What if market research could model an entire country instead of surveying a few thousand people?

In this episode of Stories and Strategies, Farzana Baduel and Doug Downs speak with Eike Hartmann, Vice President of Custom Research and Insights at Statista, about the emerging concept of synthetic populations. Instead of relying only on surveys or focus groups, researchers can now model digital populations that mirror real statistical patterns across millions of people.

The conversation explores how this approach could make research faster, more affordable and more precise. It also raises bigger questions about the future of polling, behavioural modelling and how organisations might make strategic decisions when data can simulate entire societies rather than simply sample them.