PARTICIPANTS ARE FOR LIFE, NOT JUST YOUR SURVEY!

Prepared for R-Net by: Louise Hitchen – louise.hitchen@incling.co.uk

Juliet Pascall – juliet.pascall@incling.co.uk 22.09.2014

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Hello, we are incling…

…a consumer insight consultancy with an entrepreneurial spirit and a can do attitude. We see collaboration as the foundation of empowering insight and specialise in creating bespoke online communities, complemented by engaging face to face sessions, for brands to have inclusive conversations with their consumers and stakeholders.

We are going to question 5 widely held beliefs in market research, sharing examples and a few tips and exercises that we hope will help you change your day to day work. Importantly, this is based on our experience, it is not a definitive guide. We want to present you with a starting point for further conversation.

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Market research is steeped in tradition

Client

Researcher

Participant

This traditional approach is… Hierarchical Treats the ‘respondent’ as a subject to be observed Hides business objectives Positions the researcher and client are consultative experts

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But we are facing a brave new world…

And have the opportunity to take new approaches that are… Flat and inclusive Treat participants as active project members Share business objectives and challenges Co-created solutions, customers are also experts

Client Researcher

Participant

Our mission is to transform some of the traditional market

research beliefs and we have started the ball rolling with 5 of

our own…

Belief 1: Consumers are research respondents

This implies a hierarchical relationship where there is an assumed power and knowledge differential between those

conducting the research and those being researched.

Why?

…we saw relationships as the source of our results and assumed that you need to build trusting relationships for good co-creation and to

get more realistic insight/candid opinions?

GIVE MORE, GET MORE

take the time to share and

be vulnerable

HUMANS ARE SOCIAL CREATURES… and we are programmed

to give back when something is given to us.

You can use this principle to establish a relationship and get more depth from

participants with these ideas…

1.  Provide a space for customers to own or set the agenda – give them the reins and an opportunity to benefit from the research

2.  Be vulnerable and answer your own question first, show customers that you are willing to give as much as they are. This

also sets the tone for later responses.

3.  Share genuine results and challenge your clients to tell you what has been done with the research

Belief 2: Some participants are naturally creative, others are not.

Many brands are benefiting from crowdsourcing and the belief that good ideas can come form anyone, anywhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZXBfQqC6F0

GOOD IDEAS CAN COME FROM ANYWHERE

Often it is the small idea that ends up winning out. You just need to create the right environment for people to contribute and feel good about it.

YES BUT/YES AND - AN EXERCISE TO GET YOU ALL INVOLVED…

‘Yes but’ is adversarial, no progress is made while ‘yes and’ encourages engagement and

sharing without inhibition. It reframes the rules of engagement.

Divide into pairs. Everyone on the right of the partnership you are

going to be the ‘yes but’ person, everyone on the left you are going to be the ‘yes and’ person. Take one min for each side to

answer a question (e.g. what should I do for my next holiday) and the other person to reply with ‘yes and’ or ‘yes but’. Discuss how

everyone felt answering with ‘yes but’ then ‘yes and’ and suggest that for the rest of the meeting/workshop that everyone build on

ideas with ‘yes and’.

Belief 3: Do not share too much information, it will affect the results

BETTER ENGAGEMENT LEADS TO BETTER INSIGHT

When we share objectives, and upskill participants, we

find that it’s a virtuous cycle of engagement

WHY SHARING IS SO IMPORTANT…

1. If you don’t share the ‘why’ behind the

questions you’re asking, whichever method you’re using, participants are less likely to be engaged and invested in giving you answers.

2. Hidden objectives create uncertainty

because consumers don’t feel like they know the agenda or where the questions are heading, leading to ‘safe’ responses.

We share as much as possible with our community members and reap the

benefits…

Stylist Reader “I really enjoyed being part of the community

and also reading other people’s points of view.

I felt like we were getting a little inside scoop on the magazine too, which is nice - makes you feel like Stylist really cares about their readers and want to do what is best for them. It also

feels quite exclusive and special.”

Belief 4: We can get participants to focus on one specific problem

WHATEVER YOU RESIST WILL PERSIST!

If you resist allowing your co-

creators to express their fears and frustrations, it will dominate their thinking throughout the process.

Allow your participants to clear the past because only then, will they be truly productive and focus on your

challenge.

Dear Martin…

My  only  real  gripe  is  when  you  feature  fashion  ar1cles.  A  lot  of  the  1me,  they  are  extremely  expensive.  If  we're  hi<ng  the  average  modern  man,  yes  we  take  care  of  ourselves  and  like  to  wear  the  latest  fashion  trends,  but  not  everyone  has  £1,000  to  spend  on  one  wardrobe  piece.    We  may  all  want  to  aspire  to  dress  head  to  toe  in  Tom  Ford,  but  perhaps  you  can  lower  the  budget  to  more  of  the  high  street  brands?  Or  tailor  for  3  different  budgets?  top,  middle,  lower.    Keep up the good work, Cheers Apepp

I'm  a  big  fan  of  ShortList...  The  copy  is  well  wriMen  and  wiMy,  and  is  certainly  on  trend  with  my  personality,  so  I  would  hope  the  average  man’s  too(?).      I  really  like  the  wide  range  of  topics  covered,  from  what  to  do  in  London/Leeds/Manchester,  to  what  CDs  to  listen  to  and  what  industry  insiders  reckon  are  the  whiskys.      I'm  also  a  fan  of  Danny  Wallace's  column,  so  please  keep  that  too.      

To achieve this we ask customers to write a postcard to the CEO and tell them:

What they think the brand should continue doing

Where they see opportunities for the brand

Before we move onto the final belief help me finish this sentence, this restaurant is……

And this one is…..

Belief 5: The questions we ask are more important than the environment we ask them in

CREATE THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT

All you need to do is think about the good and bad parties or

restaurants you may have visited to understand how the

environment plays a role in how you feel, your experience and your consequent behaviour.

A FEW IDEAS TO TAKE AWAY…

1.  Get your clients to dress like respondents if they’re in the room (and we recommend that they are!)

2.  Don’t let your clients convince you to save money by hosting the group in their store cupboard!

3.  Send out invitations with what to expect, some teasers about topics to be covered (where possible in a pre-task) so that they come prepped and ready to go.

4.  If you are working online use Intuitive technology that is well-designed.

5.  Give a sense of ownership by providing participants with a space to start their own discussions.

Be human and show every research participant trust and respect

call us on… +44 (0)203 070 3936

find out more at… www.incling.co.uk

drop us a note at… info@incling.co.uk

Follow up discussion with the R-Net audience Market research assumptions or practices that we could be thinking about and challenging. •  Respondent should not know each other. •  When completing online surveys participants are completely focused – only doing one

thing. •  Participants should not do market research more than once every 6 months. •  Clients do not want to share their objectives with the participants because this will

reveal their strategy which is confidential. •  Giving away too much information on what the survey is about will bias the results. •  Online participants are boring for respondents. •  Respondents don’t care…Researchers don’t care about respondents. •  Presenting results can and should be more than just PowerPoint. •  When work is commissioned the client knows the process and how the project will run. •  Participants are dumb, create surveys that children can understand. •  Participants only answer surveys for money.

Follow up discussion with the R-Net audience Ideas to help us challenge some of the assumptions and established practices. •  If it is not possible to give away information at the start give it at the end. Perhaps a

link etc. •  Videos, voxpops, interactive maps, prezi presentations and bulletin boards are a

much more engaging way of presenting results. •  No one way mirrors, bring your clients into the focus group or workshop. •  Ask fewer, better, more engaging questions. •  Use props to compliment the research theme. •  Encourage multiplatform engagement with participants. •  Organise brainstorming sessions to see how to engage participants and what is

feasible within the project budget. •  We run 2 day deliberative workshops where we invite people to attend without

knowing what will be discussed. At the workshops we have expert presentations on the issue to inform attendees, followed by activities and discussions to address a number of objectives and co-develop solutions. Attendees often feel empowered and passionate about the issues as a result and we get some really useful insights.

•  Focus groups should be in an environment that really inspires participants. We conducted a focus group recently in the space centre to get participants to think about future travel.

•  Put effort into a fun invite and fun questionnaire.