Understanding your consumer's deepest needs

Asking consumers directly about their needs may sound like a good start. I'm not a fan of that myself. After all, it is very difficult for people to tell why we do what we do. When we are asked directly about it, we will answer it mostly rationally. This rational explanation is also worth something: it tells how we justify our behavior to ourselves.

An example: I recently bought a wake-up light (tip: hello good night's sleep, hello morning mood!). Prior to the purchase, I had figured out which functionalities I thought were important. Three suitable models remained, each in a different price range. I chose the most expensive model. Why did I do that when the cheapest model could meet my functional needs just as well? My argument: the extra features of the most expensive model were also very important. End result: in practice I never use it. So did my brain play a clever trick after all? Looking at myself again, I think that my desire for status and beauty influenced my choice more than I was willing to admit to myself.

Understanding the physical and mental context

Instead of asking consumers directly about needs, I prefer to have them spontaneously talk about the situations in which they buy and use products and services. That way we gain insight into the physical and mental context in which consumers make their decisions. And that context teaches us what the deeper needs are and helps us better appreciate the rational explanations for our behavior. Returning to the wake-up light example, from the context of my own stories, I would have learned that:

• I adjust my functional requirement list as I learn about new features
• For me, the wake-up light is more than an alarm clock: it's a mood creator. A design item with which I create a sense of luxury and intimacy.

In my opinion, online community research is the ideal tool for understanding the context in which products and services are bought and used:

• Understanding context: in the community it is possible to discover how consumers interact with the category through various types of assignments. From a (photo) diary in which they record their daily behavior to a challenge in which they describe their ideal.
• Awareness of own behavior and emotions: the duration of a needs assessment in the community is at least one week. During that week, we give consumers a chance to become aware of what is going on deeper within them.

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From clients, I sometimes experience hesitation with community research. It is a wonderful method to gain many insights, but does it deliver the right depth? Yes. It does! In fact, the depth comes not only from the consumer, but especially from the researcher. Community research produces a lot of data and a researcher likes nothing better than to analyze data and puzzle with it. And when the pieces of the puzzle fit together you experience pure satisfaction.