Design agencies themselves integrate these methods

In his living room, kitchen or behind his computer, the consumer, willing, is now ausculté from all angles. Consumer brands took the habit of sending their employees home to better understand his expectations. And new generations of qualitative studies see the day, a trend which the Semo, annual fair of the sector and France, which takes place today in Paris tomorrow, should be the echo.

All sectors are. Pioneering approach, consumer industries grow still further the investigation. Henkel thus filmed ten households in the hexagon bathroom during a week (or 1,600 hours of rushes), with the Market Vision Institute. With a few surprises to the key related to this place in general all that he is more deprived, as the appropriation by the children of products which are not for them or the brushing walked into the apartment. The Group announced from this "bathroom camera" more than 30 new concepts in evaluation. LG household appliance and electronics specialist, for its part, established since 18 months of the regular interviews at home in four pilot countries: France, United States, China and United Kingdom. "This is true of many focus groups," said Frédérick Lecoq, marketing director of LG France. Among the findings in the hexagon: American refrigerators had difficulty reaching the apartments in the cities, the stairs as in elevators. The brand has developed easy to disassemble and rest doors.

Other explored tracks: new modes of product validation. Indigo by Valois, specialist in cosmetic and perfume samples, will be tested products by consumers at home, without giving them specific instructions. Then, they will be questioned about their experience.

Ethnological observations

Practices of ethnological observations are now also the "business to business". In mail processing equipment, Neopost recently filmed the practices of employees in companies not equipped with hardware, understanding where time losses were. The group now plans to go to observe in situ the users of its machines for postage for further analysis. "It is indeed difficult for the people of expressing actions become automatic," said Marie-Christine Pires, responsible of international studies. Design agencies themselves integrate these methods. Landor has thus recently launched an Observatory ethnographic based around ten families, their use and their relationship to innovation, with several visits per year and a monthly paper by blog. The first study was an exploration of the content of their refrigerators as their closets, and unveiled how households struggle against declining purchasing power. A way to collect information and agency transcribe them to its customers.

When it comes to review positioning, approaches to business mix more and more points of view: video interviews in the street, traditional group meetings, interviews at home, to blogs. With a rise of qualitative studies on the Internet. As a matter of cost and availability of the interlocutors, but also because the Web has become a reflex for good number of French. Thus "meetings of Group on the Internet makes possible dialogue between users in different departments," said Eric Chaveyron, Director marketing and commercial of Keolis. The subsidiary of SNCF public transport including used the tool with students of different cities.

"The request marks will more and more towards a permanent dialogue." This requires to adapt. It is more than a top-down query but keep track of conversations. "The resulting corpus is richer, but also more complex," said Yann Aledo, Associate Director of OpinionWay. The Institute is now a quarter of its qualitative studies in France on the canvas, against 16 to 17 last year.

"Internet is not an end in itself, but a tool to track attitudes over time, that do not focus groups and conventional interviews." "It also facilitates exchanges between consumer and whispers", adds Caroline Riveau, co-founder of the Ethnonet qualitative studies Agency, which puts in place for brands to the platforms of interactive individual and group blogs or forums under the auspices of a host.

Attention to the study

Consumers interviewed on the canvas are often asked to send videos. A study on the consumption of families with young children led by Ethnonet, they show how to prepare a dish. For coloring hair products, is filming before, after and finally three weeks later. For its part, OpinionWay also offers a video monthly omnibus study where it is possible to purchase a single issue.

That they are from the Web or taken live by a facilitator, testimony films have a purpose important: communication internally in the company. They allow to synthesize the expectations of customers and to get messages to people who do not have time to analyze of large reports. The evolution of practices therefore affects the composition of certain organizations. "You can't just hire sociologists." "We also need to ergonomists, ethnologists, Web designers, journalists images reporters trained in the sociological survey", note Yann Aledo.

Whereas new uses related to technologies end more born. Sony Professional offers its own tools, through its video surveillance equipment. By analyzing images and generated flows, they can help signs to identify cold and warm store areas. Other use possible: measuring the attention of the client when it passes in front of the point of sale advertising. The first test in vivo must, starting in Paris in a distributor of electronic products by the end of the year. "Useful information are filtered out." "Motion detection allows, inter alia, follow the direction of the face, to see if the eyes are open," said Stephane Labrousse, Director of marketing and communication of the Sony Professional France division. In the end, graphics will develop State of the premises of behaviour but no individual data is not supplied, the video image is not saved. No risk, and fortunately, see its own facts and put forward actions without having been informed in advance.