Media
Mission Statement
The mission of Vinea Research is to support the Church by helping it better understand those it serves through expert market research and insights.
About Vinea
Vinea Research applies proven, business-based and rigorously Catholic market research methods to equip Catholic groups and organizations with vital customer insights. The Church needs data and insight on the body of Christ in order to meaningfully support and nourish it.
Market research with Vinea uncovers customer insights that take your data beyond the 'what'. Vinea digs deeper to give the 'why'. Vinea’s action-oriented recommendations and insights into audience behaviors and underlying motivators equip Catholic apostolates, Church leadership, parishes, and advocacy groups to:
more effectively reach, engage, and motivate their audiences,
create more effective messaging,
demonstrate the effectiveness of programs and products, and
motivate donors and investors.
Because when you speak to someone in their language, they tend to understand.
Download key information about Vinea Research.
Media Contact
Get More Details.
Book An Interivew.
Founder Bio – Hans Plate
Hans has more than 25 years of experience providing professional market research to industry-leading companies such as Pfizer, Medtronic, and Genentech. His research experience includes qualitative moderation and quantitative research design, encompassing varying levels of research complexity and business issues explored.
Hans is a lifelong committed Catholic. His involvement at his local parish includes starting the Greeters Ministry and two different men’s groups (both are active), as well as having served as an RCIA team member and Confirmation catechist.
Hans founded Vinea Research in response to Pope St. John Paul II’s call for the new evangelization to be “new in its ardor, methods, and expression”. He was compelled to apply proven, business-based market research methods to help Catholic organizations get the information they need to better serve their people. As owner and president of the company, Hans combines his market research expertise with his devout Catholic beliefs to provide high-caliber, action-oriented market research to parishes, Church leadership, apostolates and advocacy groups.
Areas of Expertise
Research
Vinea Research offers a full range of market research techniques, including emotive and projective techniques for focus groups and one-on-one interviews, landscape and sentiment studies, impact studies, message optimization and testing, key drivers research, segmentation research, advertising concept testing, initiative prioritization studies, and profiling studies.
Data Collection
Vinea Research specializes in both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques.
Qualitative research techniques include in-person research (in-depth interviews and focus groups) and phone/web assisted qualitative research (telephone interviews, web-assisted telephone interviews, online focus groups and message boards).
Quantitative research techniques consist of in-person and online surveys.
Data Analysis
Vinea’s data analysis techniques include a spectrum of statistical methods to identify patterns, correlations, and insights:
Post-hoc segmentation and landscape studies using factor analysis, cluster analysis, and CART (classification and regression trees)
Messaging research using MaxDiff analysis
Pricing models using a hybrid Van Westendorp pricing scale
Understanding relationships in the data using correlation and regression analysis
About Vinea Research Video
Endorsements
“Vinea Research brings a unique combination of love for the Church, an embracing of Pope John Paul II’s call to a “new evangelization,” and a strategic and action-oriented approach to market research. This combination will give us greater insights into our many stakeholders and help us achieve our mission of equipping college students to embrace Christ, become disciples, and evangelize others with greater efficacy. We are excited to see what God will continue to do for FOCUS in and through Vinea Research.”
— Craig Miller, President, Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS)
“Data Informs Everything We Do”
“Let’s Dig Deeper”
“We Need to Be Intentional”
“Confront It With Facts”
“Knowing the Smell of Your Sheep”
“Speaking Directly to the People We Are Interested In”
“Invest in Research”
“Understand the Context for Ministry”
“Bridging the Gap”
Logos
Team Bios
Matt Christ, Senior Research Analyst
Matt has more than six years of experience running statistical analyses to inform educated predictions and recommendations. He strives to meet research with Catholic values. Matt received a bachelor of science in psychology from Mount St. Mary’s University, and a master’s degree in media psychology from Walden University.
Bruce Johnson, Ph.D., Statistician
Bruce has more than 30 years of survey research experience. He has direct experience creating and analyzing surveys related to product perceptions, market characterization, forecasting, and segmentation across a variety of respondent groups. Bruce is particularly adept at modifying well-known methods to fit specific research problems. Bruce is also a devout Christian.
Krishna Tateneni, Ph.D., Statistician
Krishna has more than 18 years in the development and application of quantitative techniques. He devoted 12 years to quantitative market research in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector, spanning a wide variety of study types and therapeutic categories. He has a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology and an M.A. in cognitive and experimental psychology, both from The Ohio State University.
Cathy Boyd, Moderator
Cathy has spent more than 20 years in market research. She has designed, managed, and executed hundreds of projects in healthcare and for NGOs, such as food policy and hunger organizations. She is the product of 12 years of Catholic schooling, and has a degree in drama criticism from Marymount College of Fordham University. She is passionate about Catholic social justice in the tradition of Pope Francis and Dorothy Day, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to use her market research skills to help advance the mission of the Church.
Karen Deaver, Moderator
Karen has nearly 30 years of project management experience spanning both public and private sectors. She performed consulting and market research in the foods/beverages and healthcare fields, and served in senior statistical and senior program analyst positions for the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Census Bureau. Throughout her career, she has helped organizations achieve their strategic goals by listening to their users' needs. Karen has her undergraduate management and marketing degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a master of public health in biostatistics and epidemiology from Morgan State. She is a RIVA trained moderator and a certified project management professional. Karen is a lifelong Christian who converted to Catholicism in 2000. You can often find her working with youth through volleyball, Scouts, and helping out with school activities wherever she can, and she really enjoys cantoring in her local parish.
Mike Karchner, Moderator
Mike spent 30 years in corporate marketing and marketing research. He has held senior marketing positions at Shell Oil Company and Capital One, and is a deeply experienced moderator. He has industry experience in consumer products, B2B, financial sectors, and healthcare. He is a RIVA Certified Master Moderator, and he earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. In following God’s call, Mike finds conducting research on behalf of not-for-profits, including religious organizations, to be particularly satisfying and rewarding. Born and raised Catholic, he is active in the Knights of Columbus, local parish prayer groups and serves as an extraordinary minister.