What We Do
Online Communities
Online communities allow clients to interact with shoppers through the changing world of social media. Strategic groups of shoppers are recruited to join a topical community in which they engage and participate in on-going, meaningful discussions led by a community manager. Timely responses are obtained through an incentive program that encourages participants to engage in discussions. These communities provide clients with continuous feedback from their core shoppers and also provide a live forum to turn to with hot topics of interest.
Focus Groups
Focus groups are interactive, small group discussions with strategically recruited shoppers that allow clients the gain deep insights on shoppers’ feelings, attitudes, opinions, and beliefs in an open forum. During a two-hour session, a trained moderator will lead participants through a topical discussion covering a wide range of probing questions that allows the shoppers to openly express their feedback with each other. This process gives clients an in-depth look at their products and brands from a shopper’s perspective.
Concept Labs
Similar to focus groups, concept labs are conducted in an interactive group setting and are utilized to test new product ideas, product name options, or packaging concepts in a timely manner. Potential ideas and concepts are shared with participant groups to gain their perceptions, opinions, and attitudes in a group discussion forum. During each round of concept labs, a panel of creative experts will observe the discussions and incorporate shopper feedback into revised designs that can then be tested in subsequent sessions. This highly collaborative process allows for a streamlined approach to reach final concepts with confidence.
In-depth Interviews
In-depth interviews are conversations with one individual conducted by a highly skilled interviewer that seeks to understand personal opinions on a topic. In-depth interviews offer participants more privacy and intimacy than a typical focus group setting, which allows the interviewer to draw more candid responses. In-depth interviews are beneficial when clients need to understand individualized behaviors, divergent experiences, outlier attitudes, opinions on sensitive subjects, or deep, probing conversations that may not be as easily obtained in a group setting.
Shop-alongs
Shop-alongs explore shopper behavior through an ethnographic approach in which a skilled analyst accompanies a shopper on her shopping trip. Observations are made in the aisle in regards to the shopper’s navigation of the category and brands, which products she notices and investigates, how she interacts with displays and packaging, and which product she ultimately selects to purchase. These observations inform a follow-up discussion between the analyst and shopper in which the analyst probes further to better understand the observed behaviors. Shop-alongs allow clients to gain meaningful insights directly at the point-of-purchase to best understand what ultimately drives purchase decisions.
In-store Intercepts
In-store intercepts are conducted with shoppers briefly at the point-of-purchase to gain real-time insights into their shopping behavior and decision-making process. In-store intercepts allow the interviewer to collect information from shoppers while their shopping experience is still top-of-mind. Surveys can assess shoppers’ opinions on product offerings, merchandising, pricing, packaging, communication, competition, and retailer environment.
Online Surveys
Online surveys are conducted to test hypotheses and explore questions with a large, representative sample of respondents. Online surveys allow clients to quickly gain the perspective of many shoppers in a method that allows for statistical analyses to determine directional insights. Surveys are an ideal method for ensuring that decisions a made based on the popular opinion of a client’s core shopper.
Taste Testing
CORE4's facilities include a commercial kitchen and tasting center (insert link with pictures) with generous space for safely preparing, storing, and serving food for research. An on-staff Registered Dietitian will assist in planning, designing, and delivering research related to food and beverage tasting. The kitchen is also equipped with video capability for recording all interaction and research conducted.