Spies in the Kitchen

I’m in the middle of Times Square, America’s mega-branding theme park, with my documentary crew to interview travelers for Sheraton Hotels. Getting instinctive feedback from consumers in their natural setting requires the diplomatic skills of an ambassador, the patience of a nature photographer, and the incisiveness of a 60 Minutes investigative reporter.

We’re discovering a surprising change in travelers’ mood. Talking with Sheraton customers at their homes, offices, and in the hotels, we find that people are losing interest in the slick packaging of mega-stores and celebrity restaurants. A few minutes of marveling at the flash of Times Square is fine, but visitors are thirsty for something authentic, the “real New York City.” An airline pilot wants to visit Ground Zero to see and feel the reality of the traumatic event. A tour guide tells us more people are choosing to stray from the organized tours and explore on their own. A traveling businessman passes up the recommended glamour restaurant to “discover a little Peruvian dive with real character.”

This is exactly the kind of information Sheraton needs to define its brand. It’s something you can’t get from focus groups and surveys, because it requires field research that often takes a surprising direction. What people say may not show how they really feel. So we watch, listen, question, and capture on videotape life that often turns marketers’ heads around and makes them re-think their business. Sheraton told us that our research pegged some of the emotional triggers and personal values they hadn’t thought about, changing the perception of business travelers from the old martini-slugging road warrior to a savvy road explorer.

Brands have yet to catch up with consumers on this front. But how do you inspire a corporation to develop a human touch that will connect it with customers?

Field research helps because businesses tend to focus on their products and services to such an extent they may miss the big picture of what makes their customers happy. For instance, hotels may think they should upgrade perfectly fine beds to expensive deluxe bedding. But our research shows that personal touches impress travelers more even though they appreciate a comfortable room. So Sheraton is contemplating how to provide just such personal attention.

Pillsbury (part of General Mills) is pondering the same issue for its Old El Paso taco dinners. Marketers there fretted over whether it was the crispness of the tortilla or the flavor of the sauce that attracted customers. It was neither as we went grocery shopping with people and took part in cooking, eating, and cleaning up. We discovered the appeal of home-made taco dinners was the festive, participatory fun of building your tacos at the dinner table with the family — not the sauce or crispy tortillas. This led Old El Paso’s team to consider ways to make the brand more fun, instead of worrying about the seasoning or shells.

You don’t get to know these sorts of things unless you get out of the office and go watch people and talk to them in their daily lives. Brands need to explore the consumer experience from multiple perspectives, far from the artificial environment of focus group rooms or the detachment of telemarketing surveys. We explore the consumer world by interviewing family, and friends (bedside with cold sufferers), sharing their adventures (we’ve gone camping) and their doldrums (opened mail, paid bills), all to get to know what matters to them so we can advise how a brand can become more meaningful.

Video documentaries persuade even the most skeptical ceo. A busy executive might never really read a written report, but they can spend 15 minutes watching a video and come away with a better understanding of their customers.

When we present our conclusions, no matter how surprising or unpleasant, we do it with the conviction that we have experienced consumers’ stories out on the street, not in a focus group.

Go out and see for yourself how the consumer lives. Chances are he’s always changing, so never stop looking.

Caroline Gibbons-Barry is founder and president of New York City-based PortiCo Research, a 10-year-old marketing research and consulting firm specializing in enthographic marketing. E-mail her at [email protected].