Breaking Rules in Consumer

Research

Breaking Rules

Enhancing your decision making...in just

5 minutes

A Futures Coaching initiative

www.futurescoaching.com

#1 Favour in-depths For real depth of understanding always

go for one-on-ones over focus groups

Could a focus group ever tell you that some nature-lovers use binoculars to

approach God?

#2 Pick experience Too many tasks have been wrongly

downgraded and given to juniors Did you really want a chaotic 75 page desk research report or 3 pages giving

you precise & meaningful insights? Reevaluate the experience needed to

complete research tasks

#3 Look for the essence Avoid transcripts and videos: no one

(should) have the time to review these What counts is: the essential, the

break-through insight, the 'aha!' moment

A BIG outcome from a focus group could be a one liner: not a

presentation deck

#4 Use innovative methods A big agency billed a training session I attended 'New research techniques for

the new decade', then presented semiotics, lexical analysis & tracking!

Their justification: a new wave of researchers find this stuff new

There is little innovation in research so insist on new ways; new approaches

#5 Reject research as a job A major FMCG firm has an overflow of

customer, shopper & channel data Its insights team see running research

studies as their job Avoid this: delivering business goals is

the real objective, a task which is (sometimes) supported by research

#6 Become your consumer What do consumers say? Become the

consumer of your products and you'll already have the first insights

When I worked for Habitat, I had to spend days in store; working for Olam

(a commodities company) requires time spent living & working in the

countryside

#7 Probe people How many times have I seen user-

based segmentations? But we are consumers for a fraction of our lives

People are more than consumers: they have jobs, friends, hobbies - & all this

colours attitudes & behaviours Research real people in their everyday

lives first before drilling down to purchase & usage

#8 Know your culture Working with Ford, they wanted databooks; Virgin Atlantic wanted

interpretation Know that company cultures dictate the type of research that is 'required'

Know too, that there are times when the real research need is at odds with

what the culture normally dicates

#9 Focus on the last 5 items Huge U&A surveys are overloaded

with detailed questions But questions near the end can often

be the key to decode the results I particularly like value statements

tacked on the back so I know, the 'who?' and not just the 'how

much/how often/why'

#10 Cut down your budget Even with complex targeting,

incremental focus groups deliver diminishing returns

I've seen 8 even 16 groups commissioned when 4 would have

given 95%+ of insights In-depths are the same. Did 72 make the study more robust or were the last

42 interviews giving the same thing?

Enhance your decision-making

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What is Futures Coaching up to during May 2012?

Helping reinvent an entire supermarket department

Preparing an international innovations project for a winning global brand

Building a Key Note for NGO Fundraisers in Geneva in June

Pitching to build an international development strategy for a major European agency

Planning a business trip to Jakarta and Singapore

Pitching some new book ideas to Pearson

Website: www.futurescoaching.comBlog: http://futurescoaching.typepad.com

Email: chris@futurescoaching.com

LONDON • PARIS