Some great insights in Dan Cobley's talk, which anecdotally connects two seemingly unrelated fields.
The second point made (using Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle as a basis for his point) describes the dilemma that faces marketers wanting to do research. Cobley's point is this: the act of researching people skews the results. Ask a person in a health and fitness focus group how much fast food they eat, and you're likely to hear an answer much less frequent than reality.
What does this mean for marketers wanting to better understand their customer? Traditional research may not be the best solution. Non-traditional types like of research like ethnography may affect consumer behaviors, but inevitably force discrepancies to come to the surface.
Case in point: have you ever been caught in a lie when you were a kid? (If you are legitimately proud to say "no" to this, you may need to examine your life for a moment.) Was it because your lie wasn't believable enough, or because your actions and your words didn't line up? A good observer/interviewer/researcher can spot contradictions in a consumers words and behaviors and force a confession that is often more enlightening than a partial truth in the first place!
When you're doing research, consider what you're trying to learn and how you're trying to learn it. After all, sometimes it takes non-traditional research to obtain the non-traditional results you need!
Recent Comments