Getting Closer to the Consumer

If your goal is to develop and market products that consumers want, then you must find ways to get close to the customer. You need to get into the customer’s head, find out how they think and make consumption decisions.

Ethnographic Observation and Research

A product design company was approached by a food company that wanted to create new food-in-a-box type products for large families. Teams of employees from both organizations visited the homes of large families and watched mothers work in the kitchen. They watched as meals were prepared, as the moms interacted with their children, and as food was organized in the pantry and refrigerator. The team asked copious questions as the moms worked away. The team acted like anthropologists in a Papua New Guinea village: observing, asking, reflecting, and taking field notes. Their goal: understanding the deepest beliefs, attitudes and desires of a mom trying to nutritionally and economically feed her family. With this data, the team conducted ideation sessions and developed new food product concepts for the client company.

The trick is figuring out what consumers want, need, and will buy. The method above is sometimes referred to as ethnographic research. This research design involves observing consumers when and where they are using this type of product or service. Researchers attempt, through observation and listening, to understand the deepest needs and desires of their consumers. Only when observing consumers in a natural setting can we find these inner mental and emotional churnings. In the example above, parental self-esteem emerged as the most important factor in the cooking process. Am I providing my family nutritious, healthy food? If I am, I am a good parent.

A friend told me this story about Apple’s attempts to get close to the consumer:

When we bought our first Mac in ’93, or ’94, we got a call from Apple asking if they could come to our house and interview us. Rachel was gone, but I visited with them— they paid us $75 right on the spot! They took pictures of me at the computer (with Sophie, the dog, on my lap) asked questions about the color of the machines, what if it was a TV, what if I could play music, what if it were smaller, etc. This was years before iMac, iPod, iBook and every other i-thing. I had no idea where the Apple folks were going with it until I started seeing computers that looked different. Clearly they wouldn’t have achieved any of those breakthroughs without investing in such field research.

Observation is a powerful tool for understanding the consumer. The minivan with movable back seats was allegedly conceptualized when a car designer watched a couple struggle to put a sofa in the back of a minivan. Drivers holding hot cups of coffee between their legs led to the invention of cup holders in autos. Bored, disruptive children led to engaging activities at hospital waiting rooms. The key question: where do you see an unfulfilled need?

Innovators use many other marketing research techniques that resemble ethnographic research. Some noted marketing researchers set up video cameras in stores and capture hundreds of hours of consumer behavior. Paco Underhill, author of Why People Buy, uses this technique and has arrived at some useful conclusions. He noticed that when aisles are too narrow and women had their “butt brushed” by other shoppers, they usually left the store immediately. He also noted that people entering a store were in a “transition zone” where dazed consumers do not notice signs and other messages. These insights help companies improve in-store design.

Trend Hunting

Innovative marketers often hunt for trends that may become marketing opportunities. There are many trend hunting methods, formal and informal:

•    Read magazines, particularly outside of your field. Professionals from various disciplines look at the world differently. First, one can see trends as they are emerging. Second, one can look at the world from different perspectives.

•    Observe consumers in trendy places like Soho, Florence, London, Singapore.

•    Watch blogs. Some blogs have large follow-ings. What are these authors writing about, and what kind of responses do they get?

•    Look at different news sources. Read the Drudge report online, or follow the BBC, or Al Jazeera. These publications will give you other perspectives, and you may be able to pick up new trends.

•    Travel with your salespeople and visit their customers. Talk to your international counterparts. What are they talking about? What is on their minds? What is the competition up to?

•    Keep a wide angle lens. Often, innovations are on the periphery. A new competitor might come from another industry. A novel kind of distribution system might be borrowed from another industry.

Besides watching consumers in action, marketers can also map out their consumer processes and examine them step-by-step. For instance, Club Med, the all-inclusive resort chain, created worksheets for each of their consumer processes. These training sheets have three major sections:

•    The steps customers pass through,

•    What can go wrong at each step, and

•    The systems that can be put in place to prevent those problems.

For instance, a Club Med guest might wish to go wind surfing. The steps they go through would include: finding the location, borrowing a board, surfing happily and safely, and returning the board. What can circumvent a great experience? Sunburn? Have sunscreen available. Not finding the location? Put up copious signs. Not know how to surf? Offer training sessions. Club Med is a high end resort; it can command a high price because of its quality service. This system of anticipating problems and crafting systems to circumvent potential problems creates a superior customer experience.

Service providers have to be aware of “moments of truth,” those moments when a customer or potential customer comes into contact with the service provider. So, for a hospital these points might be:

•    when scheduling an appointment

•    when registering

•    while waiting for a loved one to have surgery

•    while filling out endless, repetitive forms

•    while waiting with small children to see a physician

If you compare a hospital experience today to a similar experience thirty years ago, you’d notice most United States hospitals have worked to minimize the pain in these moments of truth. Computer monitors inform you on the progress of your loved one in surgery. The waiting room has toys, activities, internet connection, and free snacks. Most forms are computerized and are more easily managed. And, furthermore, no fewer than five professionals confirm that it is indeed your right knee that needs surgery and they place magic marker “x”s on that knee.

Another way to look at the consumer experience is the different stages of use of the product: purchase, transport to use area, setup, extras, maintenance, and disposal of product. How could an organization be innovative in each of these dimensions? My mother recently wanted to buy a new television. We shopped at Best Buy because they would take her aging television (it really belonged in a museum) for free. Free delivery? I will take it! Whatever will make my life easier! Printer cartridges at a discount? Count me in.

Recently, on a college trip, I discovered that one college’s policy is that if you buy a laptop through them, they will maintain it through their help desk. That was a huge benefit! So, it is not just about innovation in the product or service design; all the other steps of the consumption process are also important. More importantly, innovation can literally knock the competition out of the water.