical did not make them any less puppy-like. Aibo is currently only available in Japan and costs $1700. SONY has said that they expect to sell at least 150,000 units. Could Aibo gain the same type of popularity in the United States?

Americans are waaaaaay into their pets. Here are some highlights from SoapBoxSample’s 2016 survey of U.S. pet owners to prove it – more than 60% of pet owners sleep with their animals, 40% of dog owners dress their pets up in costumes, and 73% of pet owners believe their pets are “smarter than average”. Could a robot dog one day occupy the same space in our hearts (and in our beds)? According to the results of our poll – heck no. When asked if they could see robot pets becoming more popular than live pets, 89% said no.

Related: Valentine’s Day Pet-fographic – We Know Americans Have a Close Relationship with Their Cats and Dogs But Just How Close Are They?

The future is full of glitches

If robots had emotions, the Aeolus would have experienced total confusion during its live demonstration. The booth presenter repeatedly ordered the bewildered bot to pick up a remote control off the floor, which it finally did after about a minute or so. (This scenario would be nothing new for the 8.4% of U.S. households with teenagers.) But the limitations of the robot’s responsiveness are no hurdle when compared to its price tag. The company wouldn’t name the actual cost, other than to say it was “less than a vacation for a family of four.” For the purposes of our poll, we guessed the price to be $10,000. Turns out most people don’t really see the value in it. Over 83% said they would not be picking one up anytime soon.

I need a fridge with a camera in it

The ThinQ smart fridge unveiled by LG has a 29-inch touchscreen on the door. If you knock on the screen twice it becomes transparent so you can see the contents inside. But my favorite part was the wide-angle camera inside the fridge. How many times have you thought to yourself, “I wish I could look inside my fridge while I’m at the store so I can see what I need to buy”? Maybe never, but you know who else wants a look inside your fridge? Researchers. The smart kitchen of the future is a paradise for people who hate making lists, and for research ethnographers. With cameras inside every appliance, researchers can see inside the homes of their subjects without setting foot in the door, and more importantly, without disrupting the routines they are attempting to study.

Within the 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space occupied by CES, there were devices that could change our everyday lives, and some other ones that were pretty dumb. There were also plenty of opportunities for researchers. Tech companies seem to have bought into idea that they should be creating things that the public doesn’t know they want yet. Based on the public reaction to some of the products at the show, this might not be the best plan. Tech companies need consumer research more than ever to tell them if there’s a market for what they are attempting to create. Researchers should keep a close eye on developments in tech — there are lots of opportunities coming along for research to become less invasive, cheaper, more efficient and more accurate. The two industries should work together as we move into the next phase of consumer technology.

*P.S. By the way, this poll was a lot like the exhibits at CES, fun to look at, but lacking scientific validity (probably biased and non-representative).

Confused Robots, Puppy Love, and Super Judgy Mirrors

Highlights from CES 2018 and Why Researchers Should Care

Where can you play ping-pong with a robot, fall into love with a mechanical puppy and see inside a refrigerator without opening the door? At CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. Every January tech companies from around the globe convene on Las Vegas to showcase their products — gadgets and gizmos that consumers can look forward to one day owning — sort of. They won’t be coming to a store near you anytime soon, and a lot of them leave you wondering – who would actually want that? In the aftermath of CES 2018, many critics pointed out that most of the products on display would only appeal to two types of people – people with money to burn and lazy people with money to burn. But we don’t have to rely on guessing who would buy these things, because we can actually ask people and find out. (Yay research!) SoapBoxSample conducted a mini poll* to gauge people’s awareness of CES and to find out if consumers would actually buy any of these high-tech gadgets. (You’ll find the results sprinkled throughout this article. I had to find some way to get you to read the whole thing.)

The research industry has been accused of being slow to adapt. While analysts are locked in rooms figuring out how to produce non-biased sampling frames, people are out making robots with Artificial Intelligence. The very same robots you can see at CES. The tech industry could benefit from paying attention to what consumers actually want (something research can supply), but researchers should be paying attention to the tech industry because big changes in the way people use tech in their everyday lives provides new opportunities for gathering data.

“Alexa, let’s do a survey”

At CES this year, Google came out looking like they were trying too hard. They built a three-story installation in the Las Vegas Convention Center parking lot. They also clearly shelled out big bucks for an advertising presence that plastered the entire town with the phrase Google wants you to remember – Hey Google. Amazon didn’t exhibit at all. They didn’t need to, because every other device at CES boasted about being “Alexa compatible.” All the free marketing garnered by Amazon, in contrast with Google’s flashy displays made Amazon look like the cool kid who doesn’t have to try to be cool.

People love the Amazon Echo. They consider Alexa to be a trusted part of their family. This is good news for researchers. When people are taking voice-activated surveys through Alexa (coming soon), the higher levels of trust will evoke more accurate, detailed, and honest responses from respondents.

Car tech – knowledge drives enthusiasm

You can’t talk about CES without bringing up the cars. They’re sleek, they’re stylish, they glistening under the showroom lights. I’m not a car person at all (my car has roll-up windows), but these vehicles were really beautiful. As a non-car-person, what I appreciated about the new smart dashboards and infotainment systems is that they were built to provide the driver with more insight into the inner workings of the car, something that I wouldn’t be able to assess by opening the hood.

As car manufacturers are scrambling to bring the first self-driving cars to market, they also have to convince people that self-driving cars are safe. Last quarter SoapBoxSample published the results of an internal study on the public’s perception of self-driving cars. Almost half of those surveyed believe that self-driving cars are dangerous and would not feel comfortable sharing the road with them. Only 28% said they looked forward to owning one. Developing smart dashboards that give drivers detailed information about how the car is operating is one way that car manufacturers can combat negative views of their product’s safety.

Related: Who’s in the Driver’s Seat? An Infographic About Self-driving Cars

Beauty tech – look better, feel worse

I tried out the HiMirror, one of CES’s #beautytech products. The HiMirror measures your pores, dark spots, wrinkles and dark circles. Just what women need, right? A super judgy mirror. Their marketing promised that the in-depth analysis would result in better “skin care goal-setting”. But what is the goal, to stop aging, or to sell products? The next generation of the HiMirror will probably show targeted ads for skin care products. I think I would rather skip the recommended products, and not know that my dark circles had increased by 3%. Turns out most people agree with me. Our poll showed that 68% of respondents would not want to use a high-tech mirror that measures skin imperfections.

It’s not so much consumer electronics, as it is competitive electronics

Is there really a consumer demand for a laundry-folding robot the size of a washing machine that requires you to manually tag each item of clothing you own, and can only fold adult-sized clothing? (And by the way, it takes longer than folding by hand.) Of the nearly 1,000 people who answered our poll, 79% said no thank you to the $980 laundry-folding robot.

Are the companies that produce these robots more focused on giving consumers what they want, or trying to out-do their competitors? What you might notice about this year’s line of robots is that their designs are very similar. White casing, black trim — almost without exception. Did the robot manufacturers forget to do their competitive analysis? (Shameless plug – did you know that SoapBoxSample’s passive metering application is great for understanding how people interact with your brand’s competition online?)

Can Americans fall in love with a robot dog?

I’m not a dog person, or even a pet person, so I didn’t expect to catch feelings for SONY’s robot dog Aibo. But it won me over instantly. Aibo is life-like, expressive, and responds to voice and touch. Knowing that his OLED eyes were mechanical did not make them any less puppy-like. Aibo is currently only available in Japan and costs $1700. SONY has said that they expect to sell at least 150,000 units. Could Aibo gain the same type of popularity in the United States?

Americans are waaaaaay into their pets. Here are some highlights from SoapBoxSample’s 2016 survey of U.S. pet owners to prove it – more than 60% of pet owners sleep with their animals, 40% of dog owners dress their pets up in costumes, and 73% of pet owners believe their pets are “smarter than average”. Could a robot dog one day occupy the same space in our hearts (and in our beds)? According to the results of our poll – heck no. When asked if they could see robot pets becoming more popular than live pets, 89% said no.

Related: Valentine’s Day Pet-fographic – We Know Americans Have a Close Relationship with Their Cats and Dogs But Just How Close Are They?

The future is full of glitches

If robots had emotions, the Aeolus would have experienced total confusion during its live demonstration. The booth presenter repeatedly ordered the bewildered bot to pick up a remote control off the floor, which it finally did after about a minute or so. (This scenario would be nothing new for the 8.4% of U.S. households with teenagers.) But the limitations of the robot’s responsiveness are no hurdle when compared to its price tag. The company wouldn’t name the actual cost, other than to say it was “less than a vacation for a family of four.” For the purposes of our poll, we guessed the price to be $10,000. Turns out most people don’t really see the value in it. Over 83% said they would not be picking one up anytime soon.

I need a fridge with a camera in it

The ThinQ smart fridge unveiled by LG has a 29-inch touchscreen on the door. If you knock on the screen twice it becomes transparent so you can see the contents inside. But my favorite part was the wide-angle camera inside the fridge. How many times have you thought to yourself, “I wish I could look inside my fridge while I’m at the store so I can see what I need to buy”? Maybe never, but you know who else wants a look inside your fridge? Researchers. The smart kitchen of the future is a paradise for people who hate making lists, and for research ethnographers. With cameras inside every appliance, researchers can see inside the homes of their subjects without setting foot in the door, and more importantly, without disrupting the routines they are attempting to study.

Within the 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space occupied by CES, there were devices that could change our everyday lives, and some other ones that were pretty dumb. There were also plenty of opportunities for researchers. Tech companies seem to have bought into idea that they should be creating things that the public doesn’t know they want yet. Based on the public reaction to some of the products at the show, this might not be the best plan. Tech companies need consumer research more than ever to tell them if there’s a market for what they are attempting to create. Researchers should keep a close eye on developments in tech — there are lots of opportunities coming along for research to become less invasive, cheaper, more efficient and more accurate. The two industries should work together as we move into the next phase of consumer technology.

*P.S. By the way, this poll was a lot like the exhibits at CES, fun to look at, but lacking scientific validity (probably biased and non-representative).