We want to quantify and categorize people, we try to create algorithms to predict unpredictable human lives and shove people into focus groups with two way mirrors, feed them crap snacks and hope to understand how they live their lives and how our brands can play a meaningful role in their lives. The root of evil comes from innovating against the business goal to fill business budget gaps versus innovating against human desire and needs.I will share concrete examples of how Bacardi has "saved humans" from the Consumer Matrix through brave and human-centric research approaches.
F*ck Focus Groups: The case for human first fearless research.3 takeaways:- It's easy to default and focus on what matters to the business. It's braver - and smarter - to put humans at the heart of everything we do. Let's begin with our humans and their story - and why we must start with our humans.- Our connection with humanity is broken. We want to quantify and categorise people, we try to create algorithms to predict unpredictable human lives which are cozier, messier, real and quite imperfect. Do traditional qualitative methods work in helping us understand people or should we evolve?- It's scary but brave and maybe even a little provocative and uncomfortable, but are there new ways to reconnect with humanity through fearless human-centric research?
Why not make use of smartphones during focus groups instead of forbidding them? Within traditional focus groups, verbal communication is leading. We, as moderators, perceive smartphones as devices that distract respondents from the subject and that disturb the focus group. On the other hand we all know that the smartphone is our buddy and we understand that people don't like to switch it off or lay it apart. This made us wonder: why not use these buddies as an extra sensor during focus groups, instead of feeling annoyed about them? Could we use this focus on the smartphone-buddy to increase focus on the discussion? Motivaction and Noterik have developed a technology (VisualFocus) that visualises smartphone activities on a central screen. We use this technology to get individual reactions before discussing things in the group, and to spice up our focus groups. VisualFocus is fun for respondents, for clients and for the moderators.
Through this study, Viacom set out to learn the 'secret sauce' of the best festivals and to evaluate how that might be improved. This paper summarises the key findings from the study and presents a 'festival framework', identifying the key ingredients to get right, as well as those that are not as important. It provides a comprehensive understanding of music festivals, along with the opportunities and challenges that they present for brands.
This paper will examine new enabling tools in the manner of games that can be used to convert and enrich the conventional focus group discussion. This shall be demonstrated using a couple of case studies from Indonesia.
The task: Evaluate hospitality, cleanliness, safety, and announcements of Deutsche Bahn, Germanys national rail. The answer: This study was not conducted in a clinical facility where experiences and expectations were explored retrospectively to evaluate the gap between real experience and ideal experience'. This study went a step further: Deutsche Bahn provided a train where onsite scenario groups were conducted. During these groups, a train attendant acted as stimulus for hospitality. Safety was evaluated by bringing respondents into an uncomfortable situation: hooligans interrupted discussions and made the moderator leave to get help. These and other scenarios provided an authentic, emotional feedback and helped Deutsche Bahn understand the needs of their clients with more depth.