I find this current era intriguing where we are witnessing a highly disturbing paradox in consumer analysis in business intelligence.
On the one hand, we combine technological and digital elements together with virtual scenario simulators that try to reflect reality in the face of a growing and hopefully lasting trend of understanding the consumer in their natural environment of coexistence, be it the home, the street, their work environment, the physical store or browsing the web, indeed, now ethnography is “in fashion” again when it should never have gone away.
The first part of the equation is the intriguing essence since the artificial element will never be able to come close to the reality of the real and relational scenario between the consumer and that space of analysis.
When I have read, seen in documentaries and in some other projects that elements of communication have been analyzed through magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), that is, viewing, for example, an advertisement through this machine, the first thought that I comes to mind, how can anyone think this can work in an environment of such unnatural behavior?
When I attend publications that talk about consumer analysis in an artificial “shopper lab” created for this purpose, the same thought arises: do we believe that building an artificial shopping space as a “supermarket” can demonstrate the purchasing process? of an individual? Doesn't the brand itself influence the brand, the POS, the communication, the distribution of the space, the smells, the light, the distribution of shelves, etc.? Does this mean that we can tell our customers that none of these elements matter and that it does not matter if it is a Carrefour or an Alcampo, a Mercadona, a Lidl or a Caprabo and its entire brand and establishment composition?
Virtual reality will be part of our future but I dare to venture that in a more rational and less decisive way than what is offered to us now. Do we really believe that anyone will buy a car solely by seeing it in virtual reality glasses? As an additional element, it is extraordinary and experiential, being able to transport yourself to another reality without physically moving is an excellent achievement, but, as human beings, not only sight is the fundamental sense of purchase. The sensoriality of touch, feeling the effect of the product on the skin is not comparable to anything, whether it is a dress, sitting in a car or experimenting with a container.
The view is an important element but we continue hugging each other, we continue touching the steering wheel and the seat and we continue trying on how that suit and the fabric that makes it up fits.
The artificiality of scenarios may play a role in the analysis but it can never replace the real sensation of the space and the environment in which the consumer moves. And allow me to be frivolous, relationships are going to be very difficult in this new context.
My friend Andy Stalman (@AndyStalman) wrote in La Vanguardia in Sunday's interview as a headline, “the brand that is only online is now running to be in person.” This is the basis for the future, the coexistence of on and off as a strategic basis. Human contact is and will be essential and that is one of the great challenges of digital transformation, the difficult balance between online and offline.
You have to go out into the street, experience the consumer's home, experience their illusions, fears and frustrations, generate interaction at the point of sale, see how they navigate the Internet, from a passive observation of behavior, without barriers, without artifices. In its pure state, naturally, with authenticity.
Let's embrace our clients, listen to their concerns and work to turn them into opportunities. That's the future.
