Outlines a 3 day approach to writing positioning concepts - go from "nothing" to "something"

1. IDEAS & TOOLS
F O R Q U A L I TAT I V E R E S E A R C H
SPRING 2005
VOLUME 3 • NUMBER 2

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPRING 2005
THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE
Q U A L I TAT I V E R E S E A R C H C O N S U LTA N T S A S S O C I AT I O N
16
20 FEATURE STORY
Create Winning
Product Concepts in
Three Days • Martha
Guidry describes an intensive
three-day program that
helps product teams and
brand teams generate new
product concepts.
28 QUALITATIVE TOOLBOX
How to Outwit the Ten Enemies of Insights and
Ideas • Kay Allison outlines ten common barriers to
insightful thinking and recommends ways to creatively
8 FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF counter these enemies.
Behind the Scenes at QRCA Views • Sharon
Wolf describes the critical role that QRCA volunteer 32 QUALITATIVE TOOLBOX
editors play in content development for this magazine. On Becoming a Qualitative Market Researcher:
Grad Students Combine Methods for a
12 FROM THE PRESIDENT Website Usability Study • Dr. Ellen Day offers a
Does One Size Fit All? • Diane Harris points out case study for a multi-method website usability
that QRCA members’ investment in professional study created by her graduate students. Wayne
development yields better and more insightful Maclean Lashua describes the experience from the
outcomes for research buyers. students’ perspective.
16 LETTER TO THE EDITOR 42 INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH
Cultural Influences on Emotional Expression • Creating Branded Service Innovations •
Barry Tse emphasizes the importance of understanding Guy Tomlinson describes how creative applications
cultural conditioning when deciphering emotional of qualitative research methods can help build
expressions. service innovations.
Editor-in-Chief: Sharon Wolf, sharon@qualidataresearch.com • Managing Editor: Timm Sweeney, sil@silgroup.net • Design/Art Direction &
Publishing: Leading Edge Communications, LLC (615) 790.3718 views@leadingedgecommunications.com
FEATURE EDITORS
Book Reviews: Gregory Spaulding, greg@marketing-methodology.com • Business Matters: Gail Fudemberg, grfmarketing@ameritech.net •
International Research: Susan Fader, susanfader@faderfocus.com • Industry Calendar: Dan Frost, dan@qualidataresearch.com •
Letters to the Editor: Lana Limpert, lana@techniclarity.com • Qualitative Tool Box: Kimberly Daniels, kimberly@kdaresearch.com •
Targeted Marketing: Judy Langer, jlanger@nopworld.com • Tech Talk: Gina Thorne, gthorne@efocus.com •
Travel & Leisure: Susan Sweet, ssweet@doyleresearch.com
4 QRCA VIEWS SPRING 2005 www.qrca.org

3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTINUED
SPRING 2005
THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE
Q U A L I TAT I V E R E S E A R C H C O N S U LTA N T S A S S O C I AT I O N
72
70 BUSINESS MATTERS
Break Through the Clutter: Create Marketing
Communications That Resonate • Jay Zaltzman
reminds QRCs to focus on hot buttons when
communicating with prospective clients.
76 TRAVEL & LEISURE
Vancouver: The Urban and Wilderness
Experience of a Lifetime • Susan Sweet invites
you to fall in love with the beauty and variety of
Vancouver—both the city and the island.
88 QRCA NEWS
Conference Program Preview: The Worldwide
Biennial Conference on Qualitative Research
• “Qualitative Transformations: Creating a New World
Map,” to be held April 17-19, 2005, Conrad Hotel,
Dublin, Ireland.
56 TARGETED MARKETING
Canadian, Eh? • Mark Lovell discusses 11 issues 92 BOOK REVIEW
to bear in mind when considering a research program A Peek into Permission Marketing • Greg
or developing a marketing and communications plan Spaulding reviews Permission Marketing by Seth Grodin.
for Canadian markets.
94 EDITORIAL GUIDELINES
64 TARGETED MARKETING
Arf, Arf! Meow, Meow!: The Pet Market is
Growing by Leaps and Bounds • Hy Mariampolski 96 INDUSTRY CALENDAR
explains the reasons why pet products have become a
$34 billion market in the U.S and details the growth of 98 INDEX OF ADVERTISERS
premium products.
visit QRCA online at
www.qrca.org
6 QRCA VIEWS SPRING 2005 www.qrca.org

4. Create Winning
Product Concepts
in Three Days
Martha Guidry describes an intensive three-day program that helps
product teams and brand teams generate new product concepts.
BY MARTHA E. GUIDRY
Consumer Reactions • Avon, CT • martha@consumerreactions.com
I
t is an absolute given that consumer packaged-goods companies seek a
quick and successful launch of new products. Unfortunately, these
same highly focused companies often devote more time to
authoring concepts behind a desk than they do to getting close to
their consumer and really understanding how the brand or potential
product makes consumers tick. To make matters worse, otherwise
sophisticated clients often take these vacuum-generated concepts into
very expensive quantitative research to sort the ideas and find the
winners. Armed with these quantitative data, they then execute
against the winning concept, only to find that their expensive test
merely selected the best of a bad group of concepts, leaving the
company without a winning idea for their brand.
To help clients avoid this costly cycle of failed new-product
launches, we developed a three-day consumer-immersion session,
accompanied by aggressive, real-time concept writing and editing.
This process often yields extremely positive results.
• Day 1: Focus on consumer understanding and identifying lead
benefit ideas.
• Day 2: Focus on defining the best articulations for the product
benefits, as well as developing strong consumer-insight statements.
• Day 3: Focus on creating and testing the most believable support
statement (or Reason to Believe) for each lead-concept direction—
i.e., the key statement that helps persuade the consumer to
purchase the product.
The process is a win-win strategy for all involved. The moderator
helps facilitate both the consumer interactions as well as client
interactions, thereby dramatically improving the group’s efficiency
and productivity. The client leaves the session with truly different,
consumer-driven concepts, each of them ready for the next step in the
new-product qualification process.
20 QRCA VIEWS SPRING 2005 www.qrca.org

6. Create Winning Product Concepts in Three Days CONTINUED
Concept Structure
The classic definition of a product concept
consists of four basic parts: Headline, Insight,
Benefit, and Reason to Believe.
• The Headline expresses the most important
concept idea and is used as a summary
intended to catch the consumer’s eye.
• The Insight expresses the unmet need or
frustration of the consumer.
• The Benefit is the promise to the consumer
that addresses the Insight.
• The Reason to Believe adds credibility
behind the promise contained within the
product Benefit.
The Ground Rules for Success
The following five guidelines help ensure
successful sessions.
1. The client team must be diverse, with
participants from marketing, market research, the
ad agency, and R&D. Blending expertise brings a
rich perspective and a broad array of ideas to the
process. Often, the product-launch team is a
suitably diverse group to participate. Using the
product-launch team ensures that the critical
champions of the product buy into and support
the new ideas because they have participated and team members are captive, focused
heard firsthand from consumers that they are participants and that the integrity of the
excited about the product proposition. process isn’t corrupted by a drop-
by colleague.
If you happen to be a 4. The entire team must clearly understand
what the process entails. The process is
moderator who doesn’t enjoy intense and requires long hours and hard
writing concepts, and who work by each member of the team. The
moderator needs to set clear expectations with
views concept development as the team during a pre-meeting that occurs at
the client offices before the session. He or she
a wordsmithing exercise, then must clearly articulate that the research is an
this process is not for you. interactive process that requires significant
work between the members of the group over
the three-day period. Team members must be
2. All team members must fully commit to disabused of any notion that they can remain
participating over all three days. This rule is in a so-called M&M coma between the focus-
inflexible because the concept-building process is group sessions, since they will need to listen
based on cumulative learning, and it is essential and contribute throughout the process.
that all members listen and experience all of the
learning to help move the process forward, both 5. The team must commit to focusing on one
in the session and back in the real world. In distinct consumer target. A single target is
addition, full commitment prevents having a pet essential because the success of this
idea inserted late into the process just because accelerated process is based on making
someone dropped by during one focus group. decisions from cumulative knowledge
garnered over the three days. It is unrealistic
3. The session should take place at an offsite to expect to assess more than one target group
location that is not easily accessible from the during this period, and a longer period
office. A remote location ensures that the becomes logistically difficult to execute.
22 QRCA VIEWS SPRING 2005 www.qrca.org

7. Create Winning Product Concepts in Three Days CONTINUED
asked, prior to attending the IDI, to create a
poster that answers three distinct questions:
1. How do I feel when I have a cold?
2. How do I feel when I take cold medicine?
3. How do I want to feel when I’ve recovered
from my cold?
While consumers describe their collages,
clients are encouraged to listen for the emotional
elements that are relevant to the target. These
ideas can be used later to develop Insights and
to add relevance to Benefit ideas that might not
have already been considered.
During the Benefit statement review/sort, the
consumer is asked to react to a variety of Benefit
statements written on individual sheets of paper
(uniquely lettered for identification purposes).
These statements should be developed prior to
the session, based on existing knowledge of the
target consumer and/or in combination with an
ideation session.
Typically, as many as twenty Benefit
statements can be reviewed during these IDIs.
The consumer is asked to sort the Benefit
statements into Like/Dislike/Neutral piles, and
then the moderator probes the consumer for
what drove the sort choices.
At the end of Day 1, the team debriefs and
Day 1—Consumer Understanding and identifies the lead ten Benefit areas to pursue, as
well as to capture the key insights learned
Lead Benefit Selection throughout the day.
There are three goals during the first day
of research:
• Understand the issue value surrounding Moderators who enjoy
the product.
• Solicit feedback on a variety of benefit helping a team rally around
articulations.
• Listen for emotional elements that will be
ideas and build ownership
put to use later during Insight development. for the concepts will find
Typically, Day 1 consists of eight to ten in-
depth interviews (IDIs) among consumers. For this process very satisfying.
illustrative purposes, consider a cough/cold
product. All in-depth interviews and focus
groups are recruited against the same target, Day 2—Refining Benefit and Insight
e.g., males/females aged 24-50 who have Articulation
purchased and used a cold/flu remedy in the past The second day consists of two or three
three months. The in-depth interviews are identically recruited focus groups, each two
divided into three areas: hours in length. The lead Benefit ideas are
• Habits and practices married to the Insight articulations learned
• A collage prepared at home prior to during Day 1. These Benefit + Insight statements
the research usually fall into three categories:
• Benefit statement feedback 1. Statements of an existing belief (e.g., There is
The exploration of habits and practices helps no cure for the common cold, so symptom relief
the team understand the existing product regimes, is the best I can do.).
how well the products meet the consumers’ needs, 2. Statements that set up a problem (e.g., I
and the consumers’ perception of the ideal want a cold medicine that relieves my symptoms
product to address their problem. but doesn’t make me drowsy.).
The consumer collage (or other relevant 3. Statements that set up a competitive
homework) is where the participants might be positioning (e.g., My current cold medicine
Q U A L I TAT I V E R E S E A R C H C O N S U LTA N T S A S S O C I AT I O N 23

8. Create Winning Product Concepts in Three Days CONTINUED
relieves most of my symptoms, but swallowing Once finalized, the mini-concepts are
those huge capsules makes me gag.). shared with consumers. Some typical questions
Experience has shown that strong consumer to ask about each of the mini-concepts
Insights adhere to the PQRS-BC1 model below: statements include:
• What is your first reaction to the idea?
P Keep it Positive. • What is the main idea?
Q Do not ask a Question. • Are there ways to communicate this idea in
R Do not Restate the Benefit a clearer way?
S Keep it Simple. / Set up one problem. • Any concerns/questions/information
B Keep it Brief. missing?
C Use Consumer Language. • What do you like/dislike?
1 1st Person. / Always use “I”. • Why is this idea important to you?
• Is the idea unique/different/relevant?
Generally, work teams are divided into The final question is to ask the consumer to
sub-teams to begin developing the Benefit + rank the Benefit + Insight statements from most
Insight statements, or mini-concepts, since to least favorite, discussing their choices.
the amount of work required to create the Between groups, the Insight articulations are
statements can outstrip the time available. refined to reflect consumer feedback. At the end
By having the sub-teams work on a smaller of Day 2, the team debriefs and identifies the
number of ideas and then presenting them to lead Insight + Benefit statements to carry
the group, a greater number of possibilities forward into Day 3. In addition, the team will
can be generated for review, and revisions can devote a portion of the end of the day to
be made relatively quickly before showing creating a variety of Reason to Believe support
them in the focus groups. statements to accompany each Insight + Benefit
24 QRCA VIEWS SPRING 2005 www.qrca.org

9. N A T I O N A L
statement, based upon how the
product works.
Field & Focus
Boston’s Complete Data Collection Service
Day 3—Refining Full TOP RATED IN IMPULSE SURVEY
Concept and Identifying Focus Groups Sink & Mirror Testing
Mock Jury Panels Intercepts
Lead Candidates Field Management CLTs / HUTs
As with Day 2, Day 3 also
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consists of two or three
Tel 508-370-7788 • Fax 508-370-7744
identically recruited focus Email INFO@NFF-INC.com
groups, each two hours in
length. In the first group, up to
ten concepts can be presented
for feedback. After each
successive group, the language
is refined, and the number of
concepts is decreased as
appropriate, based upon the
enthusiasm and interest of the
consumers. By the final group,
typically no more than five or
six full concepts are presented.
Consumers answer questions
similar to those asked in Day 2
for each of the full concepts.
Consumers should also rank
concepts from most to
least favorite.
Types of Projects
We have used this process in
the following categories:
cough/cold, household-surface
cleaning, laundry care, food
supplements, beauty care, and
hair replacement. In some
cases, the client team was
launching a new product, while
in others the goal was to
reinvigorate an old brand.
The breadth of successful
initiatives resulting from these
three-day sessions suggests that
it can be easily adapted for any
challenging marketing
situation. Virtually all of the
brands that engaged in the
process are now successfully
positioned in the marketplace
with a unique, winning
concept. You’ve probably seen
them on shelf!
Challenges
Based on my experience running
many sessions, I have identified
some common challenges.

10. • The process is very
demanding on the moderator.
The moderator must lead
constantly for the entire three
days, both in the respondent
room and among the clients.
The days are long, and the
moderator plays the key role
of keeping a constant level of
energy and enthusiasm to keep
the team motivated. In
addition, the moderator has to
play the watchdog, ensuring
that the process is moving
forward to meet the deadline.
This isn’t always a comfortable
role, and it requires great
stamina and enthusiasm.
• The three-day sessions are
exhausting for the team
members. The constant need
to push the process forward,
combined with the long
workdays, tires even the
hardiest of clients. Breaks for
fresh air and well-timed fun
activities help break up the
monotony and reinvigorate
the troops.
• The moderator must be
organized and flexible. The
volume of work that must be
accomplished requires a
structured game plan to
ensure that each step is ready
as needed. But we all know
that even the best-laid plans
don’t always go smoothly, so
being nimble and able to
adjust on the fly is essential.
• The moderator must be
skilled in ideation techniques.
Different parts of the session
may need some structured
brainstorming to flesh out
ideas. As such, I always bring
along a few of my typical
ideation exercises to help the
team develop more creative
Reasons to Believe and
sharper benefit articulations.
• The sub-teams created for
different parts of the
development process need to
be carefully planned. Not all
team members are confident

11. and creative in their concept-
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fresh perspective to the
process. In addition, I always
bring some training sheets
on concept writing, just in
case I have team members
who need a refresher.
• Not all moderators like to
write concepts. If you happen
to be a moderator who
doesn’t enjoy writing
concepts, and who views
concept development as a
wordsmithing exercise, then
this process is not for you. I
have often found that, as an
outsider to the brand,
freshness combined with a
talent for articulating
consumer needs in their
language is an invaluable
asset to this process. In
addition, those who enjoy
helping a team rally around
ideas and build ownership for
the concepts will find this
process very satisfying.
• Although the concept • Impeccable Service
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concepts that are built
around consumer-driven
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Benefit, supported by a
believable Reason to Believe. Need anything else? Just ask.
The entire team has
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relationship by working
closely together towards a
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