the art of conversation

In praise of … better conversations

(image by Nox Dineen) 

As qualitative researchers, we’ve always valued good conversations and consider them revealing and rather important in their own right. They are also in danger of being overlooked in today’s digitised, atomised, ‘just do it’ culture. It turns out we’re not the only ones who think this.

Last week I went to the School of Life class, ‘How to have Better Conversations’. The School of Life (‘ideas to live by’) is amazing. It is based in a small shop in Bloomsbury and runs ‘a variety of programmes concerned with how to live wisely and well … a place to step back and think intelligently about these and other concerns’.

The class was very civilised and thought-provoking and covered the history of conversations, tackling difficult conversations and how conversations shape our thinking and our relationships.

Far from being a trivial matter, conversations strike at the heart of what it means to be human. Conversations that are open and honest broaden our horizons and shift how we look at both ourselves and the world (Theodore Zeldin).

Having a good conversation takes a certain commitment and practice. There were a number of ways identified that people can have better conversations:

-        being curious

-        not fearing vulnerability

-        not assuming or judging

-        adventurous openings

-        empathy

-        courage

There are three reasons why this matters in relation to marketing research:

1. people are increasingly critical of ‘talk-based’ research, but when handled properly good conversations are intellectually more nutritious than any other form of engagement, IMHO. Conversations are a source of ‘whole person’ ideas and insights and include emotions and other non verbal elements (‘structural conversations’). 

 

 2. the rules of engagement between people and organizations are changing. People are no longer prepared to toe the line or be addressed in certain ways, so companies have to re-learn the art of conversation

 

 3. ‘conversation’ is very widely but very loosely used in the digital realm (cf #MRS2012 today) - I am not sure that people know what a digital conversation means, let alone how it translates into the real world

Could the characteristics of better conversations outlined in the class exactly match the characteristics of good research (eg curiosity, honesty, empathy, imagination)?

More than a coincidence? Maybe.

But that is another conversation.

Facts and fictions about beer, blokes and Belgium

This is one of these Quite Interesting things we've noticed (like the street sign so high up nobody could read it). It's the new Stella ad campaign, which raises interesting questions about what we believe.

Stella has been doing lavish, stylish, French-looking ads for ages. This campaign is very stark by comparison. And very Belgian.

Belgium is not much known about (cf famous Belgians etc), apart from for its (excellent) beer. So Stella is Belgian! Probably not a lot of people knew that.

Except that it isn't. Or not really. Here the facts and the impressions start to get a bit blurred. The brewery was founded in Belgium in 1366, but the beer started in Canada in 1926.

So the 'We' in the headline above is the brewery, not the beer talking.

Companies are not alone in wanting to put out a version of events which favour them, of course. We all do it. We create myths because of what we want others to think well of us, or not to think badly of us.

Stella became hugely popular in the UK but then 'did a Burberry' (according to the Mail) and came to be known as 'wife beater', to the extent that people believed that there was something about Stella that made men aggressive (rather than the amount consumed).

The Wikipedia entry for Stella Artois and the entry for 'wife-beater' were said to have been altered by a PR company. Or so it says on Wikipedia.

So, what to believe? It is just as well that brewing heritage is just not very interesting to most people (even blokes). At least not until you drink beer. Drinking beer makes all sorts of things Quite Interesting, such as the history of Belgium.

And the information and the tone of voice in the posters is just right, in the style of the ‘did-you-know …?’ facts (or factoids) that men like.

I am looking forward finding out more quite interesting things about Stella. Or Belgium.

Men, cars and sheds: live your dreams

It's a funny old world. As they say.

Don't they also say, it's a man's world?

I've been thinking about funny old men this week. First I went to see a company that makes £100k performance cars. Then I went to talk to men about woodstain, sheds and things like that.

Men are notoriously reluctant to 'open up' and talk about their dreams, about what really matters to them in their life.

It is easy to get sidetracked by surface distractions.

Like cars and sheds.

But you can get glimpses into the deeper stuff, if you are lucky or approach it in the right way.

I hope that we get to study men and expensive cars.

Our method is to revisit the excellent 'From A to B tales of modern motoring' by Nicholas Barker/Martin Parr.

You should really try and get the book, or better still watch the series.

Alternatively, we shall concentrate on sheds.

Glorious in their own, deeply misunderstood kind of way.

pic by Beedle Um Bum

Reflections on the Insight Show

We enjoyed it, at least between set up and pack down.

If you've never been, Marketing Week Live is a massive marketing services exhibition at Olympia (data marketing, in-store, online and Insight).

At times, it's a bit like Dante's Inferno, with merchandise.

It's so overwhelming and noisy with so much going on that the whole experience is quite exhausting.

But there are not many times you can have lots of conversations with clients and potential clients under one (very large) roof. Or listen to talks by the Head of Marketing for Man Utd or the MD of Google, UK and Ireland.

(Sorry, I mean have 'an amazing opportunity to hear from leading global brands, interact, debate, question and network with truly inspiring marketing minds'. Marketing, remember)

More positives were that Judith and Lisa's talk on using trance techniques generated lots of interest, as did Siamack's new ethnographic app, EthOS.

Our insight cakes went down a storm (a fresh insight in every cake), every single one eaten.

Fortunately, we have the recipe for insight cakes, so if you want a supply of fresh insights, get in touch.

It was also great to catch up with friends and colleagues to share experiences and compare levels of exhaustion.

Glad to have done it, glad it's over.

 

Insight found in Olympia, shock

Forget anything you may have heard about insights. Including by us.

We can exclusively reveal that real, live insights can now be found, for two days only, in one small part of a  very large hall in west London.

The Insight Show is back and we are going to be there, at Stand D067, right next to the Quadrangle.

'We' is the whole family: Wardle McLean, Propeller, EverydayLives and EthOS.

That little baby is worth checking out, btw.

So come by and see how many insights you can carry away with you.

And if you're lucky and quick off the mark, you could even get to take Siamack for a chelo kebab.

Nila Watch 4

Collecting is a sign of great intelligence, I think I read somewhere, once.

We are collecting Nila van advertising executions. Nila, the food distribution service, radically changed their advertising strategy in response (quite possibly) to our blog. They used to use innuendo and semi-nudity, until we exposed them. You can read the amazing story here and here.

In the latest dramatic twist, we saw this van yesterday at BBC headquarters, White City. They could be on the point of securing a TV series, based on the new trend for 'cringe comedy' (latest example, the excellent 2012).

Alternatively, they could have been delivering some extra large hamburgers. The image could be an oblique reference to the Gary Larson/B Kliban cartoon captioned 'never eat anything bigger than your head'.

But it's probably even subtler than that. And it's not about burgers. The woman is conspiring with us, as if to keep a secret. But who is the food for? Is it for her or is she delivering it, but to whom? Note how she holds the plate. Notice her forefinger, not just shooshing, but pointing. The lucky recipient? The angle of the plate suggests she is about the throw it away, to focus on her real mission. The tilt of the head and cheeky grin is designed to encourage a man to think that if he asked for a chip, she would give him one.

This is surely Nila returning to its core theme of seduction, with food on the side, which could upset people. A risque strategy, you might say.

We will have to wait for the TV series to find out what happens next.

'Messages' and conversations

"Markets are conversations … there is no demand for messages, there is a tremendous demand for good conversation."

From the Cluetrain Manifesto circa 1999.

Old hat, some might say.

But if the old hat fits, wear it.

Impressions of Moscow

My image of Moscow came from Spitting Image, James Bond and current affairs (Litvinenko, corruption allegations, FIFA). What is it really like? It was my first visit and I had only 29 hours to find out.

Domodedovo airport, at 4.45am is minus 15 degrees C. Business as usual. It  reaches minus 20 to minus 25C. They can do cold here. I take a coach to avoid airport taxi hounds and reach the Metro by 6am, joining drab half asleep commuters. It seems like it is snowing inside the carriage (did I imagine it?). I miss Paveletsky station, due to unfamiliar writing and general lack of signage (and sleep). 

Above ground, lots of people scurrying around, hunched over. Is it just the cold, or is everyone here in a bit of a hurry? Workers sweep away the ice and frost with long reed brushes - surprisingly effective.

More by luck than judgement I find my hotel (highly recommended btw). The windows are triple glazed.

  Off to groups via (overpriced) taxi. So much traffic! It takes nearly an hour on an 8-lane highway, going not that far. Cab weaves in an out, driver mutters as blue-sirened darkened-glass 4x4s sweep through. Every so often we crawl past an amazing building or vista.

Over dinner I learn that Russians like Brits and Italians more than Poles, that vodka is in fact very drinkable, that Moscow's population is nearer 12.5m than 10.5m (Wikipedia), due to migrants. Angry demo against non-Slavs the day before. Foreign Office advises non-white Brits to be vigilant here. Not a place for the faint-hearted.

The next morning, again stuck in traffic, only half an hour in Red Square, strange clash of Soviet era and commercialism, too cold to take many pictures. Back to Domodedovo on the express train.

A fleeting visit, some of my stereotypes persisted. Moscow is vast, fast, hard-working and rather surly. They can certainly cope with snow and cold. They have embraced capitalism wholesale. The traffic's appalling, the Metro's very good.

I'd love to come back and have a proper look.

Preferably in the summer.

Brand interest vs my interest: exploring shades of corporate symbiosis

We’ve been working with a High St bank and with a large charity. There is an ‘interest dimension’ operating, from those companies felt to act exclusively in their own interests, to the detriment of others (eg debt collectors?) to those who act exclusively in others’ interests (eg a church mission?).

Of course most organisations operate in the middle, acting in their own interests (necessary for survival, of course) and in the interests of key stakeholders, such as consumers. Our theory is that the perceived 'interest balance' of organisations, the extent to which they are seen to value and to act in our (consumers') interests, is increasingly important. Brands must get the symbiotic balance right.

There are perceptual degrees of difference which echo those of biology. In a parasitic relationship, one member of the association benefits while the other is harmed. Then there are different kinds of symbiotic relationships, which ‘lean’ one way or the other. Amensalism is a relationship where one species is inhibited while the other gains. Commensalism is where one benefits and the other is not significantly harmed or helped. Mutualism is the relationship where both parties derive a benefit.

In nature and in the commercial world there are no examples of a species acting in the interests of another species to its own detriment, but the middle area is the key battle ground for hearts and minds. The clear message from our work is that people are happy for an organisation to benefit from their custom as long as (a) the benefit to the organisation is reasonable and visible and (b) they personally benefit at least as much.

Talking is useless. Discuss. Or rather, don't.

Research-Live.com recently reviewed 'Consumer.ology' by one Philip Graves. It's a balanced review, considering the line advanced by Graves (ex client-side researcher) is about as dumb and unoriginal as Rambo 12. The 'argument' is, because what people say does not correspond to what they do (hold the front page of Research, Marc) there's no point talking or even listening to them. Just watch what they do. 

This blinding insight apparently happened after the author finished bombarding some poor sods in Leeds with questions in a focus group. After he turned his tape recorder off they started having a proper conversation and talked about doing something different to what they'd told their interrogator. He used this as evidence that talk was deceptive, rather than that he might be a shit moderator. 

Unhindered by any such doubts, he went on to discover that people do psychoanalysis but still can't get to the bottom of their own thoughts and that our emotions shape our decisions, therefore we cannot identify what we want and don't want. (I can however identify with 100% accuracy one recently published book I will not buy.)

He says it is an illusion that we can ask people what they think and learn from it. I re-read that particular gem a couple of times to check I wasn't mistaken, but that is what it says. There goes journalism, then.

Some Alternative London Cycling

Still on the topic of cycling in London, news just in that bike polo is vying for recognition as an official Olympic Sport. Apparently, it was an Olympic sport up until 1908.

 

The London Bike Polo League have numerous courts  around the capital and invite newbies to join in - you don't even need to bring your own club. According to the BBC, the key rules are:

• two teams of three players
• players must not touch the ground
• no throwing of mallets
• only player-to-player contact is allowed
• goals can only be scored with the end of the mallet
• your bike must have at least 'one working brake'.

Beach Reading

 It was David Ogilvy in Confessions of an Advertising Man who (roughly) said when on holiday read; but read something that's unrelated to work. Reading will keep the mind ticking over and give it space to de-clutter. 

Asking round the office, we've pulled together some beach reads we will be taking with us this summer to depressurise to some near and some far-flung climes. 

 If you're looking for American urban grit and a fan of The Wire (as quite a few of us are) then David Simon's Homicide and the Corner have come highly recommended. Although looking out to a sunbright sea may be more therapeutic.

 Wolf Hall, Man Booker Prize for 2009, has received mixed reviews by those who have already read it here.  Although giving us a pretty vivid picture of the early 16th Century England some have found it confusing to follow at times. Compared to Joyce's Ulysees though, it's a doddle.  

Inconveniently Green

Without wanting to sound too downbeat, being a 'green' consumer at the moment is inconvenient. It just doesn't pay. Our 'default' behaviour is to buy what we are used to, what is easy and affordable and what  benefits us - in spite of our good intentions. As Jane Austen wrote, "I have been selfish all my life, in practice, though not in principle".

And most companies of course are geared to deliver profit first and foremost, sustainability coming a distant second or third or lower down the list. And we are not mandated to behave differently by legislation, apart from a bit of recycling, perhaps. It is still just too convenient for us not to be 'green'. What will it take for our lifestyles to change?

These thoughts hit home having bought the Green Living Guide. Great efforts have been made in making 'green' actions more accessible and the guide itself is certainly praiseworthy if wanting to be 'green' is your thing. 

But there is some way to go for sustainable, low-carbon living to become more widespread in the UK . Perhaps because there are so many variables and imponderables, people just don't know what to do and are not motivated to take the lead. 

I think the key issue with communicating 'green' (without 'greenwashing') is there isn't enough 'in it' for the UK consumer, especially in the short-term. Solar panels, for example, require thousands of pounds and grant applications and just sound cumbersome and off-putting.

A Feast of Conversation

 

Theodore Zeldin, our hero and the author of  'An Intimate History of Humanity' and 'Conversation: how talk can change our lives', was interviewed on the Today programme on Friday to discuss his 'Feast of Conversation', held on July 3 at the Olympics site in a venue made from old shipping containers. 

Attendees chose from a menu of 25 conversation topics, and talked about what they find interesting. "It is for people who want to have two hours to think about what is important to them".

Professor Zeldin claimed that "we live in an age where we don't know what to talk about" hence his idea to "have a new kind of conversation where we are trying to discover what we think and to discover other people ... [which is] the most exciting adventure of our time ... to discover who inhabits the world". 

The professor bridled at the suggestion that his event was like speed dating. He felt it was the opposite of the inane babble of speed dating or something like Twitter (ahem) "...It is about thinking, not jabbering".

We look forward to reading the reviews.

Not on Twitter, though.

Insight Show 2010

 
We've been busy preparing for the Insight Show at the Grand Hall, Olympia, 29th and Wednesday 30th June, where we have a stand (D410, in fact). 

Here we are hard at work, setting up yesterday morning.

 

We're presenting two case studies under the title of 'Seeing is Believing, Latest Developments in Ethnographic Research', on Wednesday at noon in the Henley Suite.

The first study was with Virgin Trains who reveal the strategy behind their new ‘modal shift’ campaign. We demonstrate how filmed ‘co-discovery’ interviews deliver unique insight into the Virgin Trains passenger experience.

The second talk focuses on a new, ethnographic app Siamack has frequently blogged about. 

The edl APP is a brand new mobile phone application (iPhone and Blackberry), an innovative capture tool and a means of editing and collating real life events via video, pictures, audio and text. We discuss how it works in practice and why Coca-Cola are rolling it out globally as an in-house tool.

Both talks will be put on the Insight Show website some time soon, we shall link to this as and when.

In the meantime, if you can, do drop by stand D410 to say 'hello' and see what insights (and some surprises) we have on show.

Simon

The pain of election leaflets ...

 

I was woken at 6:15 this morning with my letterbox snapping loudly. Mistaking it for a knock on the door, I went to answer it only to find an election party leaflet asking me to vote for their party today.  

Mildly incensed to be awake so early, I added the leaflet to the ever-growing stack of political leaflets in my recycling bin and returned to bed.

Living in the Lewisham East constituency, this election has proven a battleground between Labour and the Lib Dems. Having predominantly been a Labour constituency since its formation in 1974, the current  Labour MP, Bridget Prentice, is standing down. With no incumbent candidate, this has meant the Lib Dems believe they have a real chance of getting a seat and both parties have been going hammer and tongs to get votes. 

Unfortunately, this has resulted in relentless leafleting (even at anti-social hours). And often they are the same leaflets as the week (or even day) before and end up being binned. 

Arguably, this does create excitement. There is a feeling of the political rumblings of 'change' happening on your doorstep. And from the parties' perspective, they will want to be getting clear, consistent and sustained messages to potential voters over the course of a campaign.

But the effect of repetitious (and somewhat intrusive) leafleting may be opposite to the one desired. For the overwhelmed electorate, feeling saturated by information and pestered by parties may discourage political engagement. 

At the next General Election, my vote would be for fewer, better timed communications, a more creative, considerate and voter-centered approach that encouraged a better conversation between party and electorate. And, hopefully, I'd then get a better sleep. 

Simon

P.S. some votes just in ...

Fancy a Cwoffee? Or a Tipple?

 

What's your poison? A Cwoffee or a Tipple?

Well, if you're looking for either, and for it to be related to work, then there are two events running that may be of interest.

'Cwoffee' at Lantana, Charlotte Place (just off Charlotte Street in AdLand) runs alternate Fridays. It is a meeting of Planners and Researchers over an early morning, piping cup of coffee. It's a chance to meet informally with other like-minded people, chat about  ideas on projects / initiatives; exchange blog IPs, Twitter IDs and business cards etc etc. Started by planner  Will Humphrey, it has been running for a year or so and attendees can drop in at any time between 8am until 10am.   

If early morning coffees don't suit, then an alternative event is happening during the evening. Aimed at mid-level and junior researchers (from all qualitative agencies), the aim is to share a drink (or more), but also to have a research focus on bettering qualitative thinking by  sharing / discussing examples of 'good qualitative thinking' (e.g. from articles, papers or personal experience).

The first meeting is in Roxy Bar, 6:30pm-8pm in London Bridge on Monday 10th May. It will be a kick-off  social event, whereby we get to know each other over a tipple and chat about what we want to get in detail from the following events. And that includes a name. Perhaps 'Tipple Tattle'...

So, drop me an email if you would like to come along to either at simonl@wardlemclean.co.uk (or just leave a comment below). 

Would be pleased to see you.

Simon

In Praise of ... Magners adverts

We've been impressed by the current Magners ad campaign, 'There's Method in the Magners'.

Developed by Red Brick Road, the campaign plays on the cider-making idiosyncrasies of the community of Clonmel, Tipperary, where founder 'Willie' Magner began making cider in 1935. The two TV ads, 'Straight' and 'Catch', are stories that have a 'quaint Gaelic charm' and a quirky odd-ball style. Kind of Father Ted meets Napoleon Dynamite meets Jack Daniel's.  The campaign even brought one viewer to tears who left the following comment on YouTube:

    "I just watched this on TV. Don't ask why but it made me cry. Such a beautiful ad ... and believe me, I don't go looking for adverts on YouTube just to compliment them"

This is a noticeable step from Magners 'Time Dedicated to You' advertising where the current campaign positions the brand as different and premium  compared to its competitor ciders (e.g. Strongbow, or Blackthorn ). Interestingly, Scrumpy Jack have launched a campaign about Scrumpyshire in print and online, which also plays on setting, 'local-ness' and expertise - although arguably with less charm and humour.

Magners also seem to think about  their customers online. We are told that Magners' master tasters, including Billy who has been with us for 35 years, keep constant check on the whole process to  ensure each sip of Magners cider is as grand as the last.

    Magners' recent tactical print ads sticks two fingers up to the Treasury and nobly informs its customers that Magners have taken the financial hit on the increased alcohol duty itself, instead of passing it on to the customers. 

So a hearty thumbs up to cider-that-cares with an impressive campaign.

Magner-ifique. As they don't say in Clonmel.

Simon

The Planning Fallacy

 

 

If a group of people aim to get the same plane, they will arrive at the airport at different times. Some will be early and some will be on time; others will leave it until just before the check-in desk closes. 

This doesn't just happen when catching flights, of course. The completion of the new Wembley Stadium was delayed by over a year, from a March 2006 opening date until May 2007 ready for the FA Cup Final. Even the Sydney Opera house was planned for a 1963 opening, but opened 10 years later.

Why is this? Why do things take longer than we want?

In Kate Fox's 'Watching the English', she calls this 'the Planning Fallacy": people underestimate the time it takes to complete a task. Fox suggests it is because we have an emotional bias that leads us to wish for a goal that in practice is unrealistic. We may want to please someone or be under pressure to meet somebody else's deadline. Or we may not take in (or want to take in) all the external factors (like staff holidays or traffic jams) that may delay our plans.

In Praise Of ... Ecotricity

 

It's been a while since our previous 'in praise of...' article. Shame on us. Step forward, Ecotricity - 'the world's first green electricity company'. 

Having just signed up to Ecotricity, this risks being tainted by a certain smugness, feeling a bit pleased about 'doing my bit' to reduce my carbon footprint. However, the intention is to praise a company worth its weight in ... um, carbon. If you haven't been put off by the Climategate email scandal and if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, check them out.

Firstly, it is easy to switch. You can either apply through the site OR (as I did) go to the Green Electricity Marketplace website. You can compare different tariffs, green-star ratings and ROCs. The switch is done between current provider and Ecotricity and all I've had to do is ask for my final bill and provide an up-to-date meter reading.

We remember Rover

"What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself" - Abraham Lincoln. 

We came across this front cover from Research Magazine. It is from the period just before Rover was taken over by the Phoenix Consortium in 2000, five years before Rover's demise.

It is ironic that although Rover is not around, 'focus groups' are. There were many reasons for Rover's decline, poor product development and strategy, greedy board members and lack of state intervention (to name but a few). But it is a brave or a failing brand that boasts about not listening to the public.

MyDavidCameron.com

 

We recently stumbled upon MyDavidCameron.com

It is a site using crowdsourcing to create their own online spoof advertisements, that then get posted onto the site (as long as they're decent). 

The website spoofs the Tory's campaign endline 'Year for Change' and plays on criticism that Cameron's image was airbrushed for their campaign poster. It uses the politics-of-and, which is a form of political airbrushing: you can't cut the deficit and not cut the NHS; you can't cut taxes and have better services (apparently).

Meet Alex. And Andy.

2010 (so far) seems to be the year for technology. After the launch of the iPad in January, February sees the launch of Alex, a computer that makes computers fun and simple to use. 

Alex was launched last night at the Hospital Club in Covent Garden by co-founders Barney Morrison-Lyons, Harry Drnec and Andy Hudson (father of Simon our Field Director, as seen on the video).

Alex has been developed in response to people's anxiety around computers: confusion about how to use them, fear of breaking down etc. Alex's founders hope to have found the simple answer to those looking for more reassurance in simpler performing technology. 

Incidentally, Alex was named after Alexander Graham Bell who remarked the telephone's great feature was it could be used intuitively by anyone.

Nila Watch 3

John Pilger, Michael Moore, Peter Tatchell, move aside. Our own campaign against questionable food service delivery van advertising, is really starting to bite.

One of our very first blog posts in 2006 (sexist or effective?) alerted the world to the strange case of the photos on Nila delivery vans.  

(Our poll, however, revealed as many people thought it was effective, albeit in a gratuitous way, as thought it was sexist or offensive.)

Moving swiftly on, we then noticed that the Park Royal organisation had (possibly) responded to our blog and revised their whole art direction and creative strategy. Maybe they held a pitch and got a new agency in. 

The new phase of the campaign saw bikinis and innuendo being replaced by a tasteful couple smiling very close to some beans on toast. Toasty!

iPad later

Apple's launch of the iPad was announced earlier this week and here in the office, we've been wondering what to make of it. 

The general consensus has been to wear our steady-Eddy hats until the next generation of the iPad comes out, when all the technical creases have been ironed out and the enthusiastic early-adopters have tried and tested it. And when, as our colleague Siamack has noted, they make one with a camera built in.

Expectations are high, of course. Apple have transformed certain products into must-have status symbols. Take what the iPod did for MP3 players, what the iPhone did for the Smartphone; will the iPad do the same for tablet laptops/e-Readers?

No doubt, we shall be blogging about it when it does (or doesn't!)

Simon

A Glass Half Empty

Unless you've been on the moon this week, you won't have missed the news about Kraft's takeover of Cadbury's.

As British brands go, Cadbury's is/was one of Britain's most iconic. Reports in UK media have all been rather negative and admittedly it is hard to see the positives for Cadbury's. Trawling through articles, there is talk of threats to the product taste, to the manufacturing base, to ethical standards and to job security, while the government is powerless to intervene (not the case in America, perhaps).

Better Conversations

Last night was the Annual AQR's 'Not the Christmas Party' at the prestigious 'Hospital Club', near Covent Garden. Between sipping beer, wine and champagne conversations flowed from early evening until near to midnight.  An interesting conversation developed about the qualitative research culture: we are not so great in talking agency-to-agency and sharing our thinking.

Unlike planners and brand consultants (and so on), qualitative researchers aren't as forward in inter-agency conversing, either online (through blogs and Twitter etc) or face-to-face (like Will Humphrey's 'Cwoffee' meetings with planners/media strategists/brand consultants etc). The more we talked, the more we felt this a strange notion. This is because qual. researchers are in the unique position being the lifeline between client and the consumer and have a great deal to offer to the development of brands, communications and marketing as a whole - an area we felt should be capitalised on better. 

Why are we not more forthcoming? Here are our hypotheses (at least those I can remember):

Product Placement for UK TV

The snowy weather has meant too much time indoors. To stave off cabin fever, a glut of DVDs have been dusted off and played to divert attention from the jaw-chattering conditions. One of them, the latest 'Quantum of Solace' film, we see in no uncertain terms Bond's watch-of-choice is Omega, just as his car is an Aston Martin. Following such positive exposure in films, it came as no surprise in the news recently that product placement is certain to extend from films to UK TV, as a paid-for model (following our American cousins) and is estimated to be worth £140 million. Reading in the recent Campaign, advertisers and wider public bodies are voicing concern, and McDonalds are odds on as a 2/1 favourite to appear in Coronation Street, Emmerdale or Hollyoaks.

So what will this mean for UK TV and how will this impact on consumers and research? 

A New Year Message: Be Brave

 A happy new year and new decade (apparently dubbed 'The Teenies')! 

Although it has been a short while since our last post, we thought we would begin our first 2010 post about an article we have written and had featured in this month's Research Magazine; it is on the subject of  bravery in research and is based on a 2009 post 'Brave Research'. 

Although the article is not yet online, we will post a link to the Research-Live website when it is. Until then, take a look at the January 2010 issue for the article "The guts to do the right thing".

Best wishes for the year ahead.

Simon

Braver Research

 

Adliterate this week blames clients for advertising's creative stultification. Could a similar problem apply also to research? Are clients less open to less conventional research methods than they claim, given their frequent appeals for imaginative and newer research approaches?  

Many people say that nowadays, for brands to find distinctive, differentiated propositions requires distinctive, differentiated processes in terms of research and planning. 

The much-maligned group discussion can be the right tool. (Mr Huntington may not like to admit it but he seems to be a frequent 'groupista'). But so can online. And so can ethnography. 

But there is pressure to fall back on 'tried and tested' methodologies to win projects, even if we feel that other approaches may be worth trying. Not because groups are more profitable, but because they represent a currency and a process that clients understand and are comfortable with.   

Groups work when the the conditions are right and the conversation is honest. But even honest discourse and self-reflection cannot provide universal access into our motivations. Sometimes it helps to see for yourself what is going on, rather than to go by someone's account of this.

So one approach we have been developing through our ties with EverydayLives is the 'co-discovery'. First we watch and film someone doing what they do, then we go back and ask them to provide a commentary on what was happening. We 'co-discover' it with them.

Seeing their own behaviour encourages honest self-reflection and can add a new layer of insight and more texture. I doubt whether we would have understood this person's sense of their 'work/life balance' in anything like as much depth had we only interviewed him:

Clients have to be bolder, take a leap faith, if they want to make headway in an over-saturated, ever more competitive market. It is our duty to support and encourage them in this.

Simon

OH JOY

We like to be positive here at the Art of Conversation but every so often we see ads like this. We can’t decide whether it is patronising poppycock or just twee twaddle. And it seems we're not alone in this view.

The Joy campaign started out as a rather good campaign for the new Z4, ‘the only vehicle in its segment to combine classic roadster proportions with a seating position close to the rear axle’. So there.

The agency GSD&M from Austin, Texas was apparently responsible for the original campaign, which featured a BMW Z4 painting circles on an enormous canvas. (A move which saw the ad being banned in Australia on the grounds that it promoted irresponsible driving. On really large canvases, presumably.)

Then some clutz somewhere decided that, if Jack Daniels owns September and Coke owns Happiness, BWM can own ‘Joy’. We’ve got Wagner and Schiller on our side, they might have argued.

So they compiled this piece of ordure, with its cheesy, sub-M People soundtrack, its series of gurning drivers and clichéd car porn visuals and ‘say-banana-show-banana’ vignettes with an uber-irritating voiceover which reads out the strategy ‘at BMW we don’t just make cars we make joy’. Thanks for explaining, I never would have got that.

What I don’t get is what it’s got to do with BMW’s eco eD thing, as we see a 4x4 twirling on an ice cap trying to run down a polar bear.

It comes across as a planning-free zone. As a planner friend of ours said, it’s fluffy and forgettable, does not resolve any need, will not get talked about, remixed or passed on, has no traction conceptually, has no creative distinctiveness ... and it really undersells BMW.

Apart from that, good effort!

(Our normal, positive service will be resumed next week. Or possibly the week after that)

THE SCIENCE OF CONVERSATION

Conversation is our theme – see our essay, Conversation as the New Model for Qualitative Research, or the shorter Powerpoint version, with pictures, here.

But, are we qualitative researchers ‘conversation experts’, or is what we do a pale imitation of what ‘real’ conversation experts do? There is a growing field called Conversation Analysis (CA), which was the latest subject of the AQR’s excellent In Depth. (This post initiated by a review commissioned by AQR last week).

Why should any of us bother to learn about CA? As Ailean Mills says, we should ask ourselves if our methods actually help or hinder ‘naturally occurring conversation’. For example, the number of questions we typically ask, the discussion guide and the role of the moderator, these may hinder, not help: ‘the moderator… can determine and distort the discourse of a discussion from the very outset …The choice of language, and its structure, will be quickly mimicked by participants’.

The focus in CA is on ‘naturally occurring conversation’ and all the examples quoted come from real-life examples of conversations, such as a doctor’s interaction with a mother in a clinic and a telephone conversation between two friends. Most groups and depths, of course, are far from naturally occurring!

Which raises two key questions:
1.    Should we all be incorporating more ethnographic methods, getting out there and listening to what real people really say (without their realizing we are listening in)? If we did this, though, how long would it take before we learned anything about Pedigree Chum (or any other brand)?
2.    Are only naturally occurring conversations ‘real conversations’? Can an ‘artificially created’ conversation (ie all focus groups and interviews) not contain real conversational elements and therefore valuable insights?