Shopper research – Asking high value questions

Don’t get me wrong, I’m an inquisitive marketer. I love the ‘why’ question. I love the ‘why not’ question even more, but that’s another story! But understanding why can be expensive, difficult, and often the results are unreliable. You can’t just ask shoppers why they do things: oftentimes the shopper has no clue, and the answer given is merely post-rationalization. While ‘why’ and ‘why not’ are exciting and powerful, do we always need to know why?

Let’s consider an example. We’re testing a number of different point of sale solutions, with different messages, or different colors, even. One color works better than the other. We get a 10% higher sales uplift. Do we need to know why? Is it always absolutely necessary to understand which part of the brain was involved in processing this data? Do we need to understand whether the red color was preferred because it triggered feelings of warmth? Or do we just measure the result and roll-out the most effective solution?

I appreciate that if we did understand why, it might yield more value. It may lead us to a new, deeper understanding of those shoppers, which might lead to even more exciting solutions in the future. But it might lead to red herrings and misleading data too. It would also lead to a much higher research budget, and a longer timeline for the research, delaying the implementation and potentially reducing the return on research investment.

Understanding shopper motivations can be high value, but let’s not assume that understanding why shoppers behave in the way they do is essential. Too many shopper research projects are cumbersome and bloated as marketers try and understand way too much. Focus on the answers that will create value, deliver that value, and you’ll get more budget in the future, perhaps enough to effectively answer some of those big questions.