Innovative approaches for actionable consumer insights

Interviewing small groups of friends or family members in their homes dimensionalizes the consumer and helps clients better understand the totality of their consumer’s lifestyle. Additionally, interacting within the consumer’s home environment where they are surrounded by their personal artifacts gives clients a rare insider’s look at the world of the consumer and what’s important to them, while the dynamic between friends (and/or family members) results in conversations that are relaxed, candid and insightful.

Our 1 1/2 to 2 hour in-home ethnographic research studies generally include show-and-tell tours of consumers’ homes to explore their product usage and brand preferences first-hand. Having their products-on hand leads to more insightful dialogue about all aspects of their brand usage and helps them to articulate brand preferences and comparisons. Based on the client’s focus, the home tour might include bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens, pantries and refrigerators, dens, entertainment centers, home bars, garages.

The consumer interviews and the show-and-tells are videotaped to provide a visual record of the ethnography, enriching the report and presentation of research findings.

Due to the intimate nature of the in-home interview process, the number of clients who can participate in any one interview is limited to 2 (plus 2 Zandl Group team members per interview).

These rich innovation excursion programs are developed to keep clients up-to-date on consumer trends and spark new innovations. We create and facilitate highly-actionable and forward-looking experiential activities to thoroughly engage cross-functional teams (10-15 participants) in the immersions. To optimize the level of learning, the excursions are customized to the client’s needs and include the following:

• Pre-search & Planning
Tapping into our network of experts and directional consumers

• Experiential Activities
Private meetings and roundtable interviews with relevant experts/insiders

• Retail/Market Immersions
Itineraries are developed to provide first-hand exposure to directional stores, markets, restaurants, and other new venues.

We often invite interviewees to accompany us to some of their favorite stores to identify what they are responding to at retail, their expectations for the shopping experience and the decision-making dynamic. Shop-A-Longs provide clients with the unique opportunity to interact and participate with their consumer in the total marketing experience: seeing their brands in the consumer's home, speaking with them about marketing communications, and accompanying them at retail as they gauge the total consumer-brand experience.

Informal group discussions with 4-5 experts/frontline insiders provide clients with a rare opportunity to interact and learn from creative, entrepreneurial individuals and companies. Roundtable participants are selected for their diverse perspectives and for their high level of consumer engagement.

We schedule roundtables in comfortable, non-traditional environments (e.g. hotel suites) to allow for candid interaction between the roundtable participants, members of the client team and the Zandl Group without the artificial constraints of a research facility.

Scene Immersions provide clients with first-hand exposure to the world of their customer and provide invaluable consumer insights, focusing on key reference points such as trend-forward retail, restaurants, nightlife, hotels, sports venues, up-and-coming neighborhoods, spas, gourmet caterers, artist studios and galleries.

We plan Scene Immersions in the most trend-forward markets of the research project and build the schedule using our on-going market scans as well as feedback from research participants during the In-Home Ethnographies and Round Table Discussions. We explore the most trend-forward, newest places to generate ideas and opportunities that can be translated to the client’s brand.

Immersions are often documented by a videographer or photographer to provide a visual record and when appropriate we also engage a “cultural translator” (e.g. skate pro, museum curator, nightlife promoter) to provide context and further dimensionalize the scene for us.

Some scene immersions also include private meetings with local, high-profile insiders on a specific subject (e.g. entrepreneurs, restauranteurs, etc.).

We know the most valuable consumer insights come from talking to the right people, so we hand-recruit for all of our projects using our extensive nationwide network of progressive, articulate insiders, tastemakers and trusted sources. We specialize in forward-looking consumers who are heavily involved in a client’s category for the richest consumer insights and the most directional feedback.

Our thoughtful recruiting includes extensive screening and frequent followup conversations (which helps to establish a sense of familiarity prior to the interview). Our screening may also include pre-interview assignments which help us establish, on multiple levels, that this is a good recruit for our client's needs.

Consumer Research Deliverables