NosyHQ is on a mission to close the divide between marketing teams and their customers.
The Napier-based strategic human research agency was launched by Kathryn McGarvey in August 2024.
In an era of data overload, NosyHQ offers a human-centric approach to customer research, addressing the growing disconnect between marketing teams and their audiences.
McGarvey says, “More and more marketers that I speak to are swamped with their day-to-day work and have to rely heavily on data and dashboards, mixed with gut feel and assumptions when making marketing decisions. The challenge with that approach is that it overlooks the human element that’s so crucial for crafting marketing that truly connects with its audience.”
Recognising that smart marketers understand the outsized impact customer research can have on marketing results, McGarvey tested the marketʼs appetite for deeper, more human customer connections and insights, and in the wake of overwhelmingly positive feedback, she founded NosyHQ.
Rich insights
NosyHQ conducts deep-dive, one-on-one customer interviews. This approach allows marketing teams to gain insights that go beyond traditional data points, uncovering customers’ actual needs, wants, challenges, behaviours, motivations and even their media consumption habits and influences.
“In-depth interviews provide a level of understanding that’s simply not possible through quantitative data alone,” McGarvey says. “Itʼs not simply about collecting information. Some of the richest insights come through bringing the customer voices and stories to life for my clients and their management teams. Nothing beats watching faces in a boardroom when I share what customers have actually said – especially when the language gets a bit salty!”
These authentic customer voices have proven particularly valuable for clientsʼ positioning exercises, messaging, copywriting and content creation.
McGarveyʼs marketing career spans 25 years, working at organisations like Telecom (now Spark), Sky UK, the National Bank and Sacred Hill and Mission Estate Wineries.
Deep customer knowledge
The inspiration for NosyHQ came from her experiences at The Meaningful Marketing Co, the marketing consultancy sheʼs run for the last decade.
“Over the past five years, I have insisted on interviewing my clients’ customers,” she recalls. “The insights gained from listening to the people who have already spent money with my clients were such a revelation. Iʼm actually quite embarrassed that I managed to spend so much of my marketing career at such a distance from customers. I wish I had learned earlier how much more effective marketing – and marketing decisions – are when they are based on evidence and deep customer knowledge.”
McGarvey adds, “At the very heart of NosyHQ is the belief that the best way to attract, convert and retain great customers is to truly understand the ones you already have. Itʼs about reconnecting with customers on a human level. In today’s data-driven world, that human connection is more valuable than ever.”