In our world, the boundaries are shifting between the public, the personal and the private. Now that it is so easy to share aspects of our inner life with the rest of the world up-to-the-minute, multi-media, deeply exposing or personal revelations; we, as qualitative researchers, need to review whether our own practices should change in the wake of this cultural shift. When is it still relevant to promise the people we speak with that their footage won't show up on the Internet&; and, on the other hand, when is it more appropriate to incentivize respondents by the promise that it will? This is just one example of how dramatically the culture of exposure affects our craft. Drawing from our work with a fascinating array of people ranging from superbloggers to hermits, we'll share our learning on this broad cultural trend, and then go on to highlight what this means for qualitative research; how we need to adapt our methodologies to yield intimate dialogue with people in this new world, and evolve our interpretative models to maximize learning for our clients.
We conceived a study in which we explored what makes people act, at the most fundamental level and, further, what makes people act on behalf of brands. In this paper, we'll explain what's behind an openness to act on behalf of brands, what needs this fulfills, what brands need to do and be in order to inspire action, what they get out of it, and finally what all this means for us as qualitative researchers. Our participation journey led us to a clear understanding that successful brands today focus less on the external project of how to create participation, and more on the internal project of how to create useful, engaging and distinctive brands. This internal brand focus results in a magnetism that makes people instinctively want to participate. Compelling and irresistible brands attract organic participation that builds the brand story and advances consumers' relationship with the brand. On the other hand, participative communications risk remaining outside of the brand context and thus lack meaning and power. Our learnings clearly demonstrate to us that the role of researchers must evolve in order to help clients take advantage of the current world and become more worthy of the participative energy of the people we speak with in our professional lives.