Irma Zandl
President
Irma has been acknowledged as one of America’s foremost experts on consumer behavior and trend forecasting. Conducting on-going work with directional consumers through in-home ethnographies, expert roundtables and scene immersions allows her to anticipate emerging trends and early shifts in consumer behavior.
Irma is in demand as a guest speaker and television commentator, and is frequently quoted in the business press for her insights on consumer behavior and market trending (e.g. The Observer UK, The New York Times, Business Week, CNN, The Economist, and WWD).
After 20 years of living on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Irma recently pulled up stakes and moved to Long Island City, an up-and-coming neighborhood of industrial lofts in Queens. She joins a growing number of artists and galleries who have been setting up studios in the area.
In another major move, Irma relocated the company’s offices from Manhattan’s SoHo to Bushwick, Brooklyn. The new space and new community of neighbors (film makers, artists, musicians, photographers) has been totally inspiring for her and the entire Zandl team.
Irma is also an avid bicyclist - frequently logging in 30 mile rides on the weekends. Her favorite rides include Red Hook, Governors Island and the west side of Manhattan from Battery Park City to the George Washington Bridge.
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RESEARCH TEAM
Brandi Stansbury
Lead Ethnographer
Brandi guides our ethnographic research studies, from scene infiltrations to in-home interviews, utilizing her background in contemporary theory and metropolitan studies to identify underlying trends and consumer insights from a cultural and social perspective. She graduated from NYU’s prestigious Gallatin School of Individualized Studies. Brandi’s consumer insights and ethnographic experience has also recently been featured on NPR’s Marketplace.
Brandi lives in San Francisco where she’s deeply involved in the arts, her book club, thrift stores and checking out new restaurants. She spends a great deal of time in SF’s thriving writing community and volunteers with Dave Eggers’ organization, 826 Valencia, teaching writing classes and bilingual courses in schools. She also enjoys wine tasting, documentary film, music, pop culture and trivia. Brandi is also an avid traveler (especially destinations where she can use her Spanish).
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Carla Avruch
Director, Consumer Insights
Carla manages consumer research projects from inception to final presentation, bringing an innovative approach getting maximum insights and synthesizing the learning to create insightful, highly visual and actionable reports and presentations. She also develops custom trend presentations utilizing our proprietary panel data, secondary research and online trend search. These presentations are highly tailored for specific client objectives, categories and consumer segments.
An avid oil painter, she maintains a studio in Bushwick (just a few stops away from the office!). Her travel fetish has brought her all over the world; most recent explorations include solo trips to Nicaragua, Panama and Thailand. Carla also loves to cook, is constantly creating new recipes and is currently teaching herself to sew with her new Singer (BurdaStyle.com is a lifesaver).
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Paige Newman
Editor, Trend Analyst
As editor of our Trend Tracking Reports (The Hot Sheet), Paige oversees all the day-to-day operations of the research studies including recruiting, survey analysis, database maintenance, and writing the bi-monthly and the year end Master Reports.
Paige prepares custom trend reports for clients, utilizing our proprietary trend resources as well as researching secondary data.
She also
writes our press releases and updates our Zandland blog especially as related to pop culture and lifestyle trends.
A Jersey girl at heart (Jovi rules!!), she graduated from Vassar in 2003 with a BA in German Studies, is an internationally acclaimed quiche chef and self-proclaimed celeb gossip fetishist. She is also active on the food blogging scene, with a bi-weekly cooking column on BushwickBK.com, and is a monthly contributor to SaucyLittleDish.com. She is also working with members of the Bushwick community to start a Food Cooperative in the neighborhood, and an avid supporter of the Bushwick CSA.
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Allison Smith
Consumer Research Analyst
As Consumer Research Analyst, Allison oversees the day-to-day operations of the research studies including recruiting, survey analysis and database maintenance.
Allison is a recent graduate from Vassar College with a BA in Art History, as well as captain of Vassar’s synchronized skating team, Iced Brew. Allison contributes regularly to our Zandland Blog as our in-house sports correspondent and is an ardent supporter of New England teams.
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CREATIVE TEAM
Jamie Dwyer
Senior Director, Creative/Digital
Jamie heads up our creative services team, bringing creative perspective to our consumer research and findings, and further translating consumer insights, marketing perspectives and trend forecasting into highly visual, multimedia formats. He's the Zandl Group official expert in tech & digital, webmaster extraordinaire, and leading Zandland blogger (covering topics in tech, pop culture, art/design & trends). Jamie frequently participates in client ideation sessions and is much in demand for his creative input on digital initiatives and graphic/design positioning, as well as for promotional event planning, including talent and visual design recommendations.
Jamie has a digital arts degree from NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Studies and a masters degree in Art and New Media from NYU.
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Deborah Hilert
Creative Director, Video
Deep diving into our consumer ethnographies and round table interviews, Deborah is our video guru, translating consumer insights, trend forecasts and research into short films and perceptive presentations that bring consumer insights and trends to life.
Deborah also creates video profiles of consumers to highlight key learning from quantitative segmentation studies as well as trend and lifestyle videos for client sales meetings.
She has a BFA from VCU with a concentration in painting and has a wide range of creative skills from fiberglass casting to embroidery. In her off-hours, Deborah takes gymnastics classes at Chelsea Piers and can do a mean round-off back handspring.
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OUR NETWORK
We maintain an extensive nationwide network of creative, trend-forward people to work with us on an as-needed basis. Our connections include cultural observers and insiders/experts with backgrounds in:
- the arts
- academia
- blogging
- tech
- entertainment
- food and beverage (including chefs, urban farmers, foodies)
- nightlife (including chefs, bartenders, promoters, event planners and stylists)
We reach out to our network for ideation, private meetings, roundtable interviews, ethnographic research and videography.
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