I enjoy watching myself as a consumer, in that slightly schizophrenic way that I encourage everyone interested in understanding customers better to do. If you have the right framework you can learn a lot about the way in which other people make decisions by watching how you make a decision – after all, you’re a person aren’t you? The challenge is always to split out that part of you that consciously post-rationalises what you do in a totally bogus way. If you can learn to tell yourself that, deep down, you’re smart, sexy, clever and incredibly good at parking a car, you can put your ego to one side for a few minutes and observe what you’re doing as a consumer. You’ll have a reasonable idea that you’re on the right track when you spot yourself doing things that are impulsive, irrational, poorly judged and altogether a bit dumb. Recently, […]
Should Consumer Research be Illegal?
One of the subjects that I think should be of interest to all consumer researchers is the law. Not all that Jerome Vs Willensby in 1869 case law stuff, I can’t see much application for that, not studying the statute books either. I’m talking about evidence, how it’s collected and how much weight can reasonably be attached to it. Given their importance in the legal process, a lot of work has been done to examine the accuracy of eye-witness testimony. It strikes me that if there were any question over people’s ability to accurately report on an event they witness involving someone else then similar problems may well exist when relying on a person’s ability to accurately report their own experiences. In fact, given the role of the conscious mind as a post-rationalising device that has no direct access to the unconscious mechanisms that trigger our behaviour, there is reasonable […]
Sneak Preview: When Is a Fact Not a Fact
One of the challenges with studying consumer behaviour is that the behaviour itself is incontrovertible, but the interpretation of that behaviour is often much more open to debate: what caused what? What can be inferred from what happened Recently, when I casually commented on a reported change in consumer behaviour, the person I was speaking to got quite indignant. You can read about what happened and what I learned in the process here (it’s a sneak preview of one of the articles that will be in my next Mindshop! e-Zine, out tomorrow). And linking to it here gives those who do read it a chance to comment if they would like to – I’d love to hear your thoughts. Philip Graves
E-zine Story
Since we’ve been discussing stories with Kevin, I thought I’d share this one here. Readers of my Mindshop! E-zine will see it when they receive the next edition (sorry for the duplication, but you can comment on it easily here). ———————————————————————————————————————————- I sat looking across the desk at the man holding a set of white boards close to his chest. “We’re really excited about this,” he said nodding confidently, whilst looking up at the rest of us with big eyes that said “please me”. I could feel the energy in the room, the sense of anticipation, the others not aware and not affected by the incongruence between his tone and his body language. I sat back with an impending sense of doom. “We’re sure this is going to be so good for the brand.” His statement did nothing to change my feelings, but the others were shifting on their seats […]
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