Sample Formats

• One-on-Ones, Dyads - for sensitive issues, detailed probing, step-by-step decision making
• Mini-Groups, Focus Groups - for in-depth probing, defining and clarifying perceptions, generating ideas, using group dynamics of homogeneous respondents
• On-site - for observational studies, for studies where personal environment jumpstarts ideas and associations
• Telephone and On-Line Focus Groups - for bringing together hard-to-reach people
• On-Line Bulletin Boards - when you want insights through "community" communication and discussion over a period of time
• Learning Labs - daylong interaction between different respondent segments and clients to achieve the fullest implications around brand and product on a continuously iterative basis
• Maxi-Groups, Several-on-Several, Enterprise - for clarifying and evaluating perceptions
• Integrated - quantitative and qualitative research

Sample Techniques

For when you've developed prototypes or are entering a new category and want a first-hand knowledge of the consumers, their buying behavior and product needs. For when you want to get at the heart of the problem by probing concrete, individual experiences:

• Phenomenon Interviews - to experience what the respondent experiences
• Step-by-Step Flow - to guide respondents to increasingly specific answers
• Situational Drawings - to uncover underlying emotions or learn more about the details of a situation or event
• Scripting - to guide respondents through their decision-making processes
• Re-enactment - to reconstruct habits and routines
• Nominal - to ensure coverage of divergent opinions
• Sensory Immersion - to better define position or concept
• Sorting - to identify key features
• Perceptual mapping - to show brands/attributes in relation to each other
• Spatial Relationships™ - to understand environmental relationships in order to turn retail/service industry space into places that motivate purchase and consumer/brand relationships
• Modified Delphi - to identify and forecast trends

For exploring ways of sensitizing consumers to new or existing products, for brainstorming, for acclimating your staff or stakeholders to changes:

• Brainstorming Interviews - to stimulate creative thinking
• Sentence Completion - to gain top-of-mind reactions
• Image Profiles - to explore respondents' image of a product
• Metaphors - to prompt thinking outside of normal thinking patterns
• Semantic Conversions - to develop positive or negative alternatives to perceptions
• Collage - to contemporize brand equity

For competitive positioning, brand identification, concept testing:

• Imaging - to explore respondents' perception of the target audience
• Chits™ - to capture awareness of competitive brand attributes
• Layering of Projective Techniques, Story Telling, and Laddering - to understand consumers at a deeper than normal level in order to relate personal values to brand attributes
• Respondent Given Circumstances™ - for exploring the full context of product need and usage
• Lifechoice Motivations™ - for exploring the relation between emotional drivers and product improvements
• Improvisation - to reconstruct emotions and behavior
• Picture Sorts - to dimensionalize emotional responses in concrete images
• Archetypal Imagery™ - for discerning brand archetypes

For interpreting the data:

• Textual Analysis - analysis of what respondents say (includes verbatims)
• Pattern Analysis™ - analysis of emotional and behavioral patterns to capture the emotional logic driving purchase

Examples: Major Studies Conducted In 2007

#1 Brand Image in an industry where image is the main differentiator.

Business goal: Adjust the image meaningfully and credibly to justify price increase.

Methodology:	22 focus groups across segments of users & potential users.
Techniques:	layering and connecting laddering, projective, and proprietary techniques to define the emotional connectors, across segments, between aspirational self-image and this iconic brand.

#2 Brand Positioning, launching two familiar brands as one new brand.

Business goal: Stimulate business (increased penetration and/or share of occasions) by identifying the emotional and product benefits that meaningfully differentiate the brand from competitive offerings.

Methodology - Part I (Emotional "deep dive"):	8 focus groups with core and occasional users.
Techniques:	use respondent photographs to probe usage and attitudes; layering and connecting laddering and projective techniques to identify the most compelling benefits the new brand can uniquely and credibly own.
Methodology - Part II (Concept Testing):	8 focus groups with core and occasional users.
Techniques:	layering and connecting laddering, projective, and proprietary techniques around concepts and moodboards in order to adjust and build in moving forward on the new brand identity.

#3 New Product Development in a cluttered marketplace.

Business goal: Explore the success potential for a new line of snacks.

Methodology:	focus groups with concept acceptors.
Techniques:	in-home and on-premise trial, family diaries, projective techniques to build the switching logic for this new line and to optimize product attributes and packaging.

#4 Pricing Strategy, adjusting actual product value to the product attributes that consumers are willing to pay more for.

Business goal: Communicate value and optimize pricing.

Methodology:	32 in-depth 1-on-1 interviews with respondents screened for demographic and lifestyle mix.
Techniques:	simulating in-store environment, conduct projective exercises to define: different levels of quality consumers perceive, primary attributes they notice that drive these perceptions, key attributes that drive consumers' value perception, and the comparative ranking of quality between competitive brands.

#5 Rewards Program for a leading national retailer.

Business goal: Cultivate brand loyalty in order to grow business.

Methodology:	20 in-depth 1-on-1 interviews with store cardholders.
Techniques:	laddering around concept testing to determine the emotional and functional benefits that go beyond product-specific dimensions to form customer relationship-based bonds with the brand.

#6 Corporate. Clarify and synthesize the beliefs and opinions of those who touch the business in order to set a strategic business framework for brand and product positioning.