Love your consumer – so let them talk.

I really love every consumer that I speak to (whether directly in qualitative or in listening to them through our Qquant quantitative process).  Every consumer is giving their time and their opinion and the more we respect the consumer, the more they will open up and help us understand who they are, what makes them tick, why they do the things they do and why they buy the things they buy.

When a consumer enters the research experience, they want to talk – but really what they want to do is tell us about themselves.  They want to inform you about how they think and feel.

Even when focusing on the task at hand (the brand’s objective), engaging the consumer is still all about understanding them and how they respond to a product, brand, concept, packaging.  It’s all about what it means to them – so the more we understand them, the more we can understand why they respond the way they do.

It is not enough to include the word ‘you’ in a question and think that represents inclusion.  ‘What do you think about this’ is simply a question of fact.  It does not deliver a perspective on the consumer; it has not necessarily engaged them.

The consumer may tell you what they think, but at this point they may have already stepped outside of themselves – they could be in the zone where they are answering the question as ‘general public’ and not themselves.  I find that many times an initial response is often a rote response either based on what is expected or what is presumed to be a right answer but is not always true to what the consumer really thinks

I know this because when I follow-up with questions that are relevant to them, an initial response can change.  Simple follow-up questions help clarify commitment and can be highly revealing.

Does this work for you?
Do you care?
What does it offer you?

Try it and let me know what you find.