The future of questions
Everyone likes to make predictions as one year closes and another begins with fresh hopes, although fewer go back to check what they said previously (with some notable exceptions). Rather than make predictions, most of which are guaranteed not to happen, I would like to share a hope for how market research can reinvent itself for the future. In sharing my hope I can also share some of the changes that I believe will happen at some time in the near future (I would never be confident enough to say that it will be in 2012).
My big wish is that market research can start to get beyond its obsession with questions. Read more »
Market research and product testing
The history of product testing is long and can trace its path back to many diverse fields along a similar timespan to that of market research (back to the 1920s when the science was first introduced to manage product quality). Sensory science developed at a fast rate in the 1950s and 1960s, when different techniques for the ‘descriptive analysis’ of products were developed, starting with the flavor profile method, in the fast developments of the consumer goods industries which followed the end of the second world war. The science was boosted by the publication of Stevens’ landmark textbook on psychophysics in the mid-1970s and has come a long way in the last 50 years.
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Questions, questions
After watching the world go by for a while, you may still have some unanswered questions which means it may be time to start a conversation with your customers. Although more than 90% of communication is non-verbal, there is a huge amount to be learnt from listening to consumers (and asking the occasional question), especially when this is done in the right way. Read more »
Getting started in research
Last week I was asked to facilitate a workshop for marketing and communication professionals to empower them to build their understanding of consumers through their own investigations. The workshop covered some of the key psychological insights, but focused on practical ways to help them observe, listen and ask questions in a more structured way. The session was great fun, and over the next two articles I can share some of the practical tips I gave them. Today I will focus on observation, which should always come before asking and listening. Read more »
The transformation of market research
Last week I spent a great two days taking part in the MRSS Asia Research Conference (declaration: I had also been involved in it’s organisation). On the first day, more than twenty young (and occasionally old) researchers took part in two stimulating workshops exploring research in the facebook age, and the busy executive’s guide to social media. On the second day of the conference, 10 world class speakers spoke on a range of topics connected to the future of research in Asia.
My key take aways fall into four areas: the importance of emotions, the power of measuring real behaviours, the value of contextualising survey questions and the reality of Asia’s ageing population (surprisingly I’ve come back to affect, behaviour and context again!). Read more »
Learning the research alphabet
There are clear lessons for market research (and marketing which I will explore in separate posts) from the importance of affect, behaviour and context in understanding ourselves and our customers. I am writing this listening to Bill Evans and Tony Bennett, so it seems appropriate to argue that research needs to become more VOCAL. Read more »
“Perfect behaviour is born of complete indifference.” - Cesare Pavese Read more »
“Good design is also an act of communication between the designer and the user, except that all the communication has to come about by the appearance of the device itself. The device must explain itself.” - Donald Norman Read more »
“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” - John Donne
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In a thought provoking article on BBC News website, Michael Blastland discusses the use of the “Don’t know” response in social surveys and argues that “Don’t know” often masks an “It depends” response. I agree with him that respondents often feel that “Don’t know” is a default answer, in the face of insufficient context, and Robert Bain also talked about this in his recent article on being a fake online respondent. Read more »
