Every week brings its share of technological innovations for research: artificial intelligence for better data analysis, chatbots for automated community conversations, and what about virtual reality?
To understand the value of virtual reality in your studies, you need to try it out. That's when you'll discover the quality of the immersion offered in terms of realistic reconstructions of places. You feel immediately immersed in an environment where you can hear the sounds, near and far, and even smell the perfume. Sight, hearing and smell are all engaged, giving the consumer-participant a real experience.
From there, you have access to their natural behaviour - their non-verbal communication, their movement, whether they pick up products to look at them, what they see from near or far, what they look at, when they stop, what they read, etc. - but also what they say, spontaneously or in response to questions asked by the presenter. As a result, studies are becoming increasingly reliable.
Virtual reality improves the performance of (at least) three types of study: 1) testing new concepts. By immersing the consumer in the world of tasting or use, we are better able to capture the experience as a whole, and in particular the emotional aspects. 2) Packaging and merchandising tests (promotions, POS displays, etc.). Faithfully recreating the atmosphere of the shop, as well as its footprint, makes testing more reliable. 3) Space, living space or shop tests. The realism is exceptional. And more often than not at a much lower cost than developing a pilot shop or reconstructing shelf space.
For all these tests, we can work in qualitative approach (with a mask), even on large samples or even in groups, and in quantitative approach in order to cover an entire country (and not just a single city where a pilot is based) and, of course, the whole world!
From a methodological point of view, all the data collection techniques are more reliable: whether it's observing behaviour, spontaneous speech or assisted questioning, the data is more sincere, more authentic and therefore more qualitative. Tests carried out in a real shop, then in virtual reality, did not reveal any bias linked to the tool. The critics are the same!
Not seeing the interviewer eliminates the biggest interviewer bias, and also gives us access to a more uninhibited discourse.
At Adwise, we favour behavioural approaches wherever possible, as they are more accurate and reliable, and give new meaning to our profession of analysis, i.e. the comparison of observation and discourse.
We also know that episodic memory (memories of past events) is unreliable. We have the impression that we remember experiences better than we remember knowledge, but this is scientifically false. It's quite the opposite! Because events are not relived, but mentally reconstructed.
Ultimately, we believe that virtual reality is a tool that can help us to move forward in our business, whether in terms of testing shop concepts, evaluating new products and new packaging on the shelves, testing promotional campaigns, new living spaces or even market explorations.
We present this tool twice in June:
- at the Club des Études Marketing (Adetem) on 15 June from 9am to 11am, at Coty - 14, rue du 4 Septembre, 75002. Register on the Adetem website. Register here: https://www.adetem.org/club-adetem-etudes-marketing/
- at Adwise, the 21 June at 5pmat 35 rue Godot de Mauroy, 75009 Paris (Followed by a Happy Hour at 6.30pm). Register with Marina : migoumnova@adwise-research.com
