‘No-Touch’ Online Insighting

These are exceptional times

Through no fault of their own, many businesses are currently facing unprecedented challenges

Most are focused on protecting their staff and delivering the goods and services their consumers rely on

However that doesn’t mean their need for fresh, actionable insight has dried up …

‘Tipping Point’ for Digital Insight

So, whilst many of our ‘go to’ face-to-face research tools are currently off-limits – now’s a great time to embrace digital research platforms for insight gathering

We’ve been enthusiastic users of virtual tools for a number of years – and we’re confident that this crisis will prove to be their ‘tipping point’ …

So whilst you are trying to get a grip on this new reality … we thought you might appreciate our perspective on how these #12 ‘no-touch’ tools could help you keep your insight-gathering on track

Whether you need insight to help you make decisions, shape strategy, inspire innovation or craft brand-equities – we can help you apply no-touch tools that will help you deliver

# 1 Unlocking What You Know?

This may sound crazy, but before we start gathering fresh insight, our recommendation is to ALWAYS start by revisiting the data you already own.

Using our fresh-eyes and alternative perspectives to assess, re-evaluate and summarise your existing quant & qual reports in the context of your current business challenge will frequently identify fresh perspectives and inspiring insights!

Consider:  A ‘fresh-eyes’ Rewind of existing data is usually relatively low cost and is almost always a perspective-changing moment in any project.

# 2 Who’s Offering Best in Class?

Who do we compete with? How can we be best? What are the steps in your consumer’s purchase journey?  Where should you interact?

Online tools can use screen recording to track consumer web-surfing for best-in-class solutions, recommendation-sourcing or even path-to-purchase shopper missions – all from your consumer’s mobile device.

Consider:  Map consumer-journeys from trigger to transaction or benchmark your best-in-class competition

# 3 What’s Going on In-Home?

One-on-one, in-home, deep-dives over their mobile phones give us the chance to explore your target consumers’ underlying motivations and literally ‘see’ how they live.

Virtually ‘visiting’ the ‘in-use’ environment gives insight-gatherers unrivalled access to consumers’ kitchens, bathrooms, wardrobes –  to challenge assertions and start uncovering insight-clues

Consider:  Virtual Safaris will bring your team closer to your consumers and giving the team invaluable insights about what’s going on in their consumers’  homes – right now!

# 4 How Can We Disrupt?

Consumers can seldom tell you what they need, but by observing and interrogating their actions, it’s often possible to spot ways of enhancing their lives

Moderated online ethnography brings together structured questioning, stream-of-consciousness and video-tasks to build a rich understanding of consumers’ everyday lives, rituals and behaviours.

Consider:  Great way to broaden perspectives and gather insights into your consumer’s challenges.

# 5 How Well Are We Doing?

Consumers record ‘think piece’ or ‘review’ videos on nominated topics – allowing us to reveal a wide range of rich behavioural and emotional clues.

Real consumers in their natural habitat share their spontaneous perspectives on their experiences and attitudes to your products, services or key-topics as product or experience ‘reviews’.

Consider: Great way to quickly gather clues about how consumers engage with your product category and how well your solutions perform

Classic ‘consumer groups’ are a highly effective insight-gathering tool, but we’re unlikely to be conducting them anytime soon. Improvements in virtual web-group technology makes them a viable replacement.

Online Mini-Groups executed with 4-5 target super-consumers using web-group technology can reveal insights every bit as rich as a classic face-to-face group – and we can sample multiple geographies!

Consider:  Virtual mini-groups will quickly reveal rich insights into attitudes across your target consumer segments.

# 7 Who Is Out There?

Whilst segmentations aren’t exactly new, the ability to leverage online ethnography, web-based attitudinal interrogation AND classic, heavy-duty quant-based data-analytics is!

Online interviews identify the attributes and help us ensure we have the optimum questionnaire – then cutting-edge analytics allow us to identify vivid and actionable consumer clusters

Consider:  Whenever you need to shape your strategy, focus your plan or inspire your forward thinking

Online communities give us the chance to observe and interact with significant numbers of your consumers over a number of weeks or months.

Online communities with 50 to 500 consumers give you the chance to create an ongoing dialogue with your consumers and gain a deep-understanding of how they live their lives through forums, polls, diaries, group discussions and contests.

Consider:  Build relationships, gather insights into unmet needs, track sentiment changes over time and gather feedback from your potential consumers directly.

Big Data analysis often only makes sense when you understand the ‘context’ of your consumers’ behaviour.  Virtual intercepts allow us to divert web-surfers, social media or website users into one-on-one deep-dive interviews.

Unbeatable, quick-turnaround opportunity to understand the ‘why’ behind consumer decision making.

Consider: Gain insights into how and why consumers are interacting with your brand online – or add richness to survey answers.

# 10 Do They Like My Ideas?

Online concept tests, on-screen notation, heat maps and even eye-tracking are nothing new in quant – but this is the first time we’ve paired them with qual web-cam interviews

Now we can not just quickly and accurately evaluate your NPD ideas, positioning concepts and even packs, but also explore the reasons ‘why’ in one-on-one web-interviews or virtual mini-groups

Consider:  If you want to really understand the strengths and weaknesses of your concepts – or even co-create them to optimise their appeal

Online neuro-tools allow us to capture consumers’ predispositions and allow us to tap-into implicit (system one) associations.

Neuro-tools integrate semantic priming, implicit tests and eye-tracking all run from mobiles. We can use them as quant or qual-tools to map everything from brand associations to on-shelf pack-preferences!

Consider:  Neuro-marketing tools can be used to unlock invaluable clues about deep-rooted relationships with products and perceptions of brands.

3D virtual shelves are pretty much cutting edge when it comes to quant testing packaging, but they add huge value because consumers can zoom, pick up and even rotate packs to read sides & back

As far as we know, they’ve never been combined with qual-online tools, like web-interviews and virtual groups, to provide a virtual ‘at the fixture’ experience for consumers – until now!

Consider:  If you want to virtually evaluate the appeal of your new pack designs or assess its on-shelf standout

Getting The Best Out Of Digital