Getting pushback in qual when an insight statement expresses a negative feeling or ‘problem’ is nothing new. This has always happened sometimes, or with some people.
What we find now, though, is people pushing back more often. And pushing back harder.
Especially when an insight statement expresses a negative feeling or ‘problem’ to do with the state of the world today, or the difficulties and challenges of living in it.
Brands rightly believe that solving a problem or resolving a tension can be powerful because of how deeply it can resonates with people. But what we increasingly see is that if an insight statement overtly calls out these tensions / problems, it can derail focus, get in the way and disengage.
As one consumer artfully put it:
“We know all this bad sh*t. There’s no need to rub it in.”
Best case, it’s then hard to get people back on track. Worst case, it sends them off on a spiral of thinking less of the brand for being so tactless. All this before they’ve evenstarted thinking about the benefits on offer.
There’s no denying these are real problems. They truly are. In fact, we think the reason for the marked increase of this kind of pushback of late is that things are worse than they were.
Life is tougher right now, for a lot of people. The world feels less safe and less certain. We feel more stressed, more disconnected, more overloaded, more overwhelmed and more [insert other ‘human tension’ of choice].
But people don’t want to hear about it.
So hearing it played back at them doesn’t come across as reassuring or empathetic. It just seems to make people feel worse. Much in the same way as it’s OK to badmouth your own close relative in private, but woe betide anyone else who says a word against them in public. Just because it’s true, doesn’t mean we want it to be said. We might be feeling it, and we might be thinking it, but it’s jarring to hear it said out loud.
Alongside this, we get regular pushback that referencing big ‘world problems’ in a brand insight begs credibility.
“It’s only a [bar of chocolate, bottle of sauce, washing up liquid or pot of skin cream], it’s not going to change my life, is it?
So what’s the solution?
We think there are at least three possible ways for brands to come at these challenges.
The first two are practical measures relating to the way we go about researching and defining tensions:
The first is to use ‘towards’ not ‘away from’ when expressing an insight
Placing the emphasis on the desired direction of travel. What we hope for rather than what we struggle with. What we welcome instead of what we fear.
- For example, saying: ‘More and more these days, we value and look forward to moments of connection with the people we care about’ instead of saying: ‘In this virtual world we are increasingly disconnected from others and it’s all too easy to feel lonely.’
- Or: ‘I crave simple solutions that make my life easier’, rather than ‘Life is so complex these days, I feel overloaded and overwhelmed.’
These approaches contain an implied problem and, in our experience, prompt people to express the tension anyway, and to express it in their own words (which is far more meaningful and useful)
The second is to separate the insight from the benefit in the research process
This way, rather than setting up the tension and then offering a solution, we share the solution to begin with, and then fully unpack responses.
Again, the tension usually tumbles out naturally at this point, and in consumers’ own language (usually so much more powerful than anything the team could come up with in advance). We can then share the pre-written tensions / insights and explore their resonance, but we’re doing it as a check-back not an opener. And (crucially), not relying on it to identify the core human truth.
Last, but by no means least
The brand needs to know its place and offer something realistic and brand-relevant
To focus on an issue that the brand can address, rather than pretending that, for example, a food product, household item, or online service can solve world problems. And preferably solve something directly related to the category, or at least the emotional space, in which the brand is playing.
- Like how the delicious flavour of your product brings tiny moments of blissful escapism (momentarily, at least) from the chaos and worry of everyday life.
- Or a practical way to solve a domestic issue that frees you up to do something you’ve been longing to do.
- Or an online experience that lets your imagination run free.
You get my drift …
I’d love to hear any thoughts on this you may have, so please feel free to email me on maddy@lucidpeople.com
Photo by Anna Shvets: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-red-sweater-holding-white-flowers-3746209/
Maddy is Director of Lucid. She has been described as a ‘maestra’ with groups of people and is appreciated for her passion and commitment as well as the clarity of her strategic thinking, insight and expression. Maddy began her career in advertising at Ogilvy and BBH and then worked at the Arts Council, English National Opera, AEA consulting and Stimulating World Research before setting up Lucid.