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NINETY PERCENT OF WHAT GET REPORTED IN MOST MARKET RESEARCH STUDIES IS ALREADY KNOWN. WE SPEND 90% OF OUR EFFORTS UNCOVERING THE 10% YOU DON'T KNOW. 
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RealityCheck is a team of experienced insight strategists, conceptual analysts, technology evangelists and data storytellers. Qual, quant or hybrid, immersive or agile, we’ll work with you to find the most important new consumer insights you need to know, explain why they matter and help you decide what to do about it. Our full-service market research approach delivers meaningful insights to inspire your strategy, product innovation, positioning and concepts.
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<p>As a former journalist, I always try not to bury the lead. So here it is. Ninety percent of what is reported in most market research studies is already known.</p>
<p>The real value comes from reporting the 10% your audience doesn’t know. Never is this more important than when you’re reporting to your senior leadership team.</p>
<p>These days, insight professionals benefit from unprecedented access to data about their customers. Most major brand marketers have communities, work with social media listening partners, monitor CX, and subscribe to syndicated research on their categories. This is all in addition to the custom research they do. All of this means a continuous flow of consumer data.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t access to data. The problem is making sense of it all. That’s what we call the 10%.</p>
<p>The 10% is the lead. It’s the signal in the noise. It’s the most compelling, relevant, and new news that brands need to know to move their business forward.</p>
<p>Who has time to wade through a 100-page deck? Do you? Certainly not the C-suite. What they want to know is what is the new information that matters most to the business.</p>
<p>So here are a few tips for uncovering and communicating the 10% that, when applied, will help you and your team find the story in your data.</p>
<h2>1. Know what you’re looking for</h2>
<p>To uncover the 10%, it helps to know what you’re looking for. There are two criteria. Ten percent of insights are new, and they are important. So, what qualifies as &#8220;new&#8221;? Certainly, something your audience doesn’t already know. But this doesn’t mean that the 10% must be from out of left field. In fact, it is seldom the case that an audience that has any knowledge of your category won’t know something related to your 10% insights. More often than not, the 10% is a reframe of what they already know. It’s an insight that gives them a fresh perspective or a different way to think about the consumer. It should provoke thought.</p>
<p>A 10% insight doesn’t have to make people say, “I never heard that before”, although that’s fine. It can also make people say, “Well, I never really thought of it like that”. Often, this response is more powerful because it’s seen by the audience as more credible. You’ve taken something they already know, an assumption or belief, and you’ve advanced their thinking about it, offered a twist, or perhaps, challenged its validity.</p>
<p>Offering a fresh perspective on existing knowledge is often more palatable and more credible than insights that are totally new.</p>
<p>And this leads to our second criteria. Ten percent insights are important. They matter to the audience. They are a direct hit on the study objectives. It’s easy to find new insights about some obscure part of your data set. But what’s most interesting to your audience is the stuff that is directly related to the core objectives of the analysis. The big important stuff you’re after.</p>
<p>So, to recap, know what you’re looking for. The 10% are insights that are new – they offer a twist or a reframe of existing knowledge &#8211; AND they are important &#8211; they matter to your audience. They are a direct hit on the primary objectives of your analysis.</p>
<h2>2. Don’t bury the lead</h2>
<p>Once you’ve uncovered the 10% in your data, you need to communicate it clearly and concisely. That means to lead with it. The 10% should be communicated on your first slide, in your first paragraph, in the first sentence. Make it clear, concise, and direct. In journalism, when you fail to report the new, relevant information in the first paragraph, it’s called burying the lead. Journalists know that if you don’t hook the audience with something new and something that matters to them right off the bat, you’ll lose them. And this is true of consumer insight audiences too.</p>

        <div class="post-related-post">
            <h3>Related</h3>
            <h4><a href="https://www.greenbook.org/insights/research-methodologies/data-storytelling-for-market-researchers">Data Storytelling for Market Researchers</a></h4>
        </div>
    
<p>Despite this, insight folks and market researchers are notorious for burying the lead. Too often, I see research reports that report what was found in the order of the questionnaire or discussion guide. Or, in mixed methods studies, organized by type of fieldwork. Or worse yet, in no particular order at all – a data dump of disconnected slides.</p>
<p>Instead, lead with the 10%. Hit ‘em with it right out of the gate. Begin with your conclusion. Then, build your supporting story around that.</p>
<p>When I make this point, I always get some push back from those who say, “Well don’t you have to lead the audience to your big reveal?” In other words, don’t you have to build your case before you reveal your conclusion? To which I say, be careful. The slow burn is a good way to lose your audience quickly. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I believe it’s best to hit them with the 10% immediately, then support that insight.</p>
<h2>3. Keep it tight</h2>
<p>We all have a tendency to want to include everything we’ve found in our reports. For some of us, that’s because we’ve worked hard and have so much good stuff, we want to include it all. For others, it’s because we want to beat our audience into submission with tonnage, overwhelming any possible pushback with the sheer volume of data we’ve collected. Death by a thousand graphics.</p>
<p><em>I have one word for you here: Don’t.</em></p>
<p>Resist the temptation toward tonnage. Instead, craft a tight narrative around your 10% insights and let go of the rest. Let it go!</p>
<p>If you really must include it all, put it in the appendix. In fact, including an appendix in your report can be quite liberating.</p>
<p>The bottom line is your analysis is meaningless unless people act on it. And to act on it they have to remember it. And the more you bury people with information, the less they remember any of it. Keep in mind that people remember stories. They don’t remember data points. And they certainly don’t remember a ton of data points.</p>
<p>So, keep it simple. Deliver the 10%. Build a tight, compelling story around it, and let go of the rest.</p>
<h2>4. Design with the 10% in mind</h2>
<p>I’ve done presentations and facilitated workshops on uncovering and communicating the 10% and at some point, the same question always comes up. What if you don’t have anything new to report?</p>
<p>Oftentimes, the person raising this question will give the example of tracking studies, for which, they’ll say, the job usually is to update the team on the fact that “nothing has changed.” My first response to this is that if you’re repeating a study or method that routinely generates no new learning, then I’d seriously question why you’re spending money on it.</p>
<p>But my second response is that uncovering the 10% doesn’t start with analysis and report writing. You should think about it when you design your study. If you design your study to confirm what’s known, you’re going to end up confirming what’s known and delivering no new, relevant insights.</p>
<p><em>If you don’t actively seek new learning, you won’t find it.</em></p>
<p>To prevent this from happening, you should try to reframe the study objectives from the get-go. Think about your team’s assumptions. How might they be wrong or incomplete? Think about what parts of your consumers’ lives and experiences might be connected to your study objectives that you haven’t explored in past research. Take a step back and ask yourself, what is this study really about? Set up interesting comparison groups and reference points in your design. Make sure you’ve created the kind of variance around key measures that will be interesting in analysis on the back end.</p>
<p>There are no hard and fast rules here other than approaching your design with a fresh eye. And you’ll be more likely to get fresh, 10% insights.</p>
<p>I used to have a boss in this business who would say, “How do you get interesting insights? Ask interesting questions.” Make sure you have interesting, albeit relevant, questions built into your study that stack the deck in your favor of uncovering new insights that matter to your audience; that uncover the 10% that matters most.</p>
<p>So, there you have it. Four keys to uncovering the 10% and finding the story in your data. I hope you’ve found this useful.</p>


Insights: Uncovering the 10% That Matters Most – and Reporting it to the C-suite

<p>I used to have a boss in the market research business who would ask, “How do you get interesting insights?” To which he’d provide the answer “Ask interesting questions!”</p>
<p>One way to guarantee interesting questions in market research is to stop pursuing Consumer Insights and start pursuing Human Insights.</p>
<p>In recent blog posts, we’ve argued that<a href="http://realitycheckinc.com/a-human-appoach-to-consumer-research/"> Human Insights have huge advantages over Consumer Insights</a>. One reason is that a human perspective — one that takes into account the life experiences and aspirational identity of the whole person — allows you to ask more interesting questions.</p>
<p>But how does a Human Insights approach change how we go about the routine marketing research projects we do all the time?</p>
<p>Here are three types of routine insights projects that we do frequently and how the shift from a consumer perspective to a human perspective affects each.</p>
<h2>Understanding Segments</h2>
<h3>From questions of consumption to questions of identity</h3>
<p>We do a lot of work each year on segments. We conduct ethnographic and psychological deep dives to follow-up quantitative segmentation studies. Brand teams want to understand their segments on a “deeper level” so they can find “white space” for innovation and “core insights” to inspire messaging.</p>
<p>A Consumer Insights approach to these studies typically begins with a narrow focus on brands and consumption. Such projects explore people’s beliefs and attitudes about brands in the category and their shopping, purchase and brand usage behavior.</p>
<p>Such studies are limited from the outset because they start with a narrow focus on the consumer part of people, rather than a broad curiosity about what matters to the whole human being.</p>
<p>A Human Insights approach to segment analysis focuses on identity rather than consumption. A Human Insights approach to segments asks “Who do these people want to be?” Once we have a thorough understanding of this question, then (and only then) we ask, “How can our brand help them realize this aspirational identity?”</p>
<p><strong>Human Insights tip:</strong> The next time you want to understand a segment, ask them to tell or write a story about two alternative futures for themselves — one positive and one negative. Then, after their stories are written, ask them to describe how your brand might help them achieve the positive future and avoid the negative one.</p>
<h2>Optimizing Advertising/Packaging</h2>
<h3>From questions of evaluation to questions of association</h3>
<p>Whether we like to admit it or not, people filter and deconstruct our ads and package designs and recreate them in their minds to serve their own purposes. If a creative message connects with someone, it is because they find it useful in helping them create their own personal story.</p>
<p>Most Consumer Insights approaches to creative development are evaluative. We often hear clients say they need to “test” creative, essentially asking “consumers” the question, “What do you think of this idea?” But this question doesn’t accurately represent how people process and use messaging. It also requires something of respondents they simply are not qualified to do (that is, evaluative advertising and design).</p>
<p>A Human Insights approach explores a profoundly different question. It asks, “What does this idea make you think of?” This is a question about the cognitive and emotional associations the idea evokes in people.</p>
<p>The difference between these two questions is immense. The latter question sends us on a journey to understand what, if anything, a creative message brings to mind from a person’s own life, experiences, memories and aspirations. People don’t care what the intended message of your advertising or packaging is. They only care how they can use it to help tell themselves a story about who they want to be. The creative messages that people want to incorporate into their own narrative identities is the message that is most relevant, meaningful and motivating.</p>
<p><strong>Human Insights tip:</strong> The next time you’re doing qualitative research on advertising or package design, start by asking people, “What does this idea make you think of from your own life or experiences? What does it bring to mind for you? What memories does it trigger?” The ultimate measure of relevance is whether an ad or design connects with someone’s own life experience and aspirations in a meaningful way.</p>
<h2>Decision Journey/Shopper Insights</h2>
<h3>From questions of transaction to questions of context</h3>
<p>Many Decision Journey and Shopper Insights studies are intensely transactional. They focus like a laser beam on those thoughts, feelings and actions related to shopping and buying. In doing so, they often misrepresent the process as being more conscious and linear than it really is.</p>
<p>A Human Insights approach recognizes that real-life decision making is often messy, irrational, nonlinear and nonconscious. It asks “What is the broader life context in which this decision takes place?” It explores the pressures, distractions and emotions that shape how decisions are made in real life. It considers the ways people hope to transform themselves and their lives through the shopping experience. And it considers the myriad ways people simplify decision-making to deal with the complexities of daily life.</p>
<p><strong>Human Insights tip.</strong> The next time you do Shop Alongs, meet the respondent at their home first. Spend some time getting to know them — who they are and who they want to be. Get to know a little about their daily life before you go shopping. You’ll begin to understand a bit more about the real-life context in which the shopping journey takes place and how that human being might hope to be transformed — even if only momentarily — by the experience.</p>
<p>So there you have it. Three types of routine market research projects and how a Human Insights approach can make them more interesting. Let me know what you think. And please, share with me the ways you’ve applied a human perspective to the insights work you do!</p>


How a Human Insights Approach Can Transform Routine Market Research

<blockquote><p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Editor’s Note: This post is part of our Big Ideas Series, a column highlighting the innovative thinking and thought leadership at IIEX events around the world.</span></i></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We use brands to tell ourselves stories about who we are. The brands that are most meaningful to us are those that play a role in our internal life stories, or what psychologists call our Narrative Identity.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’ve spent years listening to people tell stories about how brands fit into their lives. And something I’ve learned is that strong brands possess many of the same qualities as great characters.  </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Think about the fictional characters that you love. I bet you’ll find they have some things in common. Now imagine your brand possessing these same qualities. Think about how that would change your brand strategy, your marketing and your insights work.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are 5 qualities that great characters and great brands share.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">AGENCY</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great characters and great brands take action. They make things happen. They control their own destinies. For brands, agency is all about innovation and leadership. Netflix has agency in a category that requires it to survive. From DVD, home delivery to streaming to content production, the brand has managed to stay out in front of competitors.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">MOTIVATION</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great characters and great brands have a clear motivation for what they do. They have a mission. They have a fight. They are compelled to resolve a conflict or champion a cause. IKEA’s motivation is “to create a better everyday life for the many.” That’s a clear motivation that comes through in their products, pricing and marketing.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">CONFLICT</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great characters and great brands face conflict. They struggle. It gives their story drama. It’s clear not just what they stand for, but what they stand </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">against</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Sometimes they face a villain. Sometimes it’s an internal conflict they must overcome. A few years ago, Smart Car declared itself “Against Dumb,” challenging the excesses of modern life. They identified their villain and challenged car buyers to join their fight.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">COMPLEXITY</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great characters and great brands aren’t one-dimensional. They have nuance and complexity. They don’t get stale or uninteresting. Great brands possess a collection of interesting stories and experiences for consumers to discover. Chobani yogurt’s backstory is interesting. Its founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, is a complex person who can be both likeable and brash — and the brand has exciting plans for the future. Chobani has a rich collection of narratives that give it complexity and make it interesting.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">THE ABILITY TO SURPRISE</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great characters and great brands surprise us. While staying true to their identities, they say and do things we don’t quite expect. Last year, Patagonia’s Black Friday promotion &#8211; when it donated all Black Friday profits to grassroots environmental organizations- was surprising even for a brand known for philanthropy. The surprising act put the mature brand back into public consciousness.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, does your brand have what it takes to be a great character? If not, I encourage you to think about how the traits listed above might change your brand strategy. And maybe your brand can play a starring role in the life story of your consumer.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you’d like to read more characteristics of great characters, check out actor/writer Chuck Wendig’s website </span><a href="http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/01/13/25-things-a-great-character-needs/"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">terribleminds</span></i></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> For more on Narrative Identity, check out </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stories-We-Live-Personal-Making/dp/1572301880"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self</span></i></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">by </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Northwestern University psychology professor Dan P. McAdams.</span></p>


5 Qualities that Great Brands and Great Characters Share

<p>I hear a lot of marketers these days say their companies are “consumer-centric.”  I used to think this was a good thing. But I’ve changed my mind. Being consumer-centric is good. But it’s not good enough.</p>
<p>To be a truly transformative brand — one that enjoys true loyalty, passionate advocacy and a premium price — it’s not enough to be consumer-centric.</p>
<p><em>You have to be human-centric.</em></p>
<p>The bottom line is this: Consumers don’t buy brands. People do.</p>
<p>And unless you understand the whole person you’re selling to, you’ll miss opportunities to play a profound and meaningful role in their lives.</p>
<p>Think about this on a personal level. Do you consider yourself to be a consumer? Are you nothing more than a demographic, a “user” or “non-user,” a “loyalist” or “rejecter?” Of course not. But that’s how marketers often think about the people who buy their brands. They concern themselves with only a fraction of the whole person.</p>
<p>This has real implications for the questions we ask in market research. And, as a result, it has real implications for how we market our brands.</p>
<p>A<em> consumer-centric</em> marketer asks “Why did you buy this versus that?” What do you think of my brand?” “What do you think of my competitor’s brand?” And so on.</p>
<p>A <em>human-centric</em> marketer asks “What’s on your mind today?” “What do you believe in?” “What are your concerns?” “What kind of person are you?” “What kind of person do you want to be?”</p>
<p>And then, and only then, does the human-centric marketer ask “How, if at all, does my brand fit into your life?” “How can my brand help you?”</p>
<p>Brands that connect with people on a human level are more relevant to them. They become part of a person’s narrative identity, the story that shapes their sense of self. They are better able to uncover the unmet needs people feel but struggle to express.</p>
<p>And, most important of all, they make people’s lives better, richer, easier, more interesting and more fulfilling. They speak to the whole person — not just to a fraction of that person.</p>
<p>So, if you work for one of those companies that is consumer-centric, maybe it’s time to push things to the next level. The human level.</p>
<p><a href="http://realitycheckinc.com/a-human-appoach-to-consumer-research/"><strong>It’s time to become human-centric.</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="http://realitycheckinc.com/consumer-centric-marketing-is-dead/"><em>Originally posted here. </em></a></p>


Consumer-Centric Marketing is Dead

<p>Making bold predictions for the New Year is always tricky but the&nbsp;<a href="https://realitycheckinc.com/who-we-are/">team of insight strategists</a> at <strong>Reality</strong>Check is always up for a challenge.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s hard to make insight predictions in a vacuum. There are too many implications in the air after the US election and the drama of the transition period before Trump&rsquo;s inauguration. How will people on both sides of this epic class/culture/outlook struggle react within their lives? Will there be tangible changes? Will some or all feel more emboldened in a way? With all of that in mind&hellip;here are some thoughts re: insight predictions for 2017. These are obviously inter-related but represent &mdash; to us &mdash; the most compelling new dynamics in the world of human insight, attitudes and beliefs.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="font-family: Adelle-Regular; color: #675f69;">Listen Different</h3>
<p><img class="alignleft wp-image-17558 size-full" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/reality_1.jpg" alt="Jim Chastain Founding Partner, RealityCheck" width="199" height="300"></p>
<h5>Jim Chastain<br>Founding Partner, <strong>Reality</strong>Check</h5>
<p>I&rsquo;ve been hearing a lot of talk about listening. Whether that&rsquo;s listening to &ldquo;the other&rdquo; (meaning someone with opposing beliefs in a number of different contexts) or just listening on a deeper level overall. People are talking about the need to better understand each other and they seem to be &mdash; rightly &mdash; focusing first on listening in new ways that help them understand on a deeper level. How does this play out in insights? It would certainly seem to have a role to play in helping to determine the influence of cultural context but also has possibilities in simply understanding people&rsquo;s lives better. As brands seem to be focusing more on &ldquo;consumer/brand experience&rdquo; it seems natural to want to listen in a way that helps them shape experience versus just present benefits. What is the consumer&rsquo;s &ldquo;story&rdquo; and how can they present a brand story that fits it? This will require a different way to listen.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Questioning Our ME Bubble</h3>
<p>Have we become so filtered by our ability to individualize our lives that we don&rsquo;t ever hear voices that we should be listening to? This question seems to be wafting heavily through the air&hellip;again, as a result of the election process and its result. People are starting to realize that Facebook and Google have done essentially what we&rsquo;ve been asking them to do&hellip; curate a personalized, individualized world just for ME. We don&rsquo;t see bad stuff, we don&rsquo;t see negativity and we don&rsquo;t have to listen to anyone who doesn&rsquo;t agree with us. The ME bubble has its commercial benefits and hassles but will this ease of individualizing our world actually make us not want so much ME? Does this usher in a new tension in our lives around being self vs. other-focused (there are lots of those tensions already). Does it create a new way of thinking about connecting with others? Does it make us want to connect with others more or in new ways? Or, in the end, will we be okay with the ME bubble? Are we finally going to stop using the word &ldquo;curating?&rdquo; We&rsquo;ll see how it all pans out but it&rsquo;s worth our attention.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Blink vs. Think</h3>
<p><img class="alignleft wp-image-17559 size-full" src="https://greenbookblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/reality_2.jpg" alt="Jim White, PhD Founding Partner, RealityCheck" width="199" height="300"></p>
<h5 style="font-family: Adelle-Regular; color: #675f69;">Jim White, PhD<br>Founding Partner, <strong>Reality</strong>Check</h5>
<p>People&rsquo;s use of simplification strategies to make decisions in every category will continue to grow. Smart brand marketers will realize this and seek to understand the emotional and mental shortcuts at play in their category. On the other hand, marketers who assume decision-making happens along linear, rational paths paved by complete information will grossly misunderstand their consumer. Distraction and inattentiveness now rule our lives as never before. Few of us have the time or inclination to ponder our marketplace decisions for long. &nbsp;Still, many marketers will construct &ldquo;journey maps&rdquo; of decision-making in their categories, attempting to apply a rational model to a messy, irrational process. Unfortunately, these marketers will get it wrong and fail to understand how decision-making really happens.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Brands Must Return to Simple Truths</h3>
<p><img class="alignleft wp-image-17560" src="https://greenbookblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/reality_3.jpg" alt="Saul Hopper, PhD Partner, RealityCheck, Clinical Psychologist" width="201" height="203"></p>
<h5 style="font-family: Adelle-Regular; color: #675f69;">Saul Hopper, PhD<br>Partner, <strong>Reality</strong>Check, Clinical Psychologist</h5>
<p>Successful marketing must deliver brands that tell simple truths since there is an unmet emotional need, a hunger in our country for the almost unfamiliar experience of believing and trusting information.</p>
<p>On the psychological level, brands must position themselves to offer resolution of or relief from those emotional tensions revealed by the 2016 elections: security vs. fear, identity preservation vs. identity confusion, rapprochement vs. embattlement, being valued vs. being forgotten, belonging vs. isolation, and stability vs. vulnerability. These are the &ldquo;macro-tensions&rdquo; that will likely underlie a multiplicity of more subtle differences that are product and brand specific and can be explored in psychological deep dives and ethnographic research following segmentation studies.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>The Role of the Social Unconscious</h3>
<p><img class="alignleft wp-image-17561 size-full" src="https://greenbookblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/reality_4.jpg" alt="Tom Stone, PhD RealityCheck, Clinical Psychologist" width="199" height="300"></p>
<h5 style="font-family: Adelle-Regular; color: #675f69;">Tom Stone, PhD<br><strong>Reality</strong>Check, Clinical Psychologist</h5>
<p>As a psychologist I can&rsquo;t help but think of how our culture impacts who we are and what we hold dear in our lives. At the same time, we know that each of us makes incremental decisions along the way to choosing what we are going to in our lives whether it is deciding where to live, with whom to live, where to work, or what to buy. In the last twenty years there has been increasing literature on the concept of the Social Unconscious. This is a fancy word for how our culture influences us in profound ways without us even realizing it.</p>
<p>The consumer market plays a big role in what comprises the social unconscious. What we consider to be important; what we value; and what we want is all embedded in our unconscious and then these ideas and thoughts arrive at some point into consciousness. What we buy nourishes us and makes us feel good about who we are. Another way of saying this is that what we buy to fulfill our unconscious desires. We would be smart to recognize the role of the Social Unconscious and how it influences us&hellip;as a society and as individual consumers.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Disruption Gets Personal</h3>
<p><img class="alignleft wp-image-17562 size-full" src="https://greenbookblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/reality_5.jpg" alt="Kerry Walsh, RealityCheck, Insights Strategist" width="199" height="300"></p>
<h5><a href="https://www.greenbook.org/insights/authors/kwalsh">Kerry Walsh</a></h5>
<h5 style="font-family: Adelle-Regular; color: #675f69;"><strong>Reality</strong>Check, Insights Strategist</h5>
<p>We&rsquo;ve all witnessed the rash of revolutions chipping away at any remnant sense of business as usual in America. iTunes took over the music industry eons ago. YouTube is public television (and what does &ldquo;TV&rdquo; even mean anymore, really?) Netflix and HBO make Hollywood look like a dinosaur. Uber is demolishing the taxi and rental car industries in this moment. Amazon has changed not only the way we shop, but how we know what we want.</p>
<p>Up until now, these topics have enlivened dinner party conversations and provided some cause for reflection among those who think deep. But for the most part, we observe these trends from a distance, and process them as external influences. They disrupt the way things are done, not who we are.</p>
<p>Internal disruption is more serious. It occurs when our bedrock cracks and we experience discontinuity in our sense of self. The erosion of our religious, economic and political institutions is at the heart of this phenomenon. These grounding forces are no longer reliable, which threatens not only our sense of security but our collective and personal identity. Many are feeling lost as they ask themselves fundamental questions: What can I count on? What should I hang on to? What do I believe in? How do I find my center?</p>
<p>Here&rsquo;s the good news: People are seeking. They&rsquo;re open. They&rsquo;re engaged. They&rsquo;re forming alliances with like-minded people. Companies and brands can become allies for those who are trying to rebuild. Focus on core values. Stand for something positive. Become beacons of hope and virtue. Help people push the &ldquo;restart&rdquo; button so they can move forward.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="font-family: Adelle-Regular; color: #675f69;">An Atmosphere of Uncertainty Can Be a Brand&rsquo;s Best Friend</h3>
<p><img class="alignleft wp-image-17563 size-full" src="https://greenbookblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/reality_6.png" alt="Linda&nbsp;Casey, RealityCheck, Insights Strategist" width="199" height="300"></p>
<h5>Linda&nbsp;Casey<br><strong>Reality</strong>Check, Insights Strategist</h5>
<p>A strong brand is like the ruby slippers, capable of both anchoring and transporting a person as they experience and wear them. This happens because a strong brand mirrors and often solves the tensions found in any given customer&rsquo;s own personal narrative.</p>
<p>These days, as if our own inherent tensions weren&rsquo;t enough to deal with, the big picture tensions are forcing their way into us from the outside, causing many people to be conservative &ndash; even defensive &ndash; about hopes, dreams, expressiveness, and their &ldquo;moves&rdquo; in the short term&hellip;reactively disrupting their own &ldquo;normal.&rdquo; As marketers themselves contemplate how to &ldquo;address&rdquo; the current climate and their product opportunities within the context of it, I would suggest that brand underpinnings of constancy, inclusion, a larger good, and clarity of purpose will help people connect during these times. Brand beacons like these will help people shore up and feel safe &ndash; whether it is LL Bean boots or the gumdrop sweetness and smooth jazz of the movie La La Land. It is the &ldquo;known&rdquo; that will help them recalibrate, accept change, and find their new groove.</p>
<p>For these reasons, I believe the theme for the upcoming year will be &ldquo;finding normal.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="font-family: Adelle-Regular; color: #675f69;">Crowd As Brand-Builder</h3>
<p><img class="alignleft" src="https://realitycheckinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Sue-199x300.jpg" alt="Sue Chapman, RealityCheck Insight Strategist"></p>
<h5>Sue Chapman<br><strong>Reality</strong>Check, Insights Strategist</h5>
<p>Overall the voice of the customer is gaining in stature. Brands are being forced to face critiques and criticism. The prevalence of online communication is an opportunity for brands to listen and play a willing role in a conversation with the customer.</p>
<p>With the prominence of ratings, reviews and social media more and more brands are using what others say about them to construct their identity. Many are baking a survey into every purchase to get a grade on how they&rsquo;re doing. The need to connect with others through brands isn&rsquo;t new. Smart marketers not only have a good understanding of what they stand for; they&rsquo;re open to what their customer is bringing to the equation. Creating a dialog can result in a more relevant brand.</p>
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<div class="social-share pull-right"><em>Originally posted <a href="https://realitycheckinc.com/consumer-insights-trends-for-2017/">here</a>.</em></div>

8 Human Insight Trends for 2017

<p><img decoding="async" class=" wp-image-14932" src="https://wp.greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/storytelling-1.jpg" alt="magic open book of fantasy stories" width="622" height="440"   /></p>
<p><strong>By Jim White, PhD., Founding Partner <a href="http://www.realitycheckinc.com/">at RealityCheck Consulting</a></strong></p>
<p>If they a made a movie about your consumer, what role would your brand play?</p>
<p>Hero? Trusted sidekick? Mentor? Villain? Would your brand even have a speaking part? Or would it be an extra? You know, “Man in crowd #3 played by <u>your brand</u>”.</p>
<p>We all have life stories that we create and tell ourselves to give meaning to our life experiences. We use these stories to construct our sense of self.</p>
<p>Psychologists call this Narrative Identity.</p>
<p>In short, Narrative Identity is the life story we tell ourselves to give our lives a sense of coherence and purpose. We are all creators of our own myths — myths that give meaning to who we are in the world.</p>
<p>Every day, we strive to weave together our experiences and actions into a life story that makes sense in some way.</p>
<p><strong>The Roles Brands Play</strong></p>
<p>The most meaningful brands play important roles in the construction of our Narrative Identity. We use them to smooth over the inconsistencies and contradictions in our stories. We write them into our personal narratives to help us become the characters we want to become in the stories of our lives.</p>
<p>Just like a movie, our stories consist of characters, props and settings. And we incorporate brands into our stories in one of these three ways.</p>
<ul>
<li>Characters: Brands can be characters, playing the role of supporting actors in our narratives.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Props: They can be props that we use to move our personal plotlines along.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Settings: They can be settings, stages or backdrops against which we act out the stories that shape our identities.</li>
</ul>
<p><u>Characters</u></p>
<p>In marketing research, we often ask consumers to “personify” brands, that is describe them as if they are people. Usually, consumers find this easy to do. This is because we intuitively think of brands as characters in our life stories.</p>
<p>Over the years, I’ve gotten into the habit of sticking a Clif <sup>® </sup>Bar into my pocket when I ski. I’m not a back country skier by any stretch. There’s little chance that I’m going to ski anywhere far from a mid-mountain restaurant.</p>
<p>But that Clif Bar is always in my pocket. Why? It’s because the Clif Bar is a character in my story. It represents my backcountry skiing partner. He is rugged, adventurous, skilled and serious about being in the mountains. I’d love to ski with someone like that. And with my Clif Bar, I can.</p>
<p><u>Props</u></p>
<p>Brands also can be props that we use to move our personal plotlines along. The best brand-props are <em>transformative</em> in some way. They allow us to access a different part of ourselves and play a slightly different role in our stories.</p>
<p>In the movies, the kinds of props I’m talking about are like Harry Potter’s wand, Catness’s bow and Luke’s lightsaber. But for us everyday folks, brands are our transformative tools.</p>
<p>One of my brand props is my Gibson Les Paul guitar.</p>
<p>I think all of us in one way or another have a personal myth that we are at least somewhat cool. This is particularly true as we age. (This is definitely more myth than reality for me)!</p>
<p>My laptop background is actually a picture of my Gibson. Why did I choose that for my background? I’m usually the only one who sees that screen. I think it’s because I like to incorporate that guitar into my daily narrative. It allows me to tell myself each day that I’m a little younger, a little cooler than I might appear.</p>
<p><u>Settings</u></p>
<p>Brands also serve as settings, scenes or contexts in our stories that make it easier for us to play out certain roles.</p>
<p>I have some status on Delta Airlines, which means I get to board early and I get upgraded now and then. While I may not like to admit it, I like the feeling of boarding early and sitting in first class.  Not just because it’s convenient and more comfortable, but because it reaffirms something important about my identity — that I’m important in my world, that I have status and that I’m successful.</p>
<p>I may try to write the same storyline when I fly Southwest Airlines — but it’s a little harder to do. The Southwest setting doesn’t fit the story I’m trying to tell myself. I have to do a little mental editing to make my identity as “Successful Entrepreneur” fit the facts when I board a Southwest flight.</p>
<p>So ask yourself.</p>
<p>Is your brand a Character, Prop or Setting in your consumers’ life story? If the answer is “no,” begin to think how it could be. Think of the role your brand could play and put your brand on a path to becoming an indispensable part of your consumers’ Narrative Identity.</p>


3 Roles Your Brand Can Play in Your Consumers’ Life Story

<p>So my partner Jim Chastain and I dusted off the Reality<strong>Check</strong> crystal ball to see what’s in store for qualitative research in 2015. Here are our top 5 qual trends for this year.</p>
<h3>1. From Research to Experience</h3>
<p>More and more clients will seek methods that deliver experiential learning that immerses them in their consumers’ worlds. For these clients, focus groups will be less and less relevant. They won’t be content to just passively observe their consumer; they’ll want to experience what it’s like to actually be them, even if only for a short while.</p>
<p>Clients will increasingly value immersive techniques that create opportunities to come out from behind the observation mirror and engage with respondents directly. And they’ll gain an increasing appreciation for approaches that allow them to role play as their consumer and gain a much deeper, human understanding of the people to whom they are marketing.</p>
<h3>2. From Insights to Empathy</h3>
<p>Related to this, the trend toward engagement and empathy will continue to gather steam. Increasingly, clients won’t want to just understand their customers on a cognitive level. They’ll want to connect with them on an empathic and emotional level and will demand innovative approaches to help them do so.</p>
<p>More and more, clients and researchers are realizing that treating consumers like human beings yields richer insights and more genuine connections between brands and people. When you think of research as a conversation among people, rather than a test, a deeper, more meaningful dialogue begins to happen between you and the humans you need to understand.</p>
<h3>3. From Researchers to Translators</h3>
<p>As client organizations get more stretched, they will depend more on smart qualitative translators to give insights meaning for their brands. They’ll expect their research partners to not only report the findings, but to also show them a clear, relevant pathway forward for their brands.</p>
<p>Researchers will need to deliver <em>insights-based consulting</em>, not just <em>insights</em>. This means they’ll need to not just find and report insights, but translate those insights in meaningful and compelling ways.</p>
<h3>4. Big Data Comes to Qual</h3>
<p>Leading-edge qualitative researchers will increasingly use more sophisticated analytics to manage and mine the avalanche of data that can now be captured through online qualitative techniques. Big data has hit the qual world and you need to be equipped to handle it.</p>
<p>This means qual researchers will need to approach analysis more like our quant counterparts, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Taking a team approach to project execution, rather than having one qualitative consultant do it all. To manage the avalanche of data from online qual, researchers will use resources more smartly, having teams of coders, data wranglers and text analytics specialists assisting lead consultants in revealing insights and identifying key themes.</li>
<li>Applying more analytical rigor to data analysis. The more unstructured data qual researchers face, the more likely we are to miss key insights if we continue to analyze the same old way. Increasingly, we’ll use more sophisticated content analysis and text analytics techniques to make sure our analysis is comprehensive.</li>
</ul>
<h3>5. People are More Willing to Share</h3>
<p>Thanks in large part to the age of social media, people are more willing than ever before to share their lives with us. Smart qual researchers will figure out new ways to leverage this trend to benefit their clients.</p>
<p>Particularly in online contexts, people are increasingly comfortable letting others into their lives. We’ve been constantly amazed at the increasing openness of online respondents and the willingness they have to put remarkable amounts of time and attention into the activities we ask them to do.</p>
<p>But this trend also brings with it a challenge. Qual researchers will need to be creative and innovative in the techniques they use. People are used to an ever-changing landscape of creative and expressive tools in the digital world. Qual researchers will need to keep pace in order to keep their respondents engaged.</p>


5 Trends in Qualitative Research – Ignore At Your Own Peril

<div><em><strong>Editor&rsquo;s Note:</strong> The Business Roundtable made news a few weeks ago by declaring that the purpose of corporations is to do more than build shareholder value; just as importantly, various stakeholders must benefit as well. This statement upsets a generation of corporate orthodoxy and has provoked fierce debate. Jim Chastain and Jim White of RealityCheck give us their take on some for the implications of this bold restatement of corporate purpose.</em></div>
<hr>
<p>Last week came a message from American business leaders that was nothing short of revolutionary: The corporation now has a broader purpose than making money for shareholders.</p>
<p>The Business Roundtable &ndash; a group representing the nation&rsquo;s most powerful chief executives &ndash; released an updated Statement on the Purpose of the Corporation. For the first time in decades, the statement focused on something beyond shareholder value. It set a modern standard for corporate responsibility, one committed to benefitting all shareholders including customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Americans deserve an economy that allows each person to succeed through hard work and creativity and to lead a life of meaning and dignity,&rdquo; said the statement from the organization, which is chaired by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. &ldquo;We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities, and our country.&rdquo;</p>
<p>This is not a hope or a recommendation from a committee of mid-level managers that their company should do more than just make money. These are the nation&rsquo;s most powerful chief executives saying that running a successful enterprise is about more than driving revenue and profit growth. This has the potential to <em>change the culture of corporations.</em></p>
<h3>The Rise of Concern for CSR</h3>
<p>Why did the Business Roundtable do this now? Our experience is that large, legacy brands are suffering at the hands of brands that speak to their audiences in a human-to-human way, rather than as corporation to the consumer. Every year, we listen to thousands of people who buy products in a wide range of categories. Over the last few years, we&rsquo;ve heard an almost universal cry that big corporations are greedy and that smaller, more personal brands care more about people as human beings.</p>
<p>What&rsquo;s interesting is that humanizing business strategy isn&rsquo;t just a &ldquo;feel-good&rdquo; endeavor. It makes good business sense. The small companies that do this have been steadily eroding the market share of large, legacy brands for years. Their empathic cultures allow them to be more creative, agile and inspired. Their employees are motivated because they have a sense of shared mission that goes beyond net profit. And they have customers who are more loyal because they believe these brands &ldquo;get them&rdquo; in meaningful ways.</p>
<p>Whatever the motivations of these chief executives, shaping their companies into more empathic, genuinely caring organizations has the potential to make them play a more meaningful role in the lives of the people they serve. Yes, I said serve. Not sell to. It has the potential to change the way they treat their employees, how they source their products and how they provide a greater benefit to their communities. It has the potential for them to create a more person-to-person relationship with the people who buy their brands.</p>
<p>Within hours of the Business Roundtable releasing its statement, critics pounced saying that without action, the words are meaningless. Some dismissed the statement as &ldquo;symbolic.&rdquo; But it doesn&rsquo;t have to be. We&rsquo;ve seen a few large corporations begin to humanize their business strategy in meaningful ways.</p>
<p>If you are in a corporate leadership position, and you want your organization to live up to the Modern Purpose of the Corporation, here are three keys to making this happen.</p>
<h3>1. Lead by Example</h3>
<p>Our experience in helping companies become more empathic and human is that top management needs to be fully committed to the program. If not, empathy will go the way of a nice-to-do thing instead of realizing its full potential to change the culture within an organization in a way that makes that organization stronger.</p>
<h3>2. Create a Culture of Empathy</h3>
<p>Many corporations have grown tone-deaf to the people they serve. They listen selectively. They listen to confirm their own agenda. They listen with prejudice and judgment. When was the last time you and your team had a human-to-human conversation with a customer, supplier or community member that wasn&rsquo;t mediated by a<a href="https://www.greenbook.org/market-research-companies/malaysia"> research company</a>?</p>
<p>Empathic Listening is a skill we all can learn. Training people throughout your organization to listen empathically can transform how you understand and connect with stakeholders. Give your teams opportunities to have meaningful, human connections with the people they serve and you&rsquo;ll find they will become more inspired, innovative and agile.</p>
<h3>3. Translate Empathy to Action</h3>
<p>Having an empathic culture means nothing unless you have people who can translate that empathy into action. The insights you and your teams gain through empathy can inspire new product innovation and messaging that actually helps people, not just sells to them. But to do this, your teams have to learn to think creatively and conceptually to translate the empathic connections they make into products, marketing, and community service initiatives that serve the broader audiences the Business Roundtable described.</p>
<p>In a statement released by the Business Roundtable, Tricia Griffith, President, and CEO of Progressive Corporation said &ldquo;the best-run companies do more&rdquo; than return value to shareholders. &ldquo;They put the customer first and invest in their employees and communities. In the end, it&rsquo;s the most promising way to build long-term value.&rdquo;</p>
<p>We agree with the vision wholeheartedly and have seen it done at some large corporations. We&rsquo;ve helped some of our major clients either get on this path or helped them further down this path if they&rsquo;re already on it. Smart leaders have to be intentional about making it happen by changing the cultures of their organizations. It starts with getting your company to act a little more human. To listen empathically and act with a purpose that connects you in new and more meaningful ways to the people you serve.</p>

How to Live Up to the Modern Purpose of the Corporation

<h3>Let’s Stop Talking to Consumers</h3>
<p>I have and I don’t really plan to talk with them anymore. They haven’t done anything to make me upset. They haven’t purposely misled me. I just find them to be limiting and not representative of how they really make buying decisions. Sure they offer opinions. Yes, they talk about products and brands and what they like and don’t like and why. Of course, they seem sure of themselves. But it usually doesn’t add up. What they say and what they do are often different. They contradict themselves. Maybe they don’t get it or maybe — just maybe — we are asking them questions about something they really don’t care that much about. We’re forcing them to talk an hour or two about a small fragment of their life that is defined by being a user of a category or a brand. <a href="http://realitycheckinc.com/the-advantages-of-being-human-in-a-consumer-world/">We’re limiting them to being a “consumer.”</a></p>
<h3>I am Choosing to Listen to Humans</h3>
<p>I think the marketing world would be better off if we all focused more on humans than consumers. If we changed our mindset from thinking of someone as “the person responsible for washing the dishes in the household” or “the primary decision-maker when it comes to household finances” or “the gatekeeper for children’s snacking occasions,” to a person who has a whole set of life experiences that have shaped them into the person they were, the person they are, and the person they want to be. A person with real hopes, real fears, and deeply held beliefs that have been shaped over the years by their life experience. Someone who, I strongly believe, is primarily motivated by feeling cohesive in a world that makes them feel scattered in a million different directions.</p>
<p>This person doesn’t think of him or herself as a “consumer”… just someone who is trying to come up with a coherent story they can tell themselves about who they are. Psychologists call this story their <a href="http://realitycheckinc.com/narrative-identity-3-roles-your-brand-can-play-in-your-consumers-life-story/">Narrative Identity</a>. This isn’t about projecting an image to the world. It’s a story they tell themselves to feel better about who they are and to give their life some kind of unique meaning. This is about feeling together. Feeling they matter. Kind of important stuff in the fragmented and stressful world we live in.</p>
<h3>So Why Should Brands Care About This?</h3>
<p>Because a coherent story that makes a person feel cohesive is vitally important to them. A brand would want to play a role in it. And we believe in the notion that people use brands to tell themselves stories about who they are. If a brand doesn’t play a role in their story, then it doesn’t really matter to them. What brands often don’t see is that it’s not about bringing “consumers” into the brand’s world, it’s about the brand playing a meaningful role in someone’s life. The brand will have more equity with a more meaningful role. And with more equity one would imagine more volume, more profit, and a greater impact on the world. I would argue that most brands and categories have the potential to play a meaningful role in someone’s life in some way.</p>
<p>We have worked in a wide range of categories and, without fail, when we change the conversation to allow someone to talk about themselves, the participant is more at ease and the clients get more engaged. People love talking about themselves and often offer up more insight than they imagine. The client is hearing things they’ve never heard before and come up with ideas that are rooted in an understanding of what is important in someone’s life… not just their opinion about a product.</p>
<h3>Why Not Play a More Elevated Role in Someone’s Life?</h3>
<p>Be part of their coherent story that makes them feel cohesive. Help them manage life tensions in a way that makes them feel better about themselves. To do this you’ll need to talk to them as a human. Stop talking to them as a consumer. It’s way more fun, revealing, and interesting for both of you. <strong>And it will make both of your worlds better.</strong></p>


I’m Done Talking to Consumers

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