Dr. Robin Croft, a fellow academic and much valued commentator here on the blog, drew my attention to an ethnographic study that he carried out with two other colleagues [1], on how different genders talk about products, services and brands. Croft and his colleagues observed informal conversations between various groups of people. Each group had … Continue reading Consumers are talking about you, but what do they really mean?
Tag: market research
Want feedback? Ask your customers… or maybe not
A trip to the gym last weekend resulted in an unexpected market research lesson, which I talked about on Snapchat*: Our usual instructor had been away on the previous weekend, and had been temporarily replaced by somebody else. This one had a very peculiar style – ‘though love’, if you wish. He kept telling … Continue reading Want feedback? Ask your customers… or maybe not
The importance of asking ‘why’
My friend Tim Kourdi brought my attention to this presentation by Professor Clayton Christensen about a market research study done with milkshake consumers: If you abstract from the presentation's background and the fact that he keeps describing the act of buying food items as 'hiring' ***seriously, what's going on there?*** this is, actually, a neat … Continue reading The importance of asking ‘why’
Product testing the Valium way
An opinion piece on the New York Times earlier this month described how marketers helped popularise the use of psychoactive drugs in 1960s’ America. Robin M Henig wrote: "How did Roche convince physicians that it was O.K. to offer their patients a bottled form of serenity? How did the physicians persuade their patients? And how … Continue reading Product testing the Valium way
Ana Canhoto 