For this post I wanted to discuss an interesting article I
found in the New York Times. Although it’s
from April 13th, 2000, the topic is still very much relevant to some
of the issues associated with advertising research today.
So to
start off, I would like to quickly explain what’s going on in the article. One of the most heavily relied on research methods
for the advertising for decades has been the focus group; a group of target
consumers interviewed to give their opinion and experiences with a certain
product or brand. While these do provide
insights into customers’ thoughts, they have a major problem. All you learn is what the person tells you
directly. This becomes an issue when
consumers tend to tell you one thing and believe something else. Maybe they are afraid of being judged, maybe
they are just trying to go along with the rest of the crowd; point is, it can
be hard to actually know whether the responses you get are the truth or a
version constructed by the focus group member.
To fix these issues, marketers are developing new initiatives to gain
consumer insight. New techniques such as
tracking responses in the skin to stimuli, monitoring brain wave activity, and even
picture scales representing different emotions have been created to better
access consumer thinking. Still, there
tends to be a heavy reliance on the old focus group method.
Now,
what is the significance of all this? It goes to show that advertising research
is nowhere near as reliable as many of us would hope. Sure focus groups can give us some basic
insight, but even if a consumer can tell us what they choose very often they
have trouble articulating the “why” behind it.
Even people expertly trained in running such groups can have a hard time
getting the information out of the participants that they are searching for in
the group. This technique has become a
crutch, relied upon far too heavily.
As advertising becomes more complex
and insightful, so too much our research.
The new methods of neurological research will become an invaluable tool
in the future as we slowly work toward a more accurate picture of the consumer
decision making process. These
techniques can show consumer involvement with commercials, hidden feelings
toward ads, and even desires for products not articulated by consumers. We can study the deeper emotions experienced
by participants and gain a truer understanding of not the “what’ but they “why”
behind the decisions they make.
The truth is none of these
individual research methods can uncover 100% of the information advertisers
need. Nothing by itself can provide all
the information required, whether it be research for a advertising firm or just
a simple school project. The best
strategy will be to continue to use our old methods but add in these new practices
as well. Following this strategy will
allow us a full picture of the puzzle, not just awareness of a piece or two. And once we can see the big picture, we can
finally communicate to the consumer the true value to them inherent in the
good, service, or idea being marketed.
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