ON-LINE SHOPPERS INSIGHT
How to reveal the key barriers towards on-line shopping?
The Challenge: A lingerie on-line shop, placed in Central Europe, recently had a successful launch in a Bulgaria neighboring country.
Our client wanted to explore the relevant local market potential for expansion by collecting insights on the online shopping habits of Bulgarian women, with a special focus on underwear.
The Approach: We designed and executed an on-line qualitative project :
A blogging forum – recruiting 20 women:
10 shopping lingerie online and
10 shopping online, but not lingerie.
We ensured their active participation throughout 6 days of discussion, with a different topic released by the moderator every day and encouraging all participants to express their opinions and point of view on-line.
The Outcome: The vivid on-line discussions, supported by the possibility to upload pictures, facilitated our researchers to reveal the key barriers towards on-line lingerie shopping.
The target group appeared much concerned about general issues related to on-line confidentiality and security, as well as to very particular ones, like:
the “fit” of the ordered items
the lack of the traditional “on-spot” purchase experience
the price and the speed of the service, etc.
Our recommendations helped our client to address and relief the existing barriers by implementing particular measures aimed at customers’ perceptions of quality and credibility, variety of choice and superiority of the delivery service.
TEENAGERS PERCEPTIONS, ASSOCIATIONS, MEDIA
What are the needs and perceptions of teenagers audience, what is the definition of “cool” and which are the relevant media channels for communication?
The Challenge: Our client planned to launch a conceptually new product, appropriate for a wide range of occasions, but still for a very specific and quite “difficult” target group: teenagers between 16 and 18 years old. The company had developed three advertising concepts and three different pack designs.
The question was whether – and to what extent – the current concepts and packages fit to the teenagers perceptions and associations and what are the possible means for their further improvements (if such appear necessary). The entire set of survey objectives covered also a detailed exploration and understanding of the needs and perceptions of this audience, their definition of “cool” and the related media consumption.
The Approach: We designed and executed a two stage qualitative survey, including:
A. Initial In-Depth Interviews, to define and explore in detail what constitutes the perceptions of “modern”, “trendy” and “cool” for the specific target, to evaluate the concepts and pack designs and to understand how they can be improved, if at all. We used this initial approach to eliminate the “show-off” effect, typical for this target and threatening the validity and reliability of the provided information and definitions;
B. Following Focus Group Discussions, to check the concepts after the final adjustments – in a more dynamic context – and to ensure that they fit the teenagers most relevant attributes, symbols and associations.
The Outcome: Our exploration rejected one of the three tested concepts on a very early stage of the survey.
Тhe further exploration revealed a parity between the two remaining concepts.
Yet, one of them still accumulated certain negative perceptions and associations, while the other stood out with its message and was recommended as the more relevant platform.
Taking advantage of the typical group discussions dynamics, our moderators managed to provide further insights and ideas for fine-tuning of the communication to support the successful launch of our client’s new product.
WHICH SHELF LAYOUT TO CHOOSE?
Product placement in retail stores is about so much more than just what looks nice where, or what may fit the best in different areas of the store.
The Challenge: Our client wanted to examine customers browsing behavior at the store. The company implemented an experimental shelf layout to test how an alternative type of shelf arrangement will be perceived by the shoppers. The question was which layout (the standard or the new one) had better potential to satisfy customers with easy, quick and convenient orientation and to increase their interest in the brand.
Our Approach: We used a qualitative method – “shop-alongs” – in order to:
- explore the customers’ “positioning and orientation” criteria at the store;
- examine the customers’ actual reactions and behaviour with both shelf layouts;
- understand which arrangement was preferred and why.
The Outcome: Our analysis revealed the inferiority of the alternative design. It was perceived as illogical, irrelevant, chaotic and difficult to orientate. Using real shopping situations, our approach helped the client to understand better his customers’ path to the “moment of truth”. Our client company got a deeper understanding about what is important for improving the customers’ shelf orientation and what can be done in this direction in order to trigger and facilitate the purchasing act.
