Tales of the Road
posted 23 Dec 2009
Any research with kids throws up some familiar challenges – from finely tuning stimulus and reading between the lines of what they say, through to spotting when Johnny’s drunk too much Tango and needs a comfort break. Emotive subjects such as road safety also present specific demands on researchers – the separation of actual behaviour and attitudes, from received wisdom and rote repetition of rules can be a minefield.
This paper outlines Firefish’s approach to a potent combination of both these sets of challenges and problems. A brief from the DfT called for an exploration of kids attitudes towards road safety campaigns, an understanding of what knowledge they had and how they applied it, and ultimately, the development of a new campaign to replace the successful and long-running Hedgehogs.
In early stages of research, Firefish explored kids’ road safety knowledge, as well as their attitudes towards learning and applying it and assessed potential new messaging areas. Results informed the development of campaign routes, which were then assessed for their ability both to engage and impact on behaviour.
The resulting Tales of the Road campaign has been positively received by kids, parents and teachers.
Out of Focus
posted 25 Mar 2009Now don't get me wrong, I love the thrill of life at the qualitative coal face as much as anyone. There's nothing quite like walking into a room of strangers armed only with a handful of questions and leaving with a head full of new thoughts and learnings. However, I have long been aware of the limitations of relying solely on situational, face to face interviews conducted in an artificial time and place that is usually dictated by us as researchers.
One of the great advantages of the increasingly technocentric world is how accustomed people have become to their interactions with new technology and how much time they are spending connected to it. This has provided the potential for a 360° approach to marketing and a similar opportunity is being afforded to the world of research, which is now effectively granted ‘access most areas'.
Good qualitative research is all about good communication. One consequence of society's blossoming relationship with technology is that it has created a new set of communication touch points in people's lives - many of which are at times when they were previously under the research radar. In effect, research has now been liberated from previous appointment based approaches that were often adopted to suit the process itself rather than to facilitate communication.
Non Traditional Research - Life Beyond the Comfort Zone
posted 25 Mar 2009Published in ESOMAR magazine - April 2008
Traditional research practice can leave us asking some slightly unusual, and sometimes faintly ridiculous, questions. This is often particularly true when asking people about certain more habitual behaviours and the issues that underlie their actions and colour their experiences. A good example of this in practice came in a recent project that sought to understand the importance of laundry and clean clothes in people's lives.
Now, I can only speak from my own experiences as a qualitative researcher, but would certainly describe the 'research world' as a generally polite and well presented place that largely reflects the norms of the British detergent buyer. It is a world where detergents work and life is lived in crisp shirts and fresh undergarments. As a result, a traditional approach to researching the impact of clean or dirty clothes easily becomes a rather one sided affair. In essence, when it comes to understanding the role that dirty clothes play in motivating laundry behaviour, we are asking a somewhat bizarre question: 'what is it like to experience something that you don't actually experience?'
Emoticoding
posted 25 Mar 2009Qualitative creative development research can be a challenging process both for respondent and researcher. Replicating real world responses to unfinished ad stimulus in the confines of a focus group space is something researchers have struggled with for years. The more an advertising idea is talked about in focus groups, the more group participants influence each other's true opinions, and the more rational responses can become.
In the past, the most usable solution to these problems has been to get respondents to fill in short individual self-completion questionnaires immediately after seeing advertising stimulus and before sharing their thoughts with the rest of the group. However, this has its issues: not everyone is comfortable writing down their thoughts and the act of writing can automatically lead to over-rationalisation.
So, how do you get the visceral reaction to an advertising idea before rational thought takes over?
The decision was made to use emoticons instead of individual self-completion. I called this technique EmotiCoding.
What's a picture worth?
posted 25 Mar 2009Published: January 2009 - AQR, In Brief
Video and film have come a long way since their inception, says John Sayers, from being research companions to
a parallel deliverable
It's that moment in your life when you try to explain to your mother exactly what you do for a living. "Well mum,
we make consumer films. They're films about people and their behaviour… so that companies can understand
their customers a bit more." "Oh, are they on the television?" "Er, no, they get shown internally, for our clients."
"Oh... would you like a cup of tea dear?"
It's the same with friends, they just don't get it. "You're going all the way to Somerset to film a farmer's wife for
a week while she talks about packaging? Why?" The only time friends have been remotely interested in what I
do for a living is when I once told them I was being paid to fly around the world to make a series of films about
youth culture. And that this would entail me spending all my time in clubs, bars and at parties, and talking to the
locals. "You jammy sod, call that a job?"