TRADE OFFS, ELASTICITY & CONVERSION

Having worked industry-side ourselves, we know, only too well, that the implications of our findings and subsequent recommendations can fundamentally change commercially sensitive plans.

So much of what consumers claim to do or the reasons they come up with to explain their behaviour overlooks or even omits the underpinning influence of their subconscious, System 1. So much in our analysis of behaviour will depend, therefore, on:

• the sequence in which questions are asked;
• an account of how primed or un-primed they are by brand mentions before answering a question;
• on how they’re asked – which techniques we use;
• and where they’re asked – what time of the day, which device they’re using, where they’re likely to be, which touchpoints they’ve most recently interacted with.

We strive to give as true a reflection as possible of consumer decision drivers, actual and predicted behaviour.

• Conjoint analyses (max diff) whittles down consumer choices into an accurate purchase decision tree rather than relying on a simple checklist or ranking.
• Pricing models such as Van Westendorp reveal value attribution and price elasticity, but also give a steer on propensity and intention based on existing product lines and planned innovation
• Conversion is measured in the digital cockpit of our clients’ e-commerce site, or else we introduce simulated product pages to test basket conversion in our quantitative research
• All this whilst continuously tracking changes to the brand funnel

We purposefully disconcert respondents in the way we order our questions so that they don’t end up answering surveys by rote, in a predictive pattern, unless we actually want them to, in which case we purposefully design survey sections to encourage auto pilot responses wherever it suits our purpose.

For that reason you may find the sequencing of brand funnel questions is somewhat different in Consumer Fluent scripts, that we encourage projection as often as we prompt self reflection and we use repetitive drills only where it serves our purpose to allow respondents to switch on to auto pilot.

• Beiersdorf – category analysis
• Ajinomoto – new market entry evaluation, price elasticity
• Costa Coffee – ROI on innovation including operational impact
• Fisher Price – nursery category PDTs
• Barbie, Hotwheels, Games – occasion based PDTs
• Melissa & Doug – sustainability and PDTs