Over-The-Shoulder and Buying-Trigger Pictographs About Airlines

For those of you who read my previous two blog entries you know that I will be doing some research on the airline industry. To start, I will be developing some “Over-the-Shoulder” and “Buying Trigger” pictographs to answer the question, what goes through someone’s mind when they have to or choose to book a flight?

In an early blog entry on why use pictographs, I noted that they allow people to understand a purchasing or usage situation without getting bogged down with details. In fact, the person tends to put himself or herself into the situation being depicted.

Recall that we are trying to understand what is going on when one thinks about booking a flight. This means that the respondents should see themselves in the situation. For example, they may show a person looking at a Web site or reviewing an ad. Consequently, over-the-shoulder shots will be used. Respondents tend to start saying “I feel, I think, or I believe” when viewing over-the-shoulder shots.

The Cynical Consumer is the New Reality

Wall Street compensation, governmental bailouts, lost money in the stock market, lower home prices, record bankruptcies, high unemployment and falling credit ratings have made consumers more cynical. Some companies have recognized the new reality, others have not. For example, Hyundai instituted a “job guarantee” program and was widely copied but insurance companies, financial services, and banks seem to be unable to come up with resonant arguments to get people to trust them.

One recent radio ad stated that this particular financial institution will weed out bad brokers. Yep, make them accountable. Why not just say, “We know you lost half your money in the stock market, but we are ready to give you another chance!”

The point is the game has changed and old words take on new meaning. The denotation may be the same but the connotation is different. Words like money, security, insurance, investing, luxury, expertise, trust and honesty tend not to evoke warm and fuzzy feelings like they did in the past. They, in fact, may now be dissonant. You may be thinking “filet mignon” and they are thinking “dead cow.”

How to avoid this type of disconnect? You need to do some open-ended research, preferably the non-directive kind, and I suggest pictographs. You may want to start out with the phrase that was used by Sergeant Schultz in the old Hogan’s Heroes TV show—“I know nothing.” For more info e-mail AllegianceResearch@gmail.com.

Life Jackets and Pictographic Research

When the U.S. Coast Guard and Boat US contacted my company, Allegiance Research, to determine if boaters are more likely to wear inflatable life jackets as compared to the bulkier traditional life jackets, I knew that pictures or pictographs would have to be used to identify the different types of life jackets on the market.

For example there are off-shore, near-shore, flotation aids, special use, and the newer inflatable jackets. These different types would have to be “pictured” in the survey so respondents would know exactly which types they were evaluating. The pictographs were incorporated into a standard mail survey. This cleared up a lot of potential confusion and much useful information was developed

In follow-up interviews we used pictographs that showed people wearing the various life jackets and then respondents started telling stories. These stories provided a wealth of information beyond the mail survey and uncovered candid and detailed information. For example, how a person feels when confronted with a potentially-dangerous situation and will they be able to pull the cord for an inflatable jacket.

There are pros and cons for inflatable and traditional life jackets. Inflatables are more attractive and do not get in the way, but they are more expensive and you have to be able to inflate it to use it (which you cannot do if knocked unconscious). Traditionals are less attractive and bulky, but they are cheaper and you do not have to inflate it to use it. The challenge was to get into the minds of the users and let them talk without asking leading questions.

For more details, email AllegianceResearch@gmail.com

Nitty Gritty: CSR Overview and Steps in the Process

Overview

Cartoon Sequence Research is a context-driven qualitative methodology that uses simplified pictures called pictographs to explore how and why consumers make buying decisions. These pictographs depict the buying experience from the beginning to the end. Usually there are twenty to thirty pictographs that are shown to respondents to encourage them to explain their emotions and thinking as they “experience” the buying scenario. In short, they tell a story. There are no direct questions by the researcher, and the researcher learns detailed information related to motivations, emotions, and subjective terminology.

Steps in the Process

1) Determine the question that you want answered. For example: What is involved when someone decides to buy a car? How do people decide to take a cruise? How does someone decide to use a particular bank?

2) Interview the client company to specify the “decision points” involved in the question that you are trying to understand.

3) Translate the decision points into pictographs. This is also called “developing the scenario.”

4) Utilize three types of pictographs in developing the scenario. These include:
describing the environment; showing interaction; and showing reflection.

5) Develop different sets of pictographs to fit different demographic categories.

6) Show the pictographs to selected respondents. Avoid leading questions. Audio record their answers, i.e. the story they tell as they look at the pictographs.

7) Pictographs can be added or eliminated as more is learned.

For more information email allegianceresearch@gmail.com