Focus groups and other forms of qualitative research are intended to surface consumer motivations and attitudes. Armed with this insight, companies can then create more insightful marketing programs and new products. Or so the story goes.
The problem is that consumers usually don't provide breakthrough thinking when questioned using traditional and arcane research approaches. The trick is getting below the surface so that you can uncover consumer wants that are new, unique, potential moneymakers and not already being addressed by competitors.
For many products and services, consumers don't pay much attention to why they behave as they do. They operate out of rote or fixed patterns and usually give superficial reasons for their behavior, often unaware of their unconscious motivations and reasons for behavior.
‘Consumers usually don't provide breakthrough thinking when questioned using traditional and arcane research approaches.’
Consumers rarely dwell on the kind of new or unique needs, wants, wishes, desires and emotional connections that you, as a marketer, can profitable provide. They are a particularly poor source of information when the research seeks to surface ideas for new products or areas where new strategies would motivate greater loyalty to current products. It's no wonder that when asked in focus groups to discuss their unfulfilled needs and wants, consumers usually produce little that leads to a great "Aha!"
Take, for example, the paint company wanting to develop successful new products and began by trying to uncover the problems painting contractors had in a traditional manner. Questioning contractors in a two-hour focus group, the moderator asked them to discuss the problems they experienced on the job and to opine new product needs that a paint company could address.
The fallacy, though, is that if you question consumers in this manner, you get only top-of-mind answers. They aren't wrong answers—unless company growth is at stake.
The painting contractors came up with a little more than 100 on-the-job problems. Not bad? In fact, it was terrible. Virtually all the problems they listed could be solved using products already on the market.
Real wants and needs
Research has never been very effective in addressing the gap between what consumers express in focus groups and how they behave in reality. What is finally changing, though, is that researchers are finding new approaches for understanding and explaining that attitude-behavior gap—and, in doing so, getting below surface.
When the same contractors were asked to keep a diary of the on-the-job problems that they experienced in a 30-day period, they came up with more than 200 different problems. Fully half of them could not be solved by products currently on the market. And when they were asked to do the same exercise for a second 30-day period, another 50 problems surfaced, with most of them presenting truly new opportunities.
What happened? Simply put, behavior happened. Prodded to become more aware of their behavior and to record problems at the time they occurred, the contractors came up with ideas that just weren't in their heads when they were divorced from their work and put on the spot in the focus group sessions. As one contractor remarked, "I never think about these things. Now that I'm paying attention, there are a lot of products that would save me time and let me do a better job if they invented them."
Consider, for example, what would motivate you to change your cell phone provider. Put on the spot, you might say, "cheaper rates," or, "better coverage." Given a week to ponder the question while you're actually using your cell phone and making shopping trips to Cellular One and Verizon stores, you might say, instead, "better family plan," or, "better international calling programs." Or, after observing your own shopping behavior and because you now better understand what the competition is offering, you might come up with discounts for prepaying monthly bills. The point is that no doubt you could arrive at ideas phone companies haven't even considered.
If you want to develop new growth strategies, be they in the form of new products or new marketing initiatives for current products, you must realize that consumers can help if you provide the tools for getting below the surface. Here are some guidelines to giving them those tools:
- Allow time for incubation. New ideas will surface when people are given time. Therefore, plan your research as an over-time process. Realize that point-in-time exercises are very limited in their ability to get below the surface.
- Stimulate observation. Have consumers keep diaries, shop competitors, talk to friends or do anything that will pique involvement in your products and services. Getting below the surface mandates that all the senses be involved. A good way to do this is by motivating consumers to be more observant of their own behavior and the problems that result—and to write them down at the time they surface.
- Tap into the unconscious mind. There is a reason ideas come to us when we least expect them. It's because our minds process information on both conscious and unconscious levels. Therefore, the more involved consumers are with your products and services, the more likely it is that their unconscious minds will "flash" on a new need, want, wish or desire. Call it the "Aha or Eureka Syndrome" or simply, "planned serendipity." Whatever it is, it can work for you, if you build it into your research approach.
Getting below the surface to understand consumer needs takes patience and creativity. Set up panels. Give consumers tasks that help them become more observant of their behavior as you question them over time. You'll be amazed at what you learn.