Living with Consumers: Myths
and Realities
Siamack Salari EverydayLives
FDIN Launching Better Products for Tougher TimesOctober 2008
What we do
Our pitch
The difference between what is said and what is done
Unarticulated needs
What people don’t do or nearly do
How products, brands and services fit into people’s lives
Typical cross market explorations
Segment animation
Documentary
Innovations/NPD
Receptivity
Brand activation
Hopes, fears & dreams
Coffee
Beliefs
Process we have internationalised
Naturalistic filming - no interviews - no sensitisation
Question generation workshop
Co-discoveries (clients come too!)
Final workshop split between debrief & implication finding (examples)
How we use ethnography
Qualitatively
Over time/in context
Film to allow scrutiny and sharing
Adding meaning to films
Helping clients see every day events and realities in fresh new ways
Making the ordinary, extraordinary
How we don’t use ethnography
Quantitatively
Interviews with video cameras
Short in-home visits with discussion guide
Deep theoretics
In isolation
Co-discovery
Pundits
The not so good
Lessons...
Take ethnographic recruitment seriously
Many clients have never ‘seen’ their consumers in real life
Ensure they (the client) are reality checked and earthed
Get sign off for each respondent
Over recruit
And there is always one...
One client/market wanting to sabotage the entire project
Client on whom the study was imposed
Client who already knows...
Client who just doesn’t like ethnography (has had fingers burnt in the past)
Clients who just don’t get it
Keys to successful outcomes
Why involve clients?
“In-home visits aren’t a day at the zoo...”
Clients need to own some of the thinking/insights
Ownership means advocacy and adoption
More powerful than any report, clip or it’s contents
Process
Unwittingly we have created a challenge
The QGW leaves clients desperate to know what subjects were thinking
They can’t wait to join the co-discovery sessions
Each ‘adopts’ their favourite household
Each will also have their least favourite household
What are client’s expectations?
Unimportant - it’s our job to set expectations from the outset (most have never engaged in our kind of ethnography)
Must capture lists
Expect delays with recruitment and in-home
Our views and meanings over what they see and hear on films - i.e. interpretation
Interpretation based on many perspectives not least the subjects’
Icing on cake
Is video boring
If too long, yes
Limit to 90 seconds (ideally) per clip and 4 clips per insight or theme
Don’t just let your audience view the films in silence - add meaning, flag things they would never have seen
Pester
Frozen treat
Steak & sizzle
In-home experience - with real people, real grounding and reality checks
Powerful on-line (Web 2.0) film and insight resource
Real actions and next steps unravelled and agreed among clients (break out groups)
Content which is viral and easily shared e.g. online
Clients who can own insights
Top Related