Tag Archives: shopper

Laying Out Fieldwork in Under 10 Steps

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DEFINE THE PROBLEM
What are the pain points a client has defined? What issues are we trying to better understand. Depending on the project, questions may be very tactical and specific or very strategic and broad. In either case, the first step is to clearly articulate what the overarching goal is.

RETHINK THE PROBLEM
Once you’ve defined the problem, it’s time to rethink it. Frequently, what we see as the problem is in fact a facet of something else. For example, when researching something like an eBook the problem to be solved isn’t technology, it may be understanding why people read different material in different contexts. It may be about displaying books for colleagues and friends as a means of gaining status. The point is that the problem we see may not be the problem at all and we need to think about possibilities before we enter the field.

DEFINE THE CONTEXTS
Where does an activity or practice take place? Defining the contexts we want to examine helps articulate the range of possibilities for observation. For example, if we’re studying beer drinking, we need to articulate all the possible contexts in which beer is purchased and consumed.

DEFINE THE SAMPLE
Who are the people we want to talk with? What are the social and cultural circles that will shape the event? It isn’t enough to define a demographic sample, you need to think in terms of cultural, social, professional and environmental systems, determining not only who will be the primary participants, but also the actors that shape the context.

MAKE A GAME PLAN
Put together a guide to help navigate the data collection and a method for managing the data (remember, everything is data and it is easy to become overwhelmed without a plan). Having a series of key questions and observational points to explore is the first component. But don’t just think about the questions you will ask, but also include opportunities for observation, mapping, and participation.

ENTER THE FIELD
This is the heart of the process. Meaningful insights and moments of “truth” are slow to get at. Low-hanging fruit will be easy to spot, but the goal should be to find those deeper practices and meanings. Because everything is data, from attitudes to mannerisms to artifacts, it is important to capture as much as possible. Take notes, draw maps and sketches, take photographs, shoot video, and collect audio – the smallest piece of information may have the greatest impact

ANALYZE AND INTERPRET
Hands down, analysis is the most difficult, but also the most rewarding part of research. A trained ethnographer will do more than report anecdotes. A trained ethnographer will bring a deep understanding of cultural understanding and social theory to the analysis process. This goes beyond casual observation and starts to pull together the web of significances and practices that get to the underlying structures of why people do what they do. Analysis should always work within a framework grounded in the social sciences. Analysis takes time, but the results will include modes of behavior, models of practice, experience frameworks, design principles, and cultural patterns. Once the data has been analyzed and crafted into something meaningful, the research team should be able to provide a rich story with a clear set of “aha” findings.

SHARE THE INSIGHTS
The findings and insights generated through ethnography should be shared not only with direct stakeholders, but across an organization because of their depth. Ethnography usually produces insights that can influence a wide range of people throughout an organization. Because of the complexity and the richness of ethnography, these stories can influence, inspire, engage, and change the way people think about a problem.

DEFINE OPPORTUNITIES
Finally, it isn’t enough to simply hand off results. As compelling as we may find our insights, that doesn’t always translate into someone seeing immediately how to apply them. Once insights and findings are shared, an ethnographer needs to work with others to craft those findings into action plans, product ideas, etc.

ROI and What Ethnography Brings to the Retail Table.

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I had an interesting conversation with the CMO of a large retailer the other day – at the time I didn’t know that he was the CMO, but I did know he was skeptical about what it is that ethnographers bring to growing the bottom line.  So when he asked, “How does your work help retailers and brands better connect with shoppers?” I had to decide what my elevator speech would be.

“My work gets to those powerful, underlying drivers that really matter to people. If you understand how elements of behavior and worldview fit together in a system, you can develop complete strategies that convert shoppers into buyers and buyers into advocates. And I think that is the ultimate goal. It isn’t enough to hook people in the store, even if you leave them happy. My work, any ethnographer’s work, is designed to engage people in the storyline of the retailer or brand. The goal is to produce a type of conversion that is devotional, almost religious, getting people not only to visit your store repeatedly, but to sing your praises to everyone they know, creating more devotees.”

Perhaps it was a bit dramatic or poetic (I confess, my choice of language was fueled in part by a glass of Knob Creek), but it made the simple point that in an age of obsession with analytics, there needs to be a balance with understanding the truth of the human condition.

Retail is growing increasingly complex. 70% of purchases are done on a whim. Anthropology is an inductive process that’s all about understanding the meaning behind our actions and our ways of interacting with the world. We try to look retail through that lens.  Shopping is entertainment, it’s a teaching moment, it’s a way of establishing social bonds. Anthropology provides a real-world look at a problem or opportunity, applying social and cultural understanding to the topic, in this case the retail stage. It evaluates what people say, what they do and why they do it. Research has typically looked at individual shopper motivations. But people never really shop alone – they carry their culture and experiences with them. So, if you want to understand how and why people use, say, a clothing retailer you have to start by asking what kind of experience are they subconsciously looking for. What kind of interaction with the staff do they really want and expect?  What kind of image are they trying to project at different points throughout the day and how does that shape their decision to use on retailer over another?

In the end, it’s about uncovering this sort of information than can change the conversation with the people shopping at a particular retailer. To quote a friend, “ROI means return on insight.”  And that leads to increased revenue.

Tablets and Retail: If You Build It Will They Come?

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Everyone is moving toward incorporating tablets into their larger mobile and digital strategies.  65 percent of Fortune 100 companies plan on it. And whether or not they execute on it in the near-term, the fact that they’re talking about it means something.  But this is a wild new frontier, just as the emergence of the web was a new and wild in the 90s.  Getting the strategy right means digging a little deeper into what you design and why you design it.

First and foremost, it’s about the application and the context in which it will find itself used. Retailers and designers need to think of the application in terms of how it can fundamentally change the retail dynamic.  The application needs to be more than an interesting novelty, it needs to address the unspoken, contextual realities of the people selling products. The application and tablets need to be indispensable to store associates. That means thinking about how the device will be used on the sales floor – will it detract from the interpersonal interaction or add to them; will it make the job of the sales associate more difficult physically as they go about their day with a device in hand; will it be an improvement or a hindrance?

The application and the device may be interesting or novel, but will they help customer/shopper interactions?  The application may help from an operational standpoint, but it may not be something the sales person wants to use. In fact, it may get in the way.  So understanding the culture of shopping and the larger context is the first step in developing a useful tool.

Second, know well before launch how the app and the device will factor into your back-end infrastructure.  How good a job does the provider and/or developer of supporting enterprise efforts? Can the company infrastructure accommodate the new technology and everything it brings with it?  How much will it cost to integrate it with the existing system?

Third and last, decide the platform with more than technology in mind. Think about context.  One strategy is to focus on applications that will run on any tablet through the browser.  Be platform agnostic.  But let’s take a moment to examine the reality of tablet sales.  Apple has an early lead in design, ease of use and developer participation.  It has brand fanaticism and is a focal point of discussion between people, including sales staff and shoppers.  It owns the category, just as Kleenex owns tissue. It certainly wouldn’t be wise to dismiss Google’s open platform model, forget about the brand equity of Motorola, or ignore the weight of Microsoft, but it’s important to think about how the device and platform will factor into brand image and the sales process.

By Gavin