Walk a mile in their shoes

Editor’s note: Martha Guidry is president of The Rite Concept, an Avon, Conn., research and consulting company.

As third-party qualitative research consultant (QRC), I have the luxury of being able to easily maintain pristine objectivity about my clients’ products and services. I realize that this luxury is extremely difficult for the internal market research professional to maintain. While working on several business lines obviously provides some degree of neutrality, the internal market research professionals can’t help but "drink a bit of the Kool-Aid." They are, after all, employed by the company that is marketing the product(s) or service(s), and some adherence to a company bias is almost unavoidable.

Couple this with the fact that he or she often works with a client who is heavily invested in the product or service and it becomes even more difficult to maintain clear neutrality. Think about it: The internal professional’s clients spend at least 40 hours a week hyper-focusing on how to get toilets cleaner, how to make eyelashes longer or how to differentiate their bank’s checking account from that of every other financial institution. In this situation, bias is everywhere, inescapable, part of the very air that each of the company’s employees breathes.

A well-prepared QRC can help with this situation, becoming an invaluable resource and partner, enriching both the idea-generating phase and the actual research process. Although some marketing clients want their moderator to just "ask the questions," finding a QRC who can help move the company to a new level of understanding and objectivity about their product or service adds significant value to the company’s qualitative research efforts. And, as a research buyer, internal market research professionals can become more discerning purchasers of qualitative research services if they demand more than "just a moderator." Although a variety of approaches can be used, this article presents six surefire ways that a QRC can help clients become immersed in their business and develop a fresher, more creative perspective.

Backward-integrate

Let’s first start with the ideation process. No QRC likes to bring lackluster ideas into the focus group room so the best way to prevent this from happening is to backward-integrate into the idea-generating phase. Several approaches can be utilized to help a client think a bit more creatively about their own business:

  • Casual, client-led interviews.

Similar to asking a respondent to make a collage prior to entering into a qualitative experience, I often ask a client to conduct some informal interviews with friends, family or colleagues who don’t work on their business. It doesn’t matter whether the client follows all the appropriate guidelines for asking unbiased or leading questions. My goal is to ensure they are hearing from a neutral source something potentially new about their product/service to prime the pump prior to the session.

I always provide several specific questions that should engage the client and highlight some aspect of their business with plenty of blank lines for the answers. The rule of thumb is to put more lines on the response sheet than you think the respondent will need to answer - often they’ll fill the entire space. Suddenly you have lots of food for thought before you even start your ideation session.

A great example of using this approach was with a manufacturer of watches. As pre-work for an ideation session, I told the client participants to ask several questions in an interview; however, one of the most engaging learnings prior to the session was a very simple and almost obvious question of "What is time?"

  • Product/service experience.

The nature of the client’s business will determine whether real-time experience with the product/service must happen before or during the session. Interestingly, what often happens with clients is that they might not even use the product or service they sell. As such, they need to reacquaint themselves with the product or service through what I call a new set of radar.

Often as part of an ideation session, I’ll ask the client to use their product. For example, I’ll have the client’s R&D team make a toilet or shower filthy and have the clients clean it. Many clients hire a cleaning person for these tasks in their home - they haven’t cleaned a toilet in 10 years! To really engage their thinking I’ll typically divide the team up and add some constraints to the process. For example, one team cleans the toilet using only their right hand, one team cleans only with their left hand, and one team cleans while blindfolded. Why the constraints? It helps the client think about the experience in a fresh way. You’d be surprised at the output from an exercise such as the one described.

The same outcome can be duplicated for a service business. Have the client call his/her own or a competitor’s customer service line and evaluate the experience. Ask a client to mystery-shop several competitors’ stores for a particular product or service or be a mystery diner for a restaurant. They could even Google key industry words and see what comes up and determine whether the information was confusing or straightforward. The possibilities are endless. However, they do require some creative pre-thinking by the QRC to insure the experience is carefully incorporated into the ideation session.

  • Watch in-context product usage videos.

Often clients have lost touch with what their consumers are really doing with their product or service. Occasionally, a refresher on what is happening is appropriate. This is particularly helpful when a product may be used in a variety of applications or across different countries. If the marketing engine for a product is based in one particular region, like the U.S. or Europe, it may be staggering to realize that assumptions that are true for one region may not be true for all.

One particular example comes to mind. I was working on concept development for a North America-based household cleanser brand in Brazil. As part of the session, I asked that the non-Brazilians watch some in-home cleaning with their products. Imagine the surprise when they watched tapes of barefooted women cleaning their bathroom with a giant broom-like mop and a hose! Clearly, this experience changed many incoming assumptions and paradigms about the new product concepts.

Help with immersion

Let’s now think about how actual qualitative research can help with immersion. Triangulation of your qualitative research using a variety of approaches can create a more complete picture for your clients. Imagine research on a new health drink. Triangulation could mean a combination of secondary research on the topic (what’s on the Internet), some focus groups with the end consumer, in-depth interviews with subject experts (such as doctors or fitness professionals), and intercept interviews with those purchasing drinks in a health club. While this will provide a rich context of understanding for the client, let’s think about how the clients can actually roll up their sleeves and get involved. Here are my three favorite research-related approaches to get them engaged.

1. Participate in in-context interviews.

One way to reconnect with the consumer is through in-context interviews. Although I would never suggest that the clients conduct the actual interviews, having a few come along for the experience is very enlightening. Typically this works best with two to three clients who are given a specific role in the process (note-taker, videographer, etc.). For this to be successful, clients need some training and coaching on what is and isn’t appropriate in such a setting. But more importantly, the QRC must prepare some type of feedback form to capture the data in a consistent manner so that once they are back in the office the team has a wealth of information to evaluate. I will typically create a standard, fill-in chart that captures observations such as current usage, problem/opportunity and current options in addition to probing questions to push the client’s thinking - such as, how does the problem observed flow into a benefit and what support might be appropriate?

The worksheet approach is particularly helpful when trying to generate new product concepts. The in-context interview might suggest news ways that a consumer is using an existing product in addition to seeing the substitutes which might be an opportunity for a product enhancement (like adding baking soda to toothpaste).

2. Bulletin-board (BB) virtual diaries.

Using the BB is merely a new twist on an old technique - consumer diaries. However, the richness of getting real-time feedback and the flexibility to occasionally probe and ask questions adds a new dimension to the process. In addition, the clients can go in and review the BB periodically to immerse themselves in the research as it is occurring. Although I’ve primarily used this in new-product trial experiences, it could be easily duplicated for a business-to-business situation or with an interaction with a service.

If scheduled appropriately, the team has adequate time to review the transcripts and the entire consumer interaction can be used as helpful fodder for a discussion guide development or even to divide the participants based on their experience with like-minded respondents (i.e., liked vs. disliked product) for some type of focus group.

3. Active listening in the back room.

Probably one of the biggest challenges faced by any QRC is computer usage in the back room. Although we want to believe that the client is intently listening to the front-room dialogue and frantically typing notes on their computer (and some do!), often we are plagued with the distraction of clients responding to e-mails or writing another document throughout the entire research and only half-listening to the conversation.

To engage the client, I typically have them listen for particular themes and record their comments on Post-it notes - one idea per Post-it.

Now that you’ve fallen out of your chair, let me explain why this works so well. First, clients have to close their computers to write Post-its, so you’ve solved the previously-stated problem. Second, clients capture with more detail the individual ideas or suggestions mentioned in the group when forced to "sound bite" their learning. Third, clients capture the actual respondent words rather than their summary of the idea. And fourth, at the end of the research you’ve generated tons of information that you and the client can sort through and cluster to identify themes and have a much more engaged and involved debrief. Although this may require some additional time to sift through the information, the learning is exponential and it saves a debrief in which tired clients scroll up and down on their computer looking for informational nuggets.

I’ve used this technique quite successfully in new-product concept development, although its application could be much broader. For example, say a client is developing a new hair care line focused on individuals with fine hair. I’d post a number of flip charts in the back room with topics such as: consumer insights/habits and practices, problems/issues, desired benefits, reasons to believe, and sparks/conflicts/ debates (often great ideas evolve from friction). The clients would then place all their Post-its in these broad categories at the end of each qualitative session. When the debrief comes around, we have a volume of great information captured in the consumers’ words and are ready to evaluate and start building product concepts.

Get re-engaged

Whether you’re a moderator wanting to add more value to the client or a client who wants more from your moderator, some or all of these approaches might get you re-engaged with the consumer. At the end of the day, if you are armed with better information, know more about the consumer and have added a healthy dose of reality to the marketing approach, everyone is in a better place. Just remember: happy client and happy moderator equals a productive partnership.

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