What Do Customers Really Want?

Different researchers have come up with different techniques for finding the true needs of the consumers, all based on their experience and theories. So, which one is my favorite method for researching a customer's need? It might be best to start with a description of some of the existing research methods and draw upon those methodologies to create my own.

The first article talks about the importance of first impression and how it can dictate the acceptance of a new product into a consumer's life. The true benefit and services provided by a product is heavily overshadowed by how one perceives it in the first few seconds. A product away from the norm may not be given the extra minute needed to comprehend the true benefit it may bring to the consumer. The author gives example of Herman Miller's Aeron chair, or the chair of death, a new design made with minimum fabric using mesh design focused on long lasting comfort. The prototype was aesthetically so different that the test consumers did not appreciate its true beauty. Regardless of the response from the test group, Herman released the Aeron with support of major advertising. The Aeron chair became the best selling chair in the company's history. This proves the author's point that first impression can be misleading. The outgoing customers took the risk of trying this newly designed chair, and could thoroughly experience the comfort it provided.

Even though first impression can be misleading and may not reveal the true potential of the product, not all product launches will be so successful. Consumers are fickle minded and may choose to ignore the highest quality product based on their past experience and mental models. In the second article, Zaltman talks about the ZEMET technique for better understanding consumers mind. The goal here is to find common ideas or concepts shared by the consumers when talking about a product or a potential product. Then a consensus map is created combining all construct together with adjoining lines, which is then shared with all the consumers to ensure it captures all the requirements they suggested should be used to describe the product usefulness. Given our thoughts occur as images, and that most of our social communication is non-verbal, using images to answer questions directed at finding these base requirements seems logical. However, if the test group does not have diverse backgrounds, the resulting findings will be biased to a particular region, or culture, or age group. Different part of the country or world has advanced at different pace technologically and socially, and may use completely different images to communicate the similar feelings and emotions. How then do the general pool of participant find common construct. What if the experiment misses on a key element that should describe a requirement just because different people have different images associated with that experience? For example, I think of coffee as something adults drink but don't appreciate the smell. My mental image recalls coffee smell in not so positive light. I know of friends who associate coffee with getting body jitters, and probably have a mental image closely associated to it. Now, we also have a majority of consumers, who love the coffee smell and probably have calming and soothing mental images associated with it. If you were to pick a coffee lover, and old Indian grandmother, and a little kid for your experiment, I believe the mental image of the feelings associated with drinking coffee will vary drastically. The key characteristic shared by the majority of the coffee drinker – that of freshness, morning, energy – maybe completely lost.

The last article by Ulwick about usage of customer input for innovation is the ideal method for performing research using small number of participants. The danger lies in asking biased question or subconsciously leading the participants into responding into existing assumptions by the experimenter. Directing the consumers to define the requirements and not the solutions will require us to first differentiate between the two. We also need the creativity to build upon the requirements laid out by the customers and come up with unique and innovative product instead of building upon products that already exists. Knowing when the customers will appreciate the out-of-box approach and when they will feel overwhelmed by the changes brought on by the innovative idea is difficult to predict. This will require base knowledge of how customers currently use the product which will require some research on the experimenter's part. The first hand research will allow us to feel the consumer's response as well as quantify the satisfaction they receive from the current or innovative product.