3Dimentional Insights (3D) as we move into 2017

Over time technology has rapidly changed the way we go to market with products and services yet I see that our research tools have not kept up to the same pace.

Not too many businesses today can afford to wait and wait then discuss the recommendations which may or may not need further finetuning.

Global economy challenges are forcing researchers to think differently as long as they want to truly partner with their clients.

Yet to be fair, there are new options in the way we gather market data and more touch points are being added to methodologies. Over the last 10 years, we have seen some fundamentals change in the way we ‘know’ and ’communicate’ with consumers and shoppers to reflect the fragmented mediums and the ever-changing life styles within a multiple channel mixes.

 As we move into 2017, I’m advocating for brand owners and their agencies to think differently. Be more ‘In touch’ and In Sync’ with each other and with the outside world in total.

We simply can’t continue to stick to frames of thinking without depth or context.

 I recall in my Cadbury days there was a global roll out of a segmentation study (quantitative). One of the key attributes that came out very strongly in Egypt is ‘I follow a strict diet’. Of course you can imagine that it was a shocker to management as a clear showstopper for growth on chocolate.

If we had stopped there and actioned it, we would have been looking at a frame but not what is really behind it and hence the decisions would have been totally misled.

A multi -facet research design which I led at the time, looked in depth into the ’WHY’. Mix of groups, ethnographies, shopper safari, and what have you from observational research (digital listening would have been added if active at the time). The consumer story read like this - “Yes I try to diet best I can, so I restrict rice and pasta but when it comes to ‘MY’ chocolate I can’t. I may have it even if it’s in cubes across a week but I will have chocolate”.

It’s also on this note that we realized that diet chocolate will never work and has never worked around the world. Chocolate has to be in full taste to satisfy the consumer experience even if in smaller portions.

So you see it has all evolved, all entangled. This only shows you that sometimes you need to dip and look from each angle.

Further I’m suggesting a change in the ‘How’ – An approach I’m calling -A 3 dimensional co-creation approach.

A 3 dimensional (3D) co-creation approach :-

Most companies have tons of data and experienced teams that they don’t use that much and would likely commission new research making agencies happy of course J .but in reality you can still get what you need by simplifying the process yet making it sharper with rigor. Simple but strategic !

When businesses are in trouble, they need eye openers, triggers to solving bottle necks or perhaps innovations – new ways to target or new entry strategies…etc.

This will not happen sitting down in a meeting room viewing loads of slides with numbers of a project that took 2 months to deliver. This will happen when you (researcher), your team (the bigger commercial one) , perhaps your agencies (specially creative) come together and speak with ,listen to, observe, understand, and most importantly feel the consumer and shopper in all their life instances that relate to your brand, and category and perhaps within cross categories.

As the way we communicate has become more complex, the way we speak with our consumers and shoppers must step up simultaneously fed by insights in a timely manner.

A few pointers to this approach ;-

It must involve multiple consumer touchpoints including when they convert to shoppers’ mode

Rather than conducting one-shot research and then waiting for results, the co-creation approach suggests a team of researchers, and marketers to engage in conversations with targeted group of consumers over a period of days or more. These to happen across multiple consumer touchpoints that allows the team hence to understand current experiences, brainstorm solutions (this is where you co-create with consumers) , and optimize product, positioning or communication concepts. This gives marketers real-time input to make better, more informed decisions, earlier in the development cycle. 

It must be set up based on attitudinal, behavioral and life style targeting

For this approach to work, your participants must have enough knowledge of the problem being solved to be the right audience to provide solutions and give value for your research. You will need to be very picky in your recruitment. People based on their interests in certain brands or activities, and behaviors related to your solution. This can be done in many ways but recently social media sites like Facebook who gather and aggregate consumer data in real time can be very useful specially when it comes to life style measures.

It must be about ‘what we think’ not ‘what I think’

There is a lot of back and forth discussions that will be happening among the 3 parties. There will be WOW s – mostly from marketers who are living in silos, so getting first hand insights.

Real time conversation and rapid data will get them enlightened and excited but more importantly have more faith in the data as they were part of the gathering process.

In running these real conversations, you as the facilitators must allow a free-flowing dialog in a natural social-media style setting, seeing each other’s answers and building on them. Team can ask follow-up questions, re-iterate which is all very healthy. They can evolve and adjust the discussion over days, and rapidly adapt to refine marketing, brand, or product ideas based on real-time feedback.

It must still be grounded

We can get carried away and have floating ideas, or one mention that we can generalize just because someone is excited about it.

To make this viable, it needs to have a bit of solidness to it. The start is the facts you already know, then the flow of discussion, noting how many are for or against but which way to sway based on the rationale that is in fact relevant to the context of the topic not just bubbles in the air.

If you are looking for fast decisions, the key is to keep your 3D parties engaged all through the cycle. It can be as fast as 2 weeks depends on the complexity of the question at hand.

From running such 3D projects myself, I found that one great benefit is the level of integration in the bigger commercial team post end of the project as they have pretty much walked in each other’s shoes.

One word of advice though is get yourself a high executive sponsor as this is a huge organizational mind shift at the kick off but it’s certainly worth it.

 If you want to roll out the same in any country, contact us today.

We can help!

www.fwdegypt.com