Today I am sharing useful tips for successfully executing virtual consumer conversations. They center around being human: acting in a genuine, respectful way and establishing trust.
Include criteria for having a stable Wi-Fi connection and familiarity with the tech platform being used. If the platform is new to participants, ensure you build in time for set up and practice before the interview to increase their comfort level.
If your study involves thoughtful writing exercise(s), make sure recruiting criteria have a written articulation component so they are not surprised by the type of communication that is expected of them.
Tip #2: Set Clear Expectations So There are No Surprises
The more participants know ahead of time, the more comfortable they will feel entering the discussion and the more open they tend to be. In addition to the basics, make sure:
Participants know what will happen during the interview. For example, is it a one-on-one conversation, or will others observe? Will you be sitting stationary in front of the camera or taking a ‘field trip’ to their pantry or garage?
What should they wear? (most ask…encourage comfort unless it is part of the research). Should their phone be on silent? (yes). Is it ok to have water or coffee? (yes, you want them to be comfortable), but please no meals unless it is an eating experience! Do they need to make arrangements for kids and pets so they are not distracted? (yes, unless they are part of the conversation). For mobile missions, no driving while participating (yes, this has happened!).
For online consumer behavior research to be most effective, participants are advised to log on five minutes before the scheduled interview time, so no time is wasted in setting up.
People are able to have a quiet place to conduct the interview to avoid potential inside or outside distractions.
When part of an online consumer research panel, it's important to “introduce” yourself via email and provide a picture so participants know whom to expect on the other end of the screen. Communicate how excited you are for the conversation, so they feel their input is valued before you even begin.
Log in early so you are there before the participant, smiling and welcoming as they enter the interview.
Minimize your own distractions such as only having exactly what you need for the conversation open on your laptop (the worst is hearing the constant email ‘ding’ as you are leading a conversation…trust me).
Have and communicate a back-up plan should tech issues arise (they will) so the interview isn’t a bust.
Energy! The last interview of the day should feel like the first one. Build in enough mental breaks and move from behind your screen to get some fresh air. Coffee helps too.
Life happens. Allow for tech issues, dogs barking, doorbells ringing and kids interrupting because these things WILL happen. Be forgiving and empathetic. Explain it happens to the best of us and that you will be patient while they figure it out.
If it becomes too much or too long of a distraction, ask if participants need to reschedule for a time that may be better for them. A stressed person is not an open or insightful person.
Observing is still just as important as listening in producing those insightful golden nuggets. I recently led a one-on-one video interview with a man wearing an “Own the Moment” t-shirt. I thought it was relevant to our topic and used it as a way into the discussion. It led to some really insightful personal truths and informed the learning in a way that might not have if it wasn’t pursued.
Like every research method, there are benefits and trade-offs, but I am really enjoying and finding great success with virtual research, applying familiar principles with a human-inspired tech-twist. Please contact the SIVO team at Contact@SIVOInsights.com to discuss your research needs and if virtual may be the right approach for your needs!
What if you could gain access to the high-quality insights you need to uncover new opportunities and propel your team toward success?
SIVO collaborates with you to understand your most critical needs, then designs and executes best-in-class custom market research using modern research capabilities. We provide actionable consumer insights that align with your business goals.
SIVO also specializes in Organizational Intelligence, Market Intelligence, and On Demand Talent. Individually and collectively, we use our qualitative, quantitative, and facilitation capabilities to deliver actionable learning.
For many manufacturers and retailers, the holiday season can be a “make or break” time period for generating sales and achieving revenue goals. For this reason, it is critical to understand your customer’s holiday shopping attitudes, behaviors and motivations. This is SIVO’s strength. Through approaches like in-store shop-alongs, mobile missions, online communities and in-depth focus groups, SIVO can dig deep into understanding the mindset and behaviors of your target customers, while immersed in the holiday season. Now is the time to act! Let SIVO help you understand your holiday shoppers so you can anticipate their needs and preferences to… Win the Season!
By Kerry Juhl
Our job as Insights Professionals is to not only identify relevant and unique consumer insights but also to apply the information in a way that influences decisions and drives action, resulting in growth. But ensuring that valuable insights are heard, internalized, and acted upon can be a challenge. Personal opinions, competing priorities or lack of focus can muffle the voice of the consumer, and the insights professionals that are trying to share it.
So how do you ensure that the insights you uncover will land with impact and be an enabler for growth?
SIVO has an answer… Growth Frameworks. Along with great storytelling, visually interesting media, and activation workshops, SIVO employs Growth Frameworks to organize insights into an inspiring construct, offering teams easily digestible, business-relevant content and common language for client teams to rally around, so they can clearly see and prioritize a path to growth.
What is a Growth Framework?
A growth framework starts with a deep examination of consumers within a market or occasion, to identify relevant insights. Those insights are then organized into a framework that reveals all possible avenues or opportunities for growth. The opportunities within the framework offer a “where to play” roadmap for teams, allowing them to prioritize opportunities and define their strategy for growth.
Examples of Growth Frameworks
Consumer Jobs/Demand Space Map – Consumer Jobs Maps (a.k.a. Demand Space Maps) help explain why consumers make the choices they make. Consumers use products that help them achieve their goals and meet their needs. In other words, products do “jobs” for consumers. If your product does not effectively do the job, consumers are unlikely to hire it. A Jobs Map becomes a framework to help identify ‘where to play’ and it lives beyond a single initiative. It maps all the jobs that consumers have for a particular occasion. For example, a Snacking Jobs to be Done (JTBD) Map includes all the jobs that consumers have for the snacking occasion. A Financial Investment JTBD Map includes all the jobs that customers have for investing their money. It lives on in your organization as a place to continually go back to for inspiration and focus for innovation, renovation, communication, and brand building efforts.
Category Vision Framework – A category vision framework envisions the category of the future. Although no one can predict the future, SIVO, in collaboration with the client team, develops a vision for what the future state of the category will be 3 to 5 years from now. This involves segmenting the existing and new products within a category based on the primary benefit that the products are providing to consumers. Specific attention is focused on new or emerging product lines within the category, and emerging consumer and market trends that may impact the category to identify “signals” for what the future category may look like.
Customer Value Equation – A Customer Value Equation framework provides an understanding of what your customers value about your total brand experience by mapping the key drivers of value and the assets that support those drivers. This framework can guide team decisions on where to invest their next $1 to drive more consumer value or where to cut the next $1 in spending on product attributes that customers do not value. Knowing what drives customer value differentiates and enables companies to stay competitive.
Competitive SWOT – A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) framework is a strategic planning tool used by organizations to assess and analyze their current situation and help formulate future strategies. Oftentimes, a SWOT analysis is conducted in reaction to marketplace dynamics, or to proactively prepare for marketplace activities that could happen in the future. For instance, if a competitor acquires a third player in the category or conversely, goes out of business, organizations can develop a SWOT framework to better understand this new reality, and build strategies to respond in a future-focused way.
Benefits of a Growth Framework
Reach out to SIVO to learn more about Growth Frameworks
SIVO wants to help you and your organization elevate your insights into a growth framework that gives you consumer-centric focus, clarity of purpose and galvanizes your team to put you on the path to growth.
Reach out to the SIVO team at Contact@SIVOInsights.com to discuss the growth framework that will be the right strategic fit for your team and your business.
Here at SIVO, one of our targeted solutions to your business challenges is ethnographic research. But what exactly is ethnography research? And why do you need it? Let’s take a closer look.
Ethnography is a flexible, qualitative research method that can be adapted to fit different audiences, markets, learning objectives, and environments.
Ethnographers immerse themselves in the natural environment of their research participants (home/office), and then observe their behavior. They also conduct an intimate one-on-one interview (usually lasting around 2 hours in length) with the respondent, where they learn about the life, values, beliefs, and attitudes of the consumer. When you need to develop a deep understanding of your audience by hearing their stories and truly learning about their lives, an ethnography consultancy may be the right fit for your consumer research and insights needs.
Related Trending Ethnography Research:
Do customers want to ‘hire’ your product?
Because ethnography research is conducted in the comfort of the consumer’s home or workspace, valuable insight is shared in a more truthful and open manner as compared to focus group research settings.
This up close and personal observation is critical because ethnographers can both witness and understand what consumers actually do on a daily basis, versus what they say they do.
There is also an opportunity to interact with the family and friends of the participant, to gain a more complete picture of his/her life. Engagement on such a personal level creates the foundation for intimate and empathetic consumer learning, which could prove valuable to a brand for years to come.
In addition, videographers can capture the ethnographic interviews and key moments with research participants, such as pantry tours, product interactions, and family meals. This video footage can then be translated into a powerful highlight reel to share with your marketing, design, or sales teams; to build empathy and gain a better understanding of your consumers.
Ethnography research is the perfect research tool to help you understand your audience, their mindset, their daily experiences, and their relationship with your product/service.
If you want to know how to frame your brand message in order to connect effectively with consumers, an ethnography consultancy will help provide the insights you need to craft a clear message.
You can also recognize ways to improve your product/service, while spotting potential product innovation opportunities. Additionally, ethnography can help you answer questions about your competitor and their core audience, as well as reveal opportunities for differentiating your brand.
Ethnography provides a unique, crucial perspective on how your brand fits into the actual lives of your consumers. So, if you’re ready to tackle your business challenges and discover powerful insights that will help move your business forward, ethnography might just be the missing research tool you’ve been looking for.
We specialize in providing businesses with valuable insights through ethnographic research. Our team of experienced researchers has the skills and knowledge needed to conduct in-depth studies of your customers' behavior and preferences.
We use a variety of ethnographic research methods and our researchers are skilled at interpreting the data gathered through these methods and can provide you with actionable insights that you can use to improve your business.
We work closely with our clients to ensure that our research is tailored to their specific needs. Whether you are looking to develop a new product or service, improve your marketing strategies, or gain a deeper understanding of your customers, we can help.
Contact SIVO today to learn about our ethnographic research services and discover what ethnography can do for you.
Across industries, brands attempt to access and leverage data to unlock stronger sales and business growth. Your team can bring a wealth of experience and expertise to initiatives, but getting feedback from the people who engage with the product produces better outcomes. Below, we’ll answer the questions: what are consumer insights? Why are consumer insights important? And What is the best way to get consumer insights for my business?
First thing’s first, what are consumer insights? Consumer insights are the underlying motivations or needs that make a consumer behave a certain way. Insights professionals work to understand consumer attitudes, requirements, desires and behaviors to uncover insights that can then guide brand building, portfolio and marketing communications efforts. Many organizations gather data from their consumers, but the real depth of insight comes in asking the right questions and getting the full picture from consumers. Insights gleaned from studying and connecting with your consumers can inform nearly every aspect of your business’ path to growth.
So, how do you get consumer insights? Businesses can get consumer insights in several ways. The correct method for your team depends largely the business question, as well as the industry and market you serve. For example, organizations may capture qualitative data via focus groups, in-depth interviews, and user immersions to identify the nuances in consumer values and opinions.
Meanwhile, quantitative data like path-to-purchase, product testing, and volumetric forecasting can help teams validate consumer interest and behaviors and build confidence in decision-making and actions. Consumer insights experts can gather this information in a number of ways. See some of the most effective consumer insight solutions and techniques below:
Qualitative Consumer Insights
Ethnographies
In-Depth Interviews
Focus Groups
Shopalongs
Shopper Intercepts
Mobile Missions
Online Bulletin Boards
Fishbowls
Agile Sprints
Rapid Refinement
Communication Checks
User Immersions
In-Home Usage
Interactive User Experience
Jobs to Be Done
Quantitative Consumer Insights
Segmentation
Attitude and Usage
Path-to-Purchase
Tracking Testing / Screening
Brand Positioning
Brand Architecture
Product Testing
Creative Testing
Opinion Polling
Now that we know what they are, why are consumer insights important? Essentially, consumer insights remove some of the speculation from your business decisions and actions. It provides actionable answers to what consumers think about your brand, your category, and your products or services. Once you receive those insights, you can take it and run. It’s the fuel that ignites new product or service innovation and optimization, brand experiences and communications. At a higher level, it gives your business access to an entirely new perspective within your consumer market. Consumer insights give you a more holistic understanding of the consumer target audience you want to connect with, allowing you to gain a competitive edge within your industry.
So, why is consumer insight important? There are several reasons growing brands invest in these solutions to drive growth and gain a competitive edge. See why more and more businesses focus on obtaining consumer insights for their strategies below:
The best business strategies have data-backed insights behind them. Consumer insights allow you to identify a “why” to inform and support your business initiatives. The same goes for your brand.
Understanding what people truly believe about your brand can transform marketing strategies. Today, it is important to know who your customers are, what they do, what they value, and why it matters. The best way to answer those questions is to identify your consumers and start a dialogue to better understand them. This dialogue and the insights that come from it allows your business to bring more value to the people you serve. It all leads to better customer experiences and a stronger return on investment.
Every product or service has areas for improvement. Who are the best people to provide that feedback? The individuals who purchase and use them. Getting honest opinions on your current portfolio helps you identify the best places for optimization. You can spot holes in the market and create solutions that fill consumers' unmet needs. Some of the best product ideas and business innovation can come straight from your customers.
It all starts with empathy. Providing enhanced, consumer-focused products and services can only benefit brand loyalty. Brands need to continuously check in with their customers to ensure they have positive brand experiences and identify new ways to delight them. As mentioned above, your products/services can consistently improve to meet the needs of your customer base. Ultimately, this all works toward a stronger relationship with your audience to gain ongoing loyalty. That goes a long way when they are choosing between brands.
How can consumer insights fuel your marketing campaign? Speaking directly to your target audience members creates more nuance and specificity in your consumer-first marketing campaigns. Every engagement in your advertising and beyond should prioritize your consumer. Understanding their values and preferences deeply allows you to speak to them more directly and effectively. If you’re on the journey of building your brand or audience-based marketing (AMB) strategy, these insights provide a path toward successful campaigns that move the needle and influence consumer behavior.
What is your customer’s experience with your brand? Are there features that they like or dislike? Sometimes small things go unseen by marketers, but small details can leave a lasting impression on consumers. Whether it’s digital user journeys, messaging, or customer service conversations, it’s invaluable to hear, understand and react to what people think when they engage with your brand, products, and representatives.
If your organization is wondering how to get consumer insights, the best path is through a specialized consumer insights company. SIVO is a global insights and strategy firm specializing in understanding people and their needs and beliefs that drive behavior. We partner with brands to answer key questions that guide strategies and fuel growth. First, we schedule a discovery meeting, where we ask your stakeholders and subject matter experts key questions about your business and needs. Then, we design a custom research approach that aligns with those requirements. From the data gathered, we identify key insights that inform your decisions and drive business growth. Our experts act as your ongoing partner, helping you access your consumers and interpret the research every step of the way.
Ready to get meaningful consumer insights to unlock your next business and brand strategy? SIVO provides full-service custom consumer research and experiences for business across industries. Whether you need consumer insights, organizational intelligence, market and competitive intelligence, or on-demand talent, we empower organizations to get the most of their business, marketing, and brand building efforts to better achieve their goals. Contact SIVO today to get started.
SIVO Insights brings together research, talent, and intelligent technology to help organizations navigate complexity with confidence. Have a business challenge? Let's talk!
We bring together research, talent, and intelligent technology to help organizations navigate complexity with confidence
