2. Tip #1
Make the
meeting room
a fieldwork
study.
Consumers are only one side
of the ecosystem of a brand.
Use research principles to also
understand your organisation’s
needs, its environment, values
and dynamics.
3. Tip #2
Human before
consumer.
Avoid framing research around
your brand or category.
Aim for the wider meanings
and values that drive people
to a brand and take it from
there. For example, technology
can be about connecting or
empowering. Tea is about me
time, and belonging.
This is key for you to avoid getting
trapped in the echo chamber of
the current discourse around
your category.
4. Tip #3
Understand
the rules. Then
break them.
It is important to understand
the rules of a category using
frameworks, theories and
marketing knowledge.
It is just as crucial to
understand the rules that
govern your category from
the consumer’s perspective:
they are complex and hard
to fit a template.
5. Tip #4
Start with
answers.
It is dangerous to try to
understand your audience
without a framework.
Instead of thinking of
questions, a good way to
start is by listing hypotheses:
what you think you will hear
back from the research?
This helps give focus to the
research, and also ensures it
will add to current knowledge.
6. Tip #5
Own it.
Make the research your
responsibility from the start.
Help with the proposal, the
screener, the discussion guide.
Add questions, question
questions.
You will be the one having to
live with the research results,
so make them as useful and
powerful as they can be.
7. Tip #6
Aim for the
fringes.
No one lives an average life.
Understand the average, but
never entirely rely upon it.
Explore the edges of your
audience.
The ‘truth’ always rests with
the minority, as it is generally
formed by those with an
opinion; those who are aware
of, and driving change.
8. Tip #7
Go backwards
to go forwards.
You cannot see ahead if
you’re just looking at the
current moment.
To understand a trend, you
need to read the direction of
travel. To see the shape this
change is taking.
Reading into the past helps
separate slow cultural trends
from fast cultural fads, or
cyclical changes.
9. Tip #8
Get lost
A discussion guide should
be just that: a guide.
Don’t be afraid to go rogue and
take the conversation with your
consumers in a wholly different
direction if you feel there is
something there.
This is where you normally find
the most revealing insights.
10. Tip #9
See the
extraordinary
in the mundane.
Our mundane lives are where the
most profound statements are
acted out without a single conscious
thought ever given to them.
It is, the mundane, however,
where revelations are most
often found.
Take a look at people in your own
culture as if they were foreign to
you. See a familiar surrounding as
if you were there for the first time.
11. Tip #10
See the
mundane in the
extraordinary.
When researching an audience
different from you, it is expected
that you see strangeness into
everything they do.
Try to understand how they
perceive these behaviours as
mundane: they are probably
completely unaware they do the
things they do, and this may give
you insights on underlying cultural
patterns of behaviour.
12. Tip #11
See the
blind spots.
The subjectivity of our
cultural framework can
influence the way we observe
our surroundings. We only
notice what is different.
Two people can observe
the same room and take
two different conclusions
out of what they see.
Train your eyes to observe
the unseen.
14. Tip #13
Listen to what
is unsaid.
People’s explicit opinion is
only one angle to the truth.
Think about why they’ve
chosen to describe things
the way they have, what’s
been left out and why?
How does their behaviour
contradict or confirm what
they’ve told you?
15. Tip #14
Be aware
of your own
subjectivity.
We process information
using previous knowledge
and experiences.
This results in conclusions
inevitably filled with biases
and assumptions.
We will never be able to
eliminate our subjectivity.
However, just by being aware
of your subjectivity will help
you become a better judge.
17. Tip #16
See through
use of
language.
Rich vocabulary is not
the same as rich insight.
Clever words and woolly
phrases have a habit of hiding
very predictable learnings.
Think of explaining the
thinking to a lay person
and if this version is not
strong enough, then
there is nothing there.
18. Tip #17
Master the
information.
Don’t let it
master you.
Trust your instincts as
much as data.
You are human before
being a researcher.
You will always understand
what is to be human more
than any data will do.
19. Tip #18
No one thinks
quite like you.
Make use of your unique
way of seeing the world.
We all have a different
point of view to share.
20. Tip #19
Be worthy.
Good research is a powerful tool
to reveal the many forces at play
when people make choices.
They reveal opportunities
for brands and products
to fit their world.
But with great power comes
great responsibility.
Profit is a poor predictor of
future value and its single
minded pursuit can diminish a
brand in the long run, so find a
higher purpose that counts for
something more and stick with it.
21. Tip #20
Stay curious.
The wise Dr. Seuss once
said it’s better to know
how to learn than to know.
Expertise leads to
conformity, yet knowledge
is a bottomless pit.
There are always more
and different ways to
learn about a category,
an audience, how our
brains work, how culture
shapes us.
