The Science of Shopping

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The Science of Shopping

• By Gene Koprowski
• Business2.0
• June 1, 1999

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The Science of Shopping

• http//www.sapient.com/home/home-d.html
• A Chicago company hires artists, historians, and
  actors to answer that maddeningly elusive
  question What do consumers really want?
• Traditional Market Research vs. New Market
  Research

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The Science of Shopping

• Traditional Market Research
• Traditional techniques
• Surveys
• Intercept interviews
• Focus groups
• Unsuitable for the new global market

• New Market Research
• Modern e-business world
• New commercially viable subcultures
• New market researchers

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The Science of Shopping

• The new market researchers
• Corporate cultural anthropologists
• Objective help corporate decision-makers craft
  marketing strategies that connect with consumers
  on an almost subliminal level

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The Science of Shopping

• Research questions What consumers are doing in
  stores and in the home with the products? What
  they need to do to have a satisfactory life? What
  are the triggers that prompt people to use
  products? How products relate to consumers
  environments? How consumers customize products?
  How to get inside the consumers mind?

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The Science of Shopping

• Method of research Observational research,
  analyzing buying and living rituals of consumers.
  
• Tools video cameras, tape recorders, and pagers

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The Science of Shopping

• Case E-Lab
• http//www.sapient.com/home/home-d.html
• Rick E. Robinson and others created this new
  business in Chicago. E-Lab performs field
  research for clients such as Pepsi, Netscape,
  Frito-Lay, Ameritech, Ford, McDonalds, Nokia,
  JanSport, and other leading global brands.

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The Science of Shopping

• E-Lab
• Number of employees 40
• Hiring practices artists, musicians, actors,
  theologies, and any kind of understanders of
  human beings.

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The Science of Shopping

• E-Lab
• These new corporate cultural anthropologists
  dont study what consumers say they want, but
  what their actions are

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The Science of Shopping

• E-Lab
• Every consumer behavior has a particular
  framework and theory that it is based upon.
  Ideas, beliefs, and attitudes all come from
  somewhere, explains Robinson. Our job is a
  matter of finding the meaningful patterns that
  exist. We dont ask customers what they want. We
  watch what they do.

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The Science of Shopping

• Examples
• Monitor thousands of hours of tapes featuring
  consumers picking through the aisles at a
  convenient store
• Monitor thousands of hours of tapes featuring
  consumers buying backpacks at a sporting goods
  store

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The Science of Shopping

• Examples
• Carry video cameras to record video diaries of
  consumer activities
• Visit the homes of consumers to study them in
  detail
• Studying how people use cooking utensils and the
  meaning they give to them

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The Science of Shopping

• E-Lab
• E-Lab created special software that searches for
  key words and phrases to find similarities or
  trends.

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The Science of Shopping

• E-Lab
• Bocca Room Researchers have a common space where
  they share problems and solutions. They put
  thousands of post-it notes, slides, charts, maps,
  and stories all over the walls. People walk by
  and paste comments on them.

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The Science of Shopping

• Some results
• Frito-Lay
• They used to think that their major customers
  were Bubbas uneducated, blue-collar workers.
• They learned there were so many more types of
  customers.

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The Science of Shopping

• Some results
• JanSport
• They used to throwing all the varieties of
  backpacks together on the rack, which confused
  the end customer.
• They learned new displays that showed the
  different uses of the backpacks.

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The Science of Shopping

• Some results
• MD Consult
• An online information resource for physicians
  contracted its special brand of research for the
  sites initial product launch.

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The Science of Shopping

• Some repercussions
• Now business school types are becoming interested
  in E-Lab tactics.

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Thank you!

• Jesús Meza
• E-Commerce INLS 210-96
• June 9, 2000