Story booths, car clinics and postcards 16 Jul 2007

Tom Neveril has an interesting article on the problems associated with user profiling over at Advertising Age. He observes that it's getting harder and harder to put users into neat little boxes like "stay at home mum" or "workaholic dad"; and that most people are actually a strange mix of contradictions:

"A couple years ago I interviewed a mother of four at her house. I wanted to gain an authentic perspective on what made her tick and why she was so loyal to my client's home delivery service...As the interview progressed, I noticed a few activities that didn't quite fit the stay-at-home-mom story. For example, she taught a child-birthing class at a room she rented downtown. She regularly spoke at church. She ran a discussion group with other mothers in the community to talk about politics. And another about nutrition. She participated in several book clubs. And a gourmet club...

"...These contradictions in modern life are increasingly common. They were first observed around 10 years ago, as trend-trackers started reporting how people shopped at Costco one day and Barney's New York the next. Now, we see people reading 'You On A Diet' while sipping a Mocha Frappuccino at Barnes & Noble. We're increasingly multi-tasking our multi-faceted lives in order to fit everything in. And yet we're still yearning for simplicity."

The problem for market researchers then, is one of how to prioritise these different facets of people's lives. That is, to determine which are important to users and which are secondary. Neveril recommends ignoring what people say they do and focusing in on their behaviour. He even offers a few practical tools to help us cut through the 'I do it all' cover stories and gather meaningful information - including "story booths", "car clinics", "postcards", "journaling" and good old fashioned user observation.