Living with Consumers: Myths and Realities

1. Living with Consumers: Myths and Realities • Siamack Salari EverydayLives • FDIN Launching Better Products for Tougher Times • October 2008

2. What we do

3. Our pitch • The difference between what is said and what is done • Unarticulated needs • What people don’t do or nearly do • How products, brands and services fit into people’s lives

4. Typical cross market explorations • Segment animation • Documentary • Innovations/NPD • Receptivity • Brand activation

5. Hopes, fears & dreams

6. Coffee

7. Beliefs

8. Process we have internationalised • Naturalistic filming - no interviews - no sensitisation • Question generation workshop • Co-discoveries (clients come too!) • Final workshop split between debrief & implication finding (examples)

9. How we use ethnography • Qualitatively • Over time/in context • Film to allow scrutiny and sharing • Adding meaning to films • Helping clients see every day events and realities in fresh new ways • Making the ordinary, extraordinary

10. How we don’t use ethnography • Quantitatively • Interviews with video cameras • Short in-home visits with discussion guide • Deep theoretics • In isolation

11. Co-discovery

12. Pundits

13. The not so good

14. Lessons... • Take ethnographic recruitment seriously • Many clients have never ‘seen’ their consumers in real life • Ensure they (the client) are reality checked and earthed • Get sign off for each respondent • Over recruit

15. And there is always one... • One client/market wanting to sabotage the entire project • Client on whom the study was imposed • Client who already knows... • Client who just doesn’t like ethnography (has had fingers burnt in the past) • Clients who just don’t get it

16. Keys to successful outcomes

17. Why involve clients? • “In-home visits aren’t a day at the zoo...” • Clients need to own some of the thinking/insights • Ownership means advocacy and adoption • More powerful than any report, clip or it’s contents

18. Process

19. Unwittingly we have created a challenge • The QGW leaves clients desperate to know what subjects were thinking • They can’t wait to join the co-discovery sessions • Each ‘adopts’ their favourite household • Each will also have their least favourite household

20. What are client’s expectations? • Unimportant - it’s our job to set expectations from the outset (most have never engaged in our kind of ethnography) • Must capture lists • Expect delays with recruitment and in-home • Our views and meanings over what they see and hear on films - i.e. interpretation • Interpretation based on many perspectives not least the subjects’

21. Icing on cake

22. Is video boring • If too long, yes • Limit to 90 seconds (ideally) per clip and 4 clips per insight or theme • Don’t just let your audience view the films in silence - add meaning, flag things they would never have seen

23. Pester

24. Frozen treat

25. Steak & sizzle • In-home experience - with real people, real grounding and reality checks • Powerful on-line (Web 2.0) film and insight resource • Real actions and next steps unravelled and agreed among clients (break out groups) • Content which is viral and easily shared e.g. online • Clients who can own insights