INDEX Food Neighbourhoods Parenting Tablehopping Farre Bob Mackin News Reporter bmackin@usnews.com BRENDA Farrell says she should’ve been an anthro- pologist. Instead, the West Vancouverite owns a market research firm and employs 40 people on the 12th floor of Vancouver's Marine Building in an office thar faces the North Shore. But she’s not complaining. “TL love people, I love exploring ideas and looking for needles in a haystack of peo- ples’ conversations,” Farrell says. “This is something I love to do, it’s something that’s very natural for me and has developed inwo a skill J appreciate.” Farrell, 51, »pened Farrell re:search Group in 1985 in the basement of her home and moved into a downtown office within a year. She had been vice-president of Vancouver mar- ket research firm Campbell Farrell and decided to try a different career, selling Jaguars and Porsches at Vancouver's upscale MCL Motor Cars. But she was drawn back to market research by former clients who missed working with her. Farrell re:search Group is a full-service company that conducts qualitative and quantitative research and analysis through focus groups and telephone surveys. Simply put, qualitative research ventures to find out why, whereas quantitative research is about how many. She recently worked with an advertising agency to prepare the launch of a campaign for Telus Mobility. The four-phase project involved both qualitative and quantitative research. “It’s probably been one of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on because it was irom begin- ning to end,” she says. “Concept-genevation to final ‘disaster check* before it goes to production.” Farrell admits people are often) skeptical of research companies. “People often are wary about when they're being called by a research company, we're members of the Better Business Bureau, which f explicitly did so people can check us out. “[ think chat people have a right to be cautious, but they should listen to the name of the company calling them. “Jf Farrell re:seareh calls they should do the sur- vey, because it’s in their best interest. They will get the products and services they are asking for if they participate.” Her client roster includes Telus, BC Hydro, Starbucks Coffee, Canada Wide Magazines, Trans See Company following page How was NEWS photo Mike Wakefield WEST Vancouver's Brenda Farrell started Farrell re:search Group in 1985 in her basement. Today the company conducts telephone surveys, focus groups and online research. home at culture gathering I don’t know if P’ve ever confessed this to anyone before, but I’m not a particularly cul- tured person. Oh sure, I appreciate the finer things in hfe, like music, movies, and cold beers after a round of golf. But for the most part, I guess I'm a bit of 'a hack when it comes to culture — you know, [like to get out and play occasionally, but | don’t really know what [ra doing. So for me to venture out on a Friday night and attend a live theatrical performance is somewhat out of the ordinary. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy live theatre, I do. In fact, when I was in uni- versity I had season's tickets to no less than three produc- tion companies. But I could stay awake past 9:30 p.m. in those days, and | had only myself to take care of. Since I've had kids Pve seen a lot of plays, bur only two of them had grown-ups in them; one was about the life of Vancouver's own flam- boyant mega-promorer Marray Pezim, and the other was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (kind ofa “coming out” for me, Pd been a closet Donny Osmond fan since I was 15). See Rlack page SOURCE FOR SPORTS 1199 Lynn Vailey Road, Lynn Valley Centre North Vancouver 930-9211 email: tosports@direct.ca_ ~ your run today?