First a link – I stole it from Noah Brier, but here it is anyway – on the phrase “that’s executional.”
One of my other agency favorites is, “Well, you’re not the target market.” But that’s a post for another day.
Anyway – seems to me that the thinking on the other end of this link makes part of the case about why the planning and creative processes should be ‘collapsed.’ More on that later, too.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time working on improving the experience of consumer research – for everyone, the researcher, the client, the agency, and perhaps most importantly, the consumer. There is a lot that is wrong with research, and it tends to obscure all that is right with it. But I have certainly developed a few things that fall under the category of ‘pet peeve’. To wit:
Insight mining assumes that insights are nouns. That if we just ask enough people, one of them will spew out an insight. But insight isn’t a noun, it’s a verb. You don’t mine insights, you have insight – you see something, feel something, hear something and think, “Aha! I know what that means!” Having insight requires the rigor of research, but also the sensitivity to listen, and the ability to foster the intimacy of conversation, the truth of storytelling.
Listening is useful – you have to listen to what people are saying, but also to how they say it. You have to listen to the omissions, too – the things they don’t say, the stories they don’t tell, the players missing from action.
Watching is good – see what people do, let them show you. Playing helps – actually physically touch something, use it, see what it does, take it for a spin. I once designed a website for an air charter company – the first step in our process was traveling with them, on a Lear 35 to Las Vegas for the weekend. We were picked up in limousines on the tarmac, taken to the Bellagio, given a suite. We were able to understand the experience, because we’d had it ourselves.
Listening, Watching, Playing – all fun, all good, all useful. We’ve got the verb, we’ve got the subject (your consumer) – what’s missing is the object (your brand, your product, your service). Jane thinks this about ______? Tom likes to use his _______ for relaxation. Sometimes, Hideo just wants to escape from the day with his __________.
Some ways to overcome these problems in research: [click to continue…]