Unconsious desire and motivations
Tools—Creating Insights
For CPG we believe in the concept of ‘Instinctive Design’—i.e., designing to instinctively delight the consumer, not just meet their articulated needs. Because 95% of thinking and decision making happens in the unconscious, we believe in not just relying on consumer insights – often the 5% of decision making that is articulated – but also tapping into the unconscious desires and motivations through other insight approaches. In the following we provide you with exercises about how 4 areas of insights could be approached.
01 Design Insights
What does the consumer really want outside of the context of a brand or category?
What is in the consumer’s unconscious vs. what he/she could consciously articulate?
How can visual cues communicate to him/her on an instinctive level?
Ideal Experience Modeling
- Without knowing the brand or category, consumers use provided visual stimulus cards to create their ideal experience as it relates to the brand proposition.
- Consumers are then debriefed as to their collages and stories. Notes are taken in verbatim form and later analyzed using metaphor elicitation techniques to uncover the unconscious or deep-rooted desires and motivations of the consumer.
- The visual collages are later analyzed for the same purpose, but also to uncover visual cues that contain meaning for consumers that could inspire Experience and Design.
Output: Ideal insights are mined through verbatims and images to answer the question, “What does he/she ideally want from….” Visual cues such as colors or textures can also provide input into the brand experience, visual identity or package/digital design.
01 Design Insights
What does the consumer really want outside of the context of a brand or category?
What is in the consumer’s unconscious vs. what he/she could consciously articulate?
How can visual cues communicate to him/her on an instinctive level?
Ideal Experience Modeling
- Without knowing the brand or category, consumers use provided visual stimulus cards to create their ideal experience as it relates to the brand proposition.
- Consumers are then debriefed as to their collages and stories. Notes are taken in verbatim form and later analyzed using metaphor elicitation techniques to uncover the unconscious or deep-rooted desires and motivations of the consumer.
- The visual collages are later analyzed for the same purpose, but also to uncover visual cues that contain meaning for consumers that could inspire Experience and Design.
Output: Ideal insights are mined through verbatims and images to answer the question, “What does he/she ideally want from….” Visual cues such as colors or textures can also provide input into the brand experience, visual identity or package/digital design.
02 Brand Insights
The current perceptions of your brand
The associations—positive and negative—consumers or customers have with your brand
The distinctive assets your brands owns—and which have meaning—vis a vis your competitors
Flashcard Exercise
- Deconstruct all of a brand’s and its competitors’ visual assets and place each one on a flashcard— without any context or brand name.
- Respondents each have a set of competitive brand name cards—one name per card. As the moderator holds up an asset flashcard, respondents hold up the brand name they believe is associated with that asset.
- Because this is qualitative research, we are looking for directional guidance as to whether any assets are owned by any of the brands. Subsequent probing will reveal what, if any, meaning, they have.
Output: Assets that were generally assigned to the brand are shown with verbatims regarding what made these assets meaningful and ownable. Assets assigned to competitors also help illuminate strength of the brand’s assets relative to its competitive set.
03 Shopper Insights
How easy or difficult is it for a shopper to navigate the store, aisle, category or brand and find what he or she is looking for?
How effective is a brand or category’s design in communicating the key pieces of information a shopper needs to know to make a purchase?
Does the brand’s package design instinctively attract and resonate with a shopper at shelf
Shopalongs
- Follow the respondent during a typical shopping trip, either through the whole store or through a specific category.
- Observe how consumer behaves—including where he/she stops, how he/she finds his/her products and whether he/she notices anything new or different or follows a routine.
- Ask questions pre-, during, and post- that uncover what his/her thought process is as he/she makes decisions along the way.
Output: The shopper routine is outlined, including how she navigates from store front to aisle to category to brand. The key visual differentiators that allow her to find her brand are noted and called out.
03 Shopper Insights
How easy or difficult is it for a shopper to navigate the store, aisle, category or brand and find what he or she is looking for?
How effective is a brand or category’s design in communicating the key pieces of information a shopper needs to know to make a purchase?
Does the brand’s package design instinctively attract and resonate with a shopper at shelf
Shopalongs
- Follow the respondent during a typical shopping trip, either through the whole store or through a specific category.
- Observe how consumer behaves—including where he/she stops, how he/she finds his/her products and whether he/she notices anything new or different or follows a routine.
- Ask questions pre-, during, and post- that uncover what his/her thought process is as he/she makes decisions along the way.
Output: The shopper routine is outlined, including how she navigates from store front to aisle to category to brand. The key visual differentiators that allow her to find her brand are noted and called out.
04 Consumer Insights
Who the consumer is and what does he/she like, think or do?
How does he/she interact with the brand and category?
What influences her purchase decisions including advertising, digital media, social networks, etc.
Ethnographies
- Follow a consumer as he/she goes about his/her normal day or his/her routine as it relates to a specific category.
- Observe consumers actions, role he/she plays with friends/family, how he/she interacts with category or brand, and how he/she gains information about categories and brands, etc.
- Ask questions pre-, during, and post- that uncover what he/she values, what he/she enjoys doing, and how he/she feels about category/brand, etc.
Output: The consumer is observed to understand how she interacts with the category and the role she plays. Consumer’s home is photographed and areas she stores category products documented to understand how the consumer interacts with the brand at home.
Our Purchase Cycle
Useful to understand
H E Y ! B R A N D
by Ronald Bartikowski
Forsteck 5, 22589 Hamburg
T +49 40 8666 26 41
M +49 157 3132 9432
M +49 157 3132 9432
© 2019 H E Y ! B R A N D