Research - for best results remove ass from chair

“Consumers don’t think how they feel, say what they think or do what they say” – David Olgilvy.

I know you’ll be surprised, given the smooth forehead in my corporate headshot, but my kids are racing toward their mid to late teens and the eldest recently started driving.

This will, I’m sure, increase both wrinkles and grey hair substantially.

Not to mention what the need to help them purchase a first vehicle will do.

During this process I will be immediately inclined to purchase a solid, German VW or a Volvo that has long standing synonymity with safety.

The reason for which is purely an emotional or psychological response to the long-term communication efforts of both brands. 

However, put me in front of my mates at the pub, let alone a research session full of strangers, and you can be damn sure I will say something like “I’m having a tough time choosing between the lure of the twin turbo and the fuel efficiency of the direct injection”.

To be clear, I have no idea what those things mean.

So why, oh why, would we pay absurd amounts of money for customers to, in-effect lie to us about our products, prices, ad concepts?

(Just to be clear, as Olgilvy states consumers don’t know that they are lying. They post rationalise and retrospectively ascribe reasoning to their actions to justify them and they are tremendously poor at guessing what their actions may be in a future situation).

We do so because we know that customer orientation is vital for long term business success.

And lucky we are, in a world that allows us more insight into behaviour than ever before, we can build up a picture of what is truly important to people.

Firstly, and arguably right now this is the hardest option, is to immerse yourself into the culture you are interested in. Ethnography, as it is properly known, is the study and systematic recording of human culture. The only problem is, you can’t do it while sitting behind a one-way mirror eating a burger and texting your colleague that the lady in seat 4 has just put another free Coke in her handbag when the focus group moderator was distracted.

Other clues as to consumer behaviour lie in things like search trends. What people type into Google continues to fascinate me but can give you real data as to how they are feeling, what they are worried or excited about and even how they articulate those thoughts.

Innovative brands have also long since understood the power of prototyping and this has merged beautifully into the digital world, where a campaign can be tested before the product has even met the production line. Will consumers respond or not?

The world is awash with incredible ways to gather true insight but beware as they only reward those willing to go the extra mile, plan their research, understand what methodology to use and immerse themselves in the world of the consumer.

I’m off to read up on cruise control, so I don’t look like an idiot down the pub!