The presentation of qualitative research findings present challenges which are unique to it as against a quantitative research finding, whereas it is taken for granted that quantitative findings are more objective/scientific/more factual, and need an 'expert'; analysis for interpretation.The qualitative researcher has to present his/her findings much like a tease artist, unveiling information and findings in a manner such that the unique perspective of the researcher is a destination arrived upon by the audience and not jumped to by means of premature conclusions. In a way it much akin to the art of the story teller, structuring the pattern of the exposition of information in a manner such that the interest remains piqued and involved and the finding is revealed as a narrative climax.Comic books have an ability to condense narrative into overviews, after all comic books have converted great literary works into just a few illustrated pages. They condense Moby Dick down to 12 pages and provide a version of Great Expectations that can be read in 15 minutes.This report looks at whether comics can provide the qualitative researcher with a means of putting a huge amount of data in a clean and condensed manner, and flexibility of getting more data if so required.
This paper examines the influence of Sacred Geometry in making unconscious connections with the human mind thus, making the understanding of brands and logos go beyond semiotics.Working with a variety of brands, packaging and logos, it is quite evident that certain packaging or logos stick in the consumers minds as being 'it' nice but I can't quite put my finger on it. This is more relevant in times when a wide range of brands are competing for consumer mind space. The consumer is bombarded with more communications than ever before. In this scenario, lots of brands get a chance to speak to the consumer on a one-to-one basis at the retail shelf. This is when pack/product shape, pack design and logo become handy as communication tools. This is over and beyond the fact that logos/shapes and symbols have a long lasting image perception in the consumer's mind.
Life is one big story and as market researchers we make it our stock in trade to turn certain lives, the attitudes, behaviours and preferences that cascade in these lives into stories. As well as factual and relevant, we try to make them lively, colourful, interesting and illuminating. This conference focuses on generating great stories, telling them and then living them. We also have a story to tell. But ours is not about consumers the so-often quoted subject of stories and the central character in so many cases. Our story is about employees. They are perceived by some to be the minor character in a sexy story about consumers, marketing plans, brand strategy and new product development. We argue differently. We feel they are central characters and their story is an important theme in the consumer story.But our story is not just unique because it is about employees. It is unique on other levels. It uses several theoretical frameworks in its narrative. Blending anthropology of the body, transactional analysis and subtle aspects of feminist sociology, it tells a tale of female train operators (FTOs who drive Underground trains) and their personal needs relief (PNRs). It tells of how they have to ask to use the toilet facilities. It tells of how this makes them feel guilty and embarrassed. It delves into the feelings of the storyteller when confronted with a highly sensitive and personal account of bodily functions.
What is storytelling and how can it be applied to a market research context?The very notion of storytelling having any application to business and to research (given its scientific heritage) is an arguably novel concept. It is only recently as narrative research practices have infiltrated allied disciplines such as psychology, gender studies, education, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, law and history that the subject of the business narrative has become a topical subject for discussion.Qualitative research has historically been criticised for its subjectivity and over-reliance on the skill and person of the researcher. It is consequently surprising that a partnership with storytelling would now be considered. This crosses a boundary that qualitative research has always been careful not to overstep the boundary between being classified as art versus science.
The main focus of this paper is to illustrate how one Asian automotive manufacturer applied an innovative qualitative research approach utilizing several methods from a number of disciplines across multiple dimensions to gather critical customer input during the creation and development of both vehicle interiors and exteriors for the 2010 year models. This approach consisted of using ideation, innovation, and triangulation methods which were developed in conjunction with experts from multiple disciplines in order to fully assess the future "needs" and "wants" of the next generation of consumers. This essay will attempt to illustrate how this research design was developed, tested, and applied in the advanced product development process. There will be an attempt to illustrate how this qualitative approach is much more than the simple application of various/random traditional qualitative techniques, but rather an integration and application of key methods and techniques which were utilized to illustrate and highlight critical aspects of the product design cycle from the customer point of view.
Consumer culture is a complex phenomenon of visual representations and the politics of visibility. Products have become markers of social distinction and form a distinctive part of people's lives. Brands are partners in achieving social goals (emotional, interpersonal, experimental) and consumers are purposeful when entering into relationships with brands, choosing brands that will allow them to achieve their desired goals. In this way, brands become instrumental partners in our lives, as brands allow us to construct and strengthen our identity. This paper offers a hypothesis that brands have social lives as they enter into relationships with people. It proposes that we have to adopt semiotic approaches to explore the multiplicity of such relationships.
Several market research studies concluded that in Latin America, design/form represents a strong competitive differential in the cell phone market. In Latin America, design works as a strong compelling element to cell phone consumers.However, the form factor is built on an infinite base of configurations of their design elements. Understanding the basis of attraction and choice of one form in detriment of others in four socio-cultural environments presuppose the understanding of individual and social human aspects which interfere in the creation of references.In Design Deep Dive, the ethnographic approach allowed contact with the elements for the contextualization of the human perception process which determines the choice and the attraction for certain forms and cell phone configurations.
This paper is based on Philips Design&Research through Design program, intended to develop business options with high potential value and in a timely manner. The paper outlines an approach to assessing and evaluating innovative experience solutions presented as tangible experience demonstrators that are being developed to have people create their own relevant and meaningful experiences.
Synaesthesia is the branch of neuroscience that studies anomalies of perception: subjects who have a multi-coloured vision by listening to a voice, or see numbers and letters in colour, hear a sound by looking pictures, etc. The objective of this paper is to show how Synaesthesia, together with other techniques, constitutes an important bridge for communicating with those over 65 years. It identifies, in fact, ways that could be useful in extending the categories of products currently not available to the most 'self-sufficient' part of this group.
It has become increasingly critical for the market research industry to provide deeper analysis, more compelling insights and highly actionable recommendations generated from the consumer research we provide to clients. This perhaps in large part stems from the fact that our clients increasingly feel the pressure to use market research to its fullest potential, especially given how competitive our client markets are, how slim their profit margins are and how even small innovations can be the difference between a successful or unsuccessful year.It appears the debate with many clients has shifted from merely trying to convince them of the significant value qualitative research has (especially in relation to quantitative) to that of discussing how they want to use new approaches and how they need to find ways of getting richer insights. Clients have clearly become more sophisticated, which has had implications on our role as market research providers. These implications are discussed in detail in the following pages.
Developing innovative products and creating different ideas has never been a problem for Unilever. The company spent years and years investing in internal techniques and processes to ensure the development of innovative products for the marketplace. The aim of each launch is always to anticipate trends, or at least keep up with them, since most project development begins two years before their launch. However, testing innovation has always been a problem. Very bold, innovative ideas or ideas that did not make an immediate consumer need explicit were usually rejected, often not because they were irrelevant or uninteresting, but for the simple reason that the consumer was not ready to absorb the information at that time, or because of the language, which was often not the most appropriate or the clearest to explain a given idea.Some alternative techniques were tested for a long time, yet none managed to get beyond evaluating proposed material. More than simply checking whether the idea worked or not, we needed a technique that would build on the ideas with most potential, giving us indications as to how to work them so that they would be more appealing for a launch.It was at that point that Unilever contacted Box 1824, an agency that worked with a different proposition of market segmentation, which directly impacted the evaluation of innovation.
A new media landscape has irrevocably altered how people interact with each other, how communities are formed, how opinions are shared. This landscape is technology-led and technology-enabled, and has occasioned key shifts in the way consumers think about the world around them and about brands.This paper looks at how brands are dealing with these issues and the challenges that face market research.