Safari/discovery session: “What do you think about the internet?”
Friday, April 4th, 2008On Wednesday I did a customized store safari, part of a retail makeover, in Union Square, asking people, ”What do you think about the internet?” The goal was to discover themes of what people want from the internet, and what they associate with the internet.
The man in this video has never used the internet.
My goal in this session was to focus on people’s underlying excitements, frustrations and confusions. One thing I found was that the first 10 people I interviewed associate the internet with “research” and/or “connection.”
To know why people do or don’t use the internet, you can instead ask why people do or don’t do research or connection. Sure, there may be other big themes, but I haven’t found them yet.
What people say, and why, is a starting place for my client to know what people think, to write text and put pictures onto a single page of paper. It helps me and him describe his service by telling people the truth about how they’ll get what they want from his product. Next, I’ll take that paper around and ask people for their advice on how to improve it.
Which people? In this safari, I talked to anyone and everyone. The goal was to find out what New Yorkers want and think about the internet.
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April 4th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Hey, so this is good. It makes me wonder about what you do with the rather “big” and general aspect of people often not knowing what they want. For example, I used to have a lot of students come up to me and tell me they wanted this or that in a class - and maybe they DID want what they were asking for, but what they often asked for was something that would give them short term, but not long term contentment (they wanted immediate gratification and pleasure most of the time). Thus, if I were to follow their lead, I would soon have no students, as eventually they’d be bored. I wouldnt provide learning, but just fulfill “desire”.
I don’t know how this applies, or if it applies in marketing, where selling is a different component. How to be ethical….within any realm, providing quality. Thinking out loud.