Key Research Questions: what is the meaning of...?

How can I make the intangible tangible?

Humans are emotional irrational beings. Intangible concepts and emotions like love, desire, happiness are part of the universal human experience. While we understand them instinctively, our understanding of them and how they impact the choices we make is difficult to articulate. Or take concepts like sustainability or value: each of us has an understanding of what that means, but articulating our personal, nuanced, and often subconscious, definition of those terms in a research setting is a challenge.

Our personal understanding of these concepts is impacted by how we were raised, by the cultural environment, our beliefs and responsibilities, and our human experience. While each individual perspective is different, there are commonalities. It’s in understanding and uncovering these commonalities that brands can find the tangible in the intangible to maximise the success in marketing, communications and product development. The only way to do this is through behavioural science and methods like narrative qual or a quantitative analysis of culture and language using System 3.

Application

One of the largest beauty and fragrance companies in the world were looking to relaunch an iconic fragrance. When first launched the fragrance had been a challenger brand, and had broken boundaries in marketing and communications. 30 years on there was a need to engage a new generation and replicate the success using an updated but largely similar approach: appeal to a younger generation by being rebellious and getting attention using shock tactics. The challenge was perceptions of what is “sexy” and the role it plays in a young person's life is hard to articulate consciously or through traditional research methods, key drivers are unconscious and subjective. The brand needed a nuanced understanding across sexualities and genders to ensure that any outcomes were rooted in an inclusive understanding of fragrance in modern youth.

We developed a narrative qualitative research programme with a broad age range of people that identified as cis, non-binary, gay and straight. This innovative cognitive approach to fieldwork allows us to approach sensitive topics empathetically. Sharing our stories and encouraging respondents to share in turn. In engaging with these communities, being objective and emotionally distant would have been met with walls. These story-centred therapeutic techniques allowed us to approach the interviews, not as researchers with a set of key questions they need to tick off, but as human beings engaging with others.

Impact

The research has been invaluable understanding how to update a brand fit and inclusive for today’s world and today’s youth. It allowed the brand to understand that today’s youth need emotion and connection, and the best ways to make young people feel close to the brand. Importantly the research stopped the development of an existing relaunch plan, one that would have taken the brand in the wrong direction and potentially alienated the target demographic. The insight provided by Irrational Agency gave the research team the materials to make an important call, and potentially save the brand millions of dollars. Now, new concepts are being developed with this research the cornerstone of any future relaunch plan.

Uncovering the levers that build these elusive concepts in the consumer’s mind is impossible with traditional research. But it’s understanding these perceptions that give brands the upper hand in the developing and marketing of new products and services. Only behavioural science that can unlock the subconscious and cultural contexts can truly give you the “meaning of” and allow you to create engaging and meaningful interactions.