Adwanted Awards 2025 — InnovationAccelerated by Bpifrance9,500+ marketing professionals trained

Marketing research & consulting, innovation and Artificial Intelligence to secure strategic decisions

We combine 25 years of market intelligence with a proprietary AI platform, IQVentis, to push the boundaries of time-to-market and expand strategic exploration capacity. We accelerate and secure marketing and innovation decisions.

Latest news
Interview MRNews · Mars 2025
Generative AI and co-creation
Generative AI provides valuable help in optimizing co-creation approaches. Marc Papanicola and Sandra Chéritat-Bretagne share their R&D work leading to proprietary modules.
Study Forbes · Automne 2024
French people's favorite entrepreneurs
New Forbes - Insightquest - Norstat edition. This year, the Top 20 sees a woman reach the podium.
Study Forbes · Hiver 2023
Forbes France Luxury Awards
Winter 2023-2024 edition. Exclusive survey with Norstat, podiums in 7 categories.
Study Forbes · Automne 2023
Favorite entrepreneurs 2023
The Top 20 confirms the rise of entrepreneurial profiles.
Video Forbes Vidéo
Challenges in the luxury sector
Sandra Chéritat-Bretagne discusses the balance between creativity and listening to targets.
Study Forbes · 2022
2022 Presidential: second round
Exclusive Forbes study on the Macron-Le Pen face-off.
Study Forbes · 2022
2022 candidates marketing portraits
Projective portraits associated with major brands.
Study Forbes · Hiver 2021
2021 Luxury Awards
Favorite brands in 7 luxury categories.
Study Forbes · Automne 2021
Favorite entrepreneurs 2021
60% of respondents have a positive image of entrepreneurs.
Study Forbes · Printemps 2021
Favorite business leaders
First-ever survey measuring favorite business leaders.
Study Forbes · Hiver 2021
Favorite luxury brands
Three French brands on the podium showing European brand supremacy.
Study Forbes · Été 2020
French women's favorite brands
During lockdown, Samsung tops the ranking.
Study Forbes · Automne 2020
French men's favorite brands
Automotive with Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari dominates the Top 20.
Interview MRNews · Sept. 2021
Agile marketing and its results
Marc Papanicola shares his vision on agility.
Interview MRNews · Janv. 2021
Insight as a silo-breaking tool
Sandra Bretagne and Marc Papanicola discuss Insightquest and Insightacademy.
25 yrs
of insight & innovation expertise
9,500+
professionals trained in 17 countries
14
proprietary AI modules: innovation, branding and activation

They trust us

PIERRE FABREKERINGEXPANSCIENCESEBJACQUET BROSSARDMATERNECOTYGUERLAINBOIRONLABEYRIE FINEFOODSL'EQUIPEAUCHANBOUCHERONSMCPLINDTSAVANEAVENEPUMASANDROKLORANEDUCRAYCLAUDIE PIERLOTA-DERMADELPIERREBOTTEGA VENETAPIERRE FABREKERINGEXPANSCIENCESEBJACQUET BROSSARDMATERNECOTYGUERLAINBOIRONLABEYRIE FINEFOODSL'EQUIPEAUCHANBOUCHERONSMCPLINDTSAVANEAVENEPUMASANDROKLORANEDUCRAYCLAUDIE PIERLOTA-DERMADELPIERREBOTTEGA VENETA

From insight to securing decisions,
at every step

An ecosystem of six complementary areas of expertise in insight management, innovation, segmentation and brand strategy, deployable separately or combined to broaden analysis and secure marketing decisions.

Our values
& commitments

Empathy first

AI augments team intelligence — it doesn't replace it. Human creativity and informed decision-making remain the engine of all sustainable innovation. AI multiplies possibilities.

Rigor

Artificial intelligence does not replace methodology. Every analysis is framed by precise marketing research protocols, from insight gathering to strategic recommendation.

Integrity

Our AI platform is not trained on your data. Your strategic information remains protected, secured and strictly siloed.

Excellence

Measurable impact: every engagement delivers concrete, strategic deliverables, defensible at Board level.

01

Insight Management

Identifying real opportunity territories

Since its founding, Insightquest has placed consumer insight at the heart of its strategic approach, with rigor.
A vague insight produces vague decisions. Conversely, a rigorously formulated insight aligns marketing, innovation and R&D teams around a shared, actionable consumer challenge.
At Insightquest, consumer insight management is a strategic lever. It determines the relevance of concepts, the strength of brand platforms and the performance of innovations in the market.

Our definition of operational insight

At Insightquest, we define an operational insight as the structured combination of three inseparable dimensions, a precise context, a deep motivation and a tension factor.
This triptych, Context, Motivation, Tension, forms the foundation of our insight marketing methodology. Unlike a simple observation or a descriptive truth, an operational insight problematizes an issue. It doesn't just describe a behavior, it creates tension in a situation and opens a strategic opportunity territory.

Exploration & Insightment

Qualitative studies (physical ethnography, in-person/online groups, social listening) and quantitative research to identify consumer tensions, motivations and frustrations. Dedicated senior team, international partner network.

Screening & prioritization

Quantitative evaluation of each insight's power. Prioritization by business potential, profiling of the most receptive targets, identification of the most promising opportunity territories.

Territory mapping

Cross-referencing insights × market trends × brand capabilities. White space identification. Deliverable: prioritized and actionable innovation roadmap.

AI-augmented generation (IQVentis)

Our AI modules formulate structured insights from your documentary sources, studies and transcripts. Beyond summarization: real insights formulated according to our methodology.

✓ Structured insights✓ Insights + Foresight Modules (IQVentis)✓ Senior qual & quant team✓ International research partner network
These insights directly feed our innovation workshops →
02

Innovation & Co-creation

From insight to concept in minutes, and testing in days

Co-building offerings with consumers is inherently a human endeavor. And the use of IQVentis modules during our engagements now plays a decisive role in amplifying and accelerating creativity.

Our augmented sprints and workshops combine proven creative techniques (sensory analogies, projective approaches, creative disruption and structured brainstorming) with dedicated IQVentis modules. AI generates, enriches and challenges concepts in real-time, condensing months of work into weeks and multiplying avenues in very limited time. Every step is structured to maximize creative quality and reduce time-to-market.

I had the opportunity to collaborate with Insightquest for the launch of a strategic innovation for our brand in the short term. Their Insights and AI Challenge methodology proved extremely robust and innovative.
Thanks to this approach, we were able to refine the positioning of our offer and write clear concepts. I highly recommend Insightquest for the quality of their support and their ability to leverage AI.
Raphaële MOREAU Senior Product Manager Pom'Potes Innovation & New Uses, Pom'Potes, BEL GROUP
During our recent innovation seminar, Insightquest's AI tool played a facilitating role in our discussions and workshops.
This tool allowed us to save time in the ideation phase by proposing new ideas, as well as enriching the value proposition (benefits, product features, RTB...).
The tool also helped us visualize concepts. All from simple data such as the Persona & the Insight.
It's an intuitive tool that saves time, and provides a good starting point for initiating a team discussion.
Déborah DUBOIS B2B Manager, Lindt & Sprüngli
As part of the international deployment of our innovative healthcare solution, we faced a challenge: defining a positioning strategy for multiple targets in a very short timeframe. We decided to call on the Insightquest team, who proposed an enriched workshop combining their expertise with the power of their AI.
Thanks to this partnership, we were able to securely share our internal data, and the AI analyzed our insights as well as competitive information available online. Within moments, several concept versions were generated, allowing us to interact directly with the AI to refine and adjust them in real time.
What I found particularly powerful was the tool's ability to adapt the concept to different target segments, not only consumers, but also various types of healthcare professionals. In just a few clicks, we obtained relevant adaptations for each target. Moreover, Insightquest provided us with a detailed, AI-driven analysis of each concept, evaluating their strengths, weaknesses and differentiation potential, while offering valuable recommendations for refinement before client testing.
Result: a solid, well-adapted foundation, ready to be tested across multiple targets within a very tight deadline!
Amélie CAHAREL Director of Consumer Insights and Corporate Market, Laboratoires Expanscience

Prix Adwanted 2025

Innovation Category

Rewarding the successful integration of generative AI into our co-creation processes, with measurable time-to-market results.

Concept generation workshops

Creative techniques coupled with our AI modules. Idea generation as illustrated concepts, human × machine cross-enrichment. In-person or hybrid. Using our IQVentis modules frees up considerable time, multiplying angles while preserving team energy, allowing them to focus on trade-offs and strategic decisions.

Augmented Design Sprints

From brief to proven concept in 2 to 3 weeks. Rapid iterations with integrated consumer/professional feedback. Concept + product + packaging in a single process.

Concept Generation, Concept Challenge, Concept Polish & Test vs Persona (IQVentis)

AI evaluates each concept (strengths, weaknesses, differentiation), confronts it with your personas, then refines the wording, benefits and RTBs, in successive iterations.

Quali & quanti concept testing

Evaluation of your value propositions: resonance, strengths/weaknesses, commercial potential. Actionable optimization recommendations.

✓ Adwanted Innovation Award 2025✓ 4 dedicated IQVentis modules✓ Luxury, beauty, FMCG, healthcare clients✓ Brief to tested concept in 2-3 weeks
Winning concepts feed your brand platform →
03

Brand Strategy

Steering the most valuable intangible asset

Brand is a company's most powerful intangible asset and the hardest to steer rigorously. We work across its entire lifecycle: construction, positioning, tracking, stress-testing.

Our approach combines the rigor of fundamental studies (semiotics, perceptual analysis, brand fundamentals) with the power of artificial intelligence.
We help you design, challenge and deploy your brand platforms internationally, from positioning to platform activation.
IQVentis enables us during our working sessions to build your brand platform in an assisted manner, then automatically challenge it, identifying weaknesses, inconsistencies, and suggesting reinforcement directions that even the best strategists might miss. Vision, mission, values, personality, expression territory: every component is tested and validated. And of course this approach is carried out in comparison with your competitors.

Our major challenge is to build, for each country in the group, a strong brand that allows Auchan to mark its territory and stand out in its market. Successfully adapting an international brand to the local culture is key for the group in order to speak to each consumer rather than to all in a diluted manner.
The brand can thus play its role of attraction, seduction, internal and external communication with consumers and all stakeholders. The role of the brand platform is decisive in the brand positioning process as it translates all the distinctive signs of the company (values, mission, promise, vision, offer, target). It commits the company's strategy for the long term.
We realized that working solely among marketing experts had its limits and that it was more relevant to involve different business functions to successfully write the brand platform.
Insightquest's proven methodology enabled sequential group work where each key stage of brand platform construction was explored in depth: diagnosis, idea generation to define the company's values and mission, and of course consumer listening.
The collaboration with Insightquest was smooth and constructive. The firm has the vision needed to manage topics on an international scope. The duo, Sandra Bretagne and Marc Papanicola, is both operational and strategic, which allowed us to entrust the entire project to them. This is a real strength and for us a true guarantee of results.
We started our collaboration with writing the platform in Hungary. Given the quality of the result and the country's satisfaction, we repeated the experience in Spain, Portugal and Romania.
Anne Marie FERRARI International Brand Director, Auchan Retail

Brand platform

Complete construction: vision, mission, values, personality, expression territory, brand key. Participative methods combined with AI to test each component before validation.

Brand Platform Challenge (IQVentis)

AI analyzes your existing platform, identifies inconsistencies and vulnerability zones, proposes reinforcement and differentiation directions vs competition.

Brand tracking & health

Longitudinal tracking: awareness, consideration, image, preference. Dynamic dashboards and alerts on significant changes.

Semiotics & Semio Neuro (IQVentis)

Decoding your brand's signs. Neuro-marketing analysis of your visual and textual assets: measuring perceptual impact, coherence and distinctiveness.

✓ Brand Platform + Challenge Modules✓ Semio Neuro Module (IQVentis)✓ Luxury, beauty, FMCG expertise✓ International multi-market studies
Your brand comes alive through your market segments →
04

Market Segmentation

Understand your targets to activate them better

A segmentation is only valuable if it's activatable. Beyond simply describing a market, our segmentations are designed for action. We analyze your targets 360°: profile, lifestyle, purchase drivers, customer journey and touchpoints. On the qualitative side, our ethnographic approach and analysis of consumer semantic fields enrich this vision. This level of precision guarantees successful activation.

A conviction is defended: a segment is only truly appropriate if embodied by a persona. However, to prevent a simple inert document from being shelved, these personas are made directly operational. They are integrated into two interactive tools:

• A persona creation module: from qualitative transcriptions or segmentation XLS tables, we formulate personas quickly.
• A Persona Bot: a tool through which the target's exact reactions are faithfully reproduced and simulated.
• A concept challenge module: a space where each idea is evaluated against all personas.

Insightquest is an agile and highly innovative company. We used their AI solutions as part of the international segmentation deployment we entrusted to them, enabling us to go from the strategic choice of high-potential segments for our luxury brands to operational activation in communication and retail.
A very effective solution which, in Kering's current context, appears key while enabling considerable time savings and the possibility of going much further in the relevance of messages delivered to our clients and prospects.
Karine SAINT-MARTIN Brand Insight Director, Kering

Persona

Generate an embodied persona

Personas are designed on the fly:
• From interview or qualitative group transcriptions: a factorial analysis then a segmentation taking into account the concerns and lexical field used by each segment
• From an XLS file of your own segmentation

Persona Bot

Realistic embodiment

Personas are elevated to true interlocutors.
• Authentic responses: we don't offer the long artificial responses of poorly designed synthetic personas.
• Precise mimicry: the interests, concerns and lexical field of targets are rigorously adopted.
• Field application: optimal anticipation of exchanges is made possible, particularly for sales teams.

Concept vs Personae

Challenge and adjust your ideas

A general idea is directly broken down into a granular proposition:
• Flash analysis: the most receptive profiles are identified in under a minute.
• Targeted optimization: the improvement levers needed to convince other segments are highlighted.
• Personalization: concepts are automatically rewritten to match each persona.

Activatable quantitative segmentation

Ad-hoc U&A studies, behavioral and attitudinal segmentation. Each segment is profiled for direct activation: media targeting, retail, CRM.

Social media & retail activation

Translating segments into media targeting, clienteling strategies and personalized retail recommendations. The bridge between research and action.

✓ Personas + Persona Bot Modules (IQVentis)✓ Social media & retail activation✓ Clienteling deployment✓ International research partner network
Aligned teams activate these segments better →
05

Insightacademy

Training your teams in insight mastery and AI

One of the major barriers to marketing agility is team misalignment. When R&D, marketing, research and communications share a common language, everything accelerates.

Insightacademy© is our dedicated training organization, active since 2012. Over 9,500 professionals trained in 17 countries, in French and English, in-person, e-learning and hybrid formats. Our programs cover the entire chain, from insight identification to value proposition writing and now integrate generative AI mastery with IQVentis tools. Each program is adapted to the organization's level and sector. We do not design generic training, like our other services, our approaches are first and foremost the result of your ecosystem, because no two companies are alike.

I started collaborating with Marc Papanicola (Insightquest) in 2012, to develop the expertise of our marketing and project management teams, at both operational and managerial levels. Nearly 2,800 people have now been trained.
Each new training was designed in a very collaborative manner, with Marc focusing on understanding the organizational and cultural context of the teams.
An approach that earns him the acclaim of trainees, who highlight his dynamism, great expertise, and all perceive the concrete implications in their work.
Malika FERREIRA Customer Centricity Program Manager, Orange
Positive and joyful energy at the end of this exciting training day: a dense day rich in content, led with passion, humor and rigor, sparking discussions, questions and answers for teams ready to put into practice immediately!
Nourite ELADAN-BERTEIN Director of International Studies and Consumer & Shopper Insight, Guerlain, LVMH Group

9 500+

professionals trained since 2012

In 17 countries, for R&D, marketing, research and communications teams, from major international groups to innovative SMEs.

Consumer insight mastery

Fundamental program: insight identification, formulation, evaluation. Theory, sector examples, hands-on exercises on your real cases, field immersion.

Value proposition writing

Mastering the insight → benefit → RTB → concept chain. Writing robust marketing concepts, agency briefs, committee project defense.

Practical cases

We strongly encourage our clients to participate in our training using current practical cases, preferably on ongoing projects to be as close as possible to real application conditions. A useful way to progress while advancing these projects.

Generative AI applied to marketing

Understanding the challenges of Generative AI in a CMI, Marketing, Communication and R&D context is now also part of the contributions we offer.

Bespoke & international formats

In-person (1 to 4 days depending on format), virtual classroom, e-learning modules, hybrid formats. Programs in French and English. Level and sector adaptation.

✓ 9,500+ professionals trained✓ 17 countries, FR & EN✓ R&D, marketing, research, communications teams
Going further: strategic emergence with Kozapark →
06

Kozapark

Strategic emergence for teams and leaders

What if the techniques used to steer major international brands could also serve to steer your own positioning and that of your team?

Kozapark was born from this intuition, carried by Sandra Bretagne-Chéritat, certified coach from ICN Business School and MBTI© certified, 20 years of marketing experience (L'Oréal, Opinionway, Kantar). Her research thesis on hybridizing strategic brand management and coaching gave birth to an original strategic emergence methodology.
The concept builds on brand anthropomorphism applied to individuals: the same tools that build a brand's positioning, differentiation and vision are deployed to help leaders and teams clarify their posture, impact and alignment. Today, this approach is augmented by AI to accelerate awareness and activate transformation.

Kozapark Visit Kozapark

6 modules

A well-structured program in 6 ninety-minute modules

Meaning: Define direction, purpose or vocation.
Emotion: Identify emotional drivers and relational dynamics.
Diagnosis: Assess strengths, weaknesses and current situation.
Benchmark: Position yourself relative to your environment (colleagues, market, competitors).
Gap: Measure the distance between current situation and desired objective or positioning.
Signature: Define your unique positioning, your personal or team trademark.
Actions: Implement a concrete action plan to embody and deploy this new strategy.

Individual strategic emergence

Coaching managers and leaders at key moments (onboarding, reorganization, new ambitions). Posture clarification, differentiation, identity alignment.

Collective strategic emergence

Coaching marketing, research, communications teams toward shared strategic alignment. Shared vision, ambition definition, cohesion, collective dynamics.

MBTI assessments & team diagnostics

Mapping profiles and relational dynamics. Identifying collaboration levers, complementarities and friction zones.

AI-augmented coaching

Hybridizing coaching modules with artificial intelligence: reinforcing effectiveness, accelerating collective awareness, activating transformation.

✓ Sandra Bretagne-Chéritat, ICN certified coach✓ MBTI Test✓ 6 precise modules

The entire value chain,
augmented by AI

IQVentis is not a ChatGPT wrapper. Each module is structured through our mastery and expertise in each of the territories we cover.

01

Clarify my market challenges

Insights and foresight to frame your strategy.

+

Insights

Structured insight generation from your sources.

Prospective

Scenarios and trends to anticipate your market.

02

Reveal and bring my targets to life

Activatable personas and conversational agents.

+

Personae

Creation of enriched and activatable personas.

Persona Bot

Your personas become interactive AI agents.

03

Build my brand platform

Positioning, vision, expression territory.

+

Brand Platform

AI-assisted brand platform construction.

Brand Platform Challenge

AI challenges and strengthens your positioning.

04

Generate and improve my ideas

From raw concept to tested and polished concept.

+

Concepts

Real-time illustrated concept generation.

Concept Challenge

AI evaluation: strengths, weaknesses, differentiation.

Concept vs Personae

Test each concept against your AI personas.

Concept Polish

Refining wording, benefits and RTBs.

05

Plan the next steps of my project

Packaging, activation and semiotic analysis.

+

Packaging

Packaging concepts aligned with your concept.

Packaging Challenge

AI packaging analysis: coherence, impact.

Semio Neuro

Semiotic and neuro-marketing analysis of your assets.

Activation

Communication prototypes calibrated to your targets.

06

Help and MasterClasses

FAQ, chatbot and videos to go deeper.

+

FAQ & Chatbot

FAQ and Chatbot to help you.

MasterClasses

Video masterclasses to go deeper.

IQVentis Request a demo

Team

Marc Papanicola

Marc Papanicola

Founder

Marc, founder of Insightquest, supports major companies in innovation and customer experience. A former director of international institutes and econometrics graduate, he leads quantitative approaches, facilitates value proposition workshops and develops advanced data analysis models for numerous clients. Marc works in French and English.

Sandra Bretagne

Sandra Bretagne

Managing Partner

Sandra, managing partner, is an expert in brand strategy, communication and digital challenges. A graduate of Sciences Po and INSEAD, this former Kantar manager supports her clients through qualitative approaches. She is also a certified executive branding coach and MBTI practitioner. Sandra works in French and English.

Julia Pradeaud

Julia Pradeaud

Senior Client Director

Julia, senior client director, has been supporting international brands in innovation and marketing strategy since 2017. A management and INSEAD graduate, she has extensive cross-sector experience gained at Kantar and Brain Value. She excels in qualitative research, design thinking and training.

Rocio Soler

Rocio Soler

Consultant & Senior Project Manager

Rocio has been coordinating Insightquest's qualitative and quantitative studies since 2023 and contributing to their analysis. With ten years of experience at Nielsen in Argentina, then Kantar and Ipsos in France, this Buenos Aires political science graduate ensures quality and timely delivery. She works in Spanish.

Louise Masure

Louise Masure

Marketing Consultant

Louise, marketing consultant since 2023, conducts qualitative and quantitative studies while facilitating various workshops. A dual graduate of Sciences Po Paris and Paris Dauphine, she draws on her strong advertiser background in product development at Yves Rocher and L'Oréal.

Ready to transform your challenges
into competitive advantage?

Contact us. We will analyze your challenges together and identify the approaches that best suit you.

No commitment · 30 minutes · With a senior consultant

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