Uncovering Consumer Preferences

How a Pet Food Company Leveraged Conversations to Understand Quantitative Results

The Challenges

A Pet Care company was preparing to launch a new line of pet foods with a famous spokesperson. They were looking to speak with consumers to get their perspectives on determining brand names and what the spokesperson would bring to the brand. They determined to use a quantitative evaluation to give them the necessary hard numbers to be able to make these decisions, but still wanted to understand the “whys” behind them. To answer this question, they needed to have a conversation.

The Solution

A two-phase study was conducted:

Round 1: 300 respondents answered a 15 minute online survey to qualify for recruitment
Round 2: 8 respondents were chosen (based on their responses) to be part of the qualitative evaluation

Utilizing Discuss’s qualitative platform greatly facilitated the efficiency of the qualitative portion of the project. The qualifying participants simply joined the Discuss.io Meeting Room from the comfort of their home using their computer & webcam. This allowed the moderator to speak to the participants in real-time, but also enabled the participants to share and show their pets during the interview; something that they would not have been able to do using traditional, face-to-face methods. Following the session, Discuss’s platform made it easy for the researchers to search the archived video for specific keywords through automatically generated transcripts. Furthermore, the Discuss.io platform’s Clipmaker made it simple create video clips and highlight reels from the sessions, which were then added to results and recommendation presentations, bringing the participants’ quotes to life. The participant shared and showed their pets during the interview, something that they would not have been able to do using traditional, face-to-face methods.

The Results

Because the quantitative results had come as a surprise to the client, they were thrilled to have the qualitative interviews to deepen their understanding of the participant’s perspectives. It helped them to understand why the brand name, which they did not expect to “win,” was ultimately more powerful for their target audience. Furthermore, it allowed for them to take the results to their team of “creatives” as input on package design and communication development. Finally, while the numbers from the quantitative evaluation were clear, having video clips from the qualitative interviews allowed them to present a more compelling story to their stakeholders on why this direction was the right brand for their new line of pet foods.

About Discuss

Discuss.io enables brands to make better business decisions by engaging directly with consumers through real-time conversations. Using live video, brands are able to connect face-to-face, online, in order to achieve a rapid and deep-seated understanding of consumer perspectives and behaviors. This “agile empathy” encourages brands to make better real-time decisions, leading to reduced time to-market, successful products, and more effective marketing. The Discuss.io proprietary platform erases geographic barriers, expanding brands’ global reach and equipping them with a cultural and contextual understanding of the consumer populations that they target. Today, Discuss.io is powering consumer connection and empathy programs at many of the world’s leading brands. The company is headquartered in Seattle, WA, USA. Please visit diomktgstg.wpengine.com for more details.