Ep. 421 – SampleCon 2021 Highlights: Howard Fienberg, Senior VP of Advocacy at Insights Association

Welcome to the SampleCon 2021 Highlights Series. Recorded live in Pasadena, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors, speakers and attendees at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Howard Fienberg, Senior VP of Advocacy at Insights Association. More about SampleCon 2021: https://samplecon.com/ Find Howard Online: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardfienberg/  Website: https://www.insightsassociation.org/  Find Jamin Online: Email: [email protected]  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil  Find Us Online:  Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch  Facebook: www.facebook.com/happymrxp  Website: www.happymr.com  Music:  “Clap Along” by Auditionauti: https://audionautix.com  [00:00:00] Jamin Brazil: Hey, everybody. Live at SampleCon. Howard Fienberg, Insights Association, D. C. lobbyist. It is a pleasure to finally put a face to the name, sir. [00:00:11] Howard Fienberg: Likewise, Jamin. Nice to see you in person. [00:00:13] Jamin Brazil: Yeah. We're at SampleCon. What's it like being with people? [00:00:17] Howard Fienberg: It's kind of cool. Been very excited to be here and to just talk to people in person. And I've had a lot of fun. [00:00:25] Jamin Brazil: A lot of people, a lot of market researchers, don't fully- Including myself- Don't fully understand the role that you've played in maintaining our rights to be able to gather information from consumers and for consumers to be able to give us information that we can use to inform business decisions among the brands that we love. Tell us a little bit about your job and what you're doing. [00:00:50] Howard Fienberg: So I play the role of the all purpose representative for the insights industry. And that means that I am meeting with members of Congress and senators and their staff and state legislators and trying to make them aware of the industry itself, which most people aren't aware. I mean, as most folks that are listening to this podcast probably know, even getting your clients to understand what it is that they're talking to them about can be a bit of a challenge. Policy makers are in a similar boat, sometimes worse, because other than talking to them about political polling, it's something that is completely oblivious to them. So I am trying to explain to them, "All right, well here are the Insight Association members in your constituency." And that gets their attention a little bit like, "Oh, potential voters. I'm gonna pay attention to that." But it's a lot about niche policy issues that even a lot of the policy makers don't fully get the...