Fresno-based tech executive Jamin Brazil has done more than 600 episodes of his Happy Market Research podcast with corporate heavy hitters as guests. Photo contributed

Fresno’s Jamin Brazil has built a career on utilizing technology and his deep knowledge of market research to gain a unique view on what’s trending and sharing those insights on his podcast.

Brazil’s podcast, Happy Market Research, dives into the into the latest trends in market research with expert interviews and practical advice and strategies for listeners.

Among his numerous roles, Brazil has served as chief marketing officer for FocusVision, a software company providing marketing services intended for online qualitative research now renamed Forsta.

He is also the founder of Decipher in 2000, one of the first market survey platforms. 

Along with being the host of the Happy Market Research podcast, he also serves as the co-founder and CEO of HubUX, a modern project management platform for researchers. 

Brazil debuted his podcast in 2016 without any prior broadcasting or podcast experience. Since its inception, the podcast has had approximately 250,000 downloads. 

He said that in the beginning, editing was a challenge. Other podcasts served as models.

“It definitely got better with time, “Brazil said. “I basically found podcasts that I really liked and tried to mirror their structure.”

Brazil has hosted over 600 podcast episodes with market and research people at major global companies including Frank Gregory, social intelligence lead at Nestle; Kwantum Analytics Founder and CEO Marco Vriens; and VP Global Consumer Insights at Warner Bros. Discovery Natasha Hritzuk. 

Brazil said since his podcast revolves around market research, his guests do need a bit of “gravitas” in the industry. They tend to be associated with larger brands and corporations. 

He said he’s never been turned down by a guest he’s asked to join for being too busy, but some have strict privacy policies with their employers.

CEOs very much pay attention to trends and what consumers are doing, Brazil said. 

The podcast is centered around teaching, informing, and inspiring — themes he tries to incorporate in each episode. 

After a company or brand reaches a certain size, there is not as much executive interaction with customers, which leads to the need for market research. 

The best market research a small or local company can conduct is to talk to their customers, Brazil said. 

He said one of the biggest trends right now is artificial intelligence, which is changing both the way consumer opinions are gathered and how they’re analyzed. 

“It’s a pretty disruptive time. I’d say, from the interviews I’ve done, we are in the most disruptive time. I think this time is more disruptive than we transitioned from paper surveys and phone surveys to online surveys,” Brazil. 

Some companies will adapt and make the investments necessary to stay competitive, as well as employees, but many won’t, which means in about five years they could face financial problems, he said.

Brazil said AI has already entered into the podcast arena, making editing simpler and voice corrections possible. 

He sees the future of podcasting continuing to grow, and that more are choosing to browse social media than consume longform content, representing a shift in the type of entertainment people want.