Consumer Insights

Focus groups (a.k.a. group discussions, focus group discussions, panel discussions) explore the target group’s needs and opinions in a dynamic group setting. Focus groups are moderated discussions with 6-10 participants per group. The moderation techniques and the dynamic interaction between the participants often provide unexpected insights that can be further explored. Live observation (on site or remotely) by the project team allows a parallel brainstorming. Arising questions from observers can be directly discussed with the participants.

TYPICAL QUESTIONS

• What are the target group’s needs, pain points and preferences?
• How do they perceive the market, brands, products and competitive landscape?
• What are new topics and issues that are relevant for the target group?
• How do first product or campaign ideas resonate? Are the messages understood? What must be changed?

HOW DOES IT HELP?

• Helps you explore new topics and business areas if you don’t know the exact questions yet
• Helps collect many statements and views that can be condensed and prioritized in the define phase.
• Gives you a clue why customers say and do certain things.

LIMITATIONS

• Given the qualitative nature of the method, results are rather a collection of topics and not representative.
• Focus groups are not suitable for topics where participants are hesitant to speak their opinion frankly – in-depth interviews are a better choice here. 

WHEN TO USE?

• When there isn’t enough information about the target group and its interests and topics available, especially when we deal with new topic fields and products that aren’t covered by existing data.

COMBINE WITH

• A representative survey in order to quantify the importance of the findings. Available target group insights, in order to choose the right participants.

VARIANTS AND OPTIONS

• On site (with one-way mirror) or remote (all participants are at home). Live translator into English, homework (participants bring ‘cultural probes’, e.g., photos or screenshots. Usually, we run 2 groups per target group and additional groups for different segments / personas.

With online research communities (AKA consumer lab, research forums) we immerse in deep and dynamic customer insights. In research communities we invite a carefully selected sample of 50-100 participants who discuss provided topics in various threads over one or more weeks. Participants can upload photos, videos and discuss in the forums. This method is a neat alternative to focus groups as it gives the participants much more time to think about their input. Also, we can reach target groups that are difficult to recruit.

TYPICAL QUESTIONS

• What are the motives and attitudes of customers?
• How do they behave in concrete situations, e.g. in the purchasing process or when using media?
• What are the opinions on certain offers or information?
• What ideas and new approaches are there from a product and brand perspective? Are there topics from the customer's point of view beyond the current issue of the company?

HOW DOES IT HELP?

• Deeper understanding of customers' motives and attitudes
• Uncovering pain points, desires or improvements in a competitive comparison.
• Evaluation and further development of existing products or innovations.

LIMITATIONS

• Given the qualitative nature of the method, results are rather a collection of topics and not representative.

WHEN TO USE?

• When we want to understand topics that cannot be discussed sufficiently in 90 minutes. When we want to make use of the creative potential of the participants.

COMBINE WITH

• A representative survey, creative concepts, such as story boards

VARIANTS AND OPTIONS

• Either ad-hoc (i.e. for one or a few weeks) or for a longer time to accompany a creative process.

Condense findings from the discovery phase into hard numbers. A representative online survey (AKA target group analysis, panel survey) with typically 500-1,000 participants from the target audience helps prioritize and validate insights. This step should be taken after all qualitative explorations if time and budget allow.

TYPICAL QUESTIONS

• What are the top priorities of the target audience?
• How are brands from a category perceived?
• How can the target audience be described?

HOW DOES IT HELP?

• It provides hard-currency numbers for a given target audience that stand each discussion
• We have service agreements with all major international online panels so we can reach almost all B2C and B2B audiences in almost all markets.

LIMITATIONS

• The questions and proposed answers that enter the survey must be known – either through previous research, stakeholder workshops, or other available insight.
• Especially with new topics and target audiences, there should be an explorative research before.

WHEN TO USE?

• When topics and questions are available, either from previous exploratory research or from internal workshops, etc.

COMBINE WITH

• A qualitative exploration, third-party data from database research and external studies

VARIANTS AND OPTIONS

• There are many different special survey & analysis techniques that can be implemented in the survey. Surveys can be run in all markets in all languages

We discover need-based target audience segments and use them to create tangible and comprehensible personas. In an online survey, user needs, pain points, user behavior, values and various demographic data are collected. Subsequently, factor and cluster analyses are used to form customer segments with similar need structures. These segments can be addressed more specifically with products and advertising messages. The segments can be illustrated as striking personas.

TYPICAL QUESTIONS

• What are the different sub-target groups and how do they differ?
• What specific needs do different sub-target groups have?
• Which segments are the most strategically relevant?
• In which segment is untapped potential lying dormant?
• Should the segments be addressed differently?
• Where can segments be addressed?

HOW DOES IT HELP?

• Product design, communication strategy
• Derivation for persona-specific customer journey
• Precisely tailored strategies for optimized addressing of all segments that can increase marketing ROI by up to 30%

LIMITATIONS

• If potential needs and pain points are not known yet, an explorative study is needed beforehand.

WHEN TO USE?

• If the theoretical target audience is big enough to be split into segments that can be treated differently. Before the onset of strategic product and communication planning.

COMBINE WITH

• A qualitative exploration of needs and painpoints before the segmentation, stakeholder workshops during the segmentation process to ensure buy-in

VARIANTS AND OPTIONS

• Fusion of segments with media studies, discriminant analysis for a segment identification

Understand which journeys different customer personas take when they make their purchase decisions. A customer journey analysis (AKA CDJ analysis, CDJ research) unveils how different groups of customers use various customer touchpoints, i.e., OOH, TV, social media, but also friends and family or other word-of-mouth. We tackle this with in-depth interviews and customer surveys.

TYPICAL QUESTIONS

• Which touchpoints are used / looked for by a given customer segment?
• Which transitions are there between the touchpoints? How should they be connected?
• How satisfied are customers with the available touchpoints (owned or influenced by the brand)?
• Which problems arise throughout the journey (e.g., usability, inconsistent tonality)?
• When are decisions made in the purchase process? How can they be supported / influenced?

HOW DOES IT HELP?

• It provides insights for the holistic optimization of the customer journey, customer experience and customer conversion.

WHEN TO USE?

• Anytime

COMBINE WITH

• A customer segmentation, if no customer segments and personas are available. Media studies such as the Touchpoint Analyzer for generic data.

VARIANTS AND OPTIONS

• The analysis can be done either explorative or as a survey.