The Challenge
Liveminds recently worked with the world’s largest kids marketing platform and a leading food manufacturer to support packaging design and product research. The challenge was to find out more about children’s snacking habits along with their opinions on specific brands of chilled snacks.
The Solution
The Liveminds platform was used to run a week long discussion forum between 32 participants in the UK.
Platform Branding
Liveminds branding was used on the platform, rather than custom branding as the researcher didn’t want to reveal the client brand to the participants until later in the project. If participants had been aware of the brand from the outset their early responses may have been influenced.
Research Activities
The participants were divided into two age groups, primary and secondary school, and group questions were used so participants could only see answers from others in their group. This was beneficial as the groups could interact with their contemporaries at a similar level undaunted by the presence of older year groups. Researchers using the platform were easily able to view the responses of the different groups to the same questions.
Researchers and participants can upload a range of media to the platform. Researchers often upload videos of themselves introducing the project or giving example answers, as this helps to reassure and encourage participants. Children often respond better to visual stimulus rather than purely text based questions. Young children may also be able to communicate better using videos and pictures.
This project was particularly successful at using researcher probes as the children keenly responded and this sparked lots of interaction between participants, leading to deeper insights. Blocker questions were used when the researcher didn’t want people to continue on to the next question without responding. This approach worked well because it ensured that participants gave their thoughts on the packaging designs without being influenced by others that they would see later.
A mixture of web and mobile app questions were used to utilise the benefits of both formats. Mobile app questions allowed participants to capture ‘in the moment’ feedback rather than trying to recall experiences after the event. To counter any issues with poor internet connection, the app allowed participants to capture photos and videos offline and sync them to the platform at a later time. Web questions were used when the researcher wanted people to spend more time reflecting on their experiences and providing longer written responses on larger devices.
The mobile app allowed participants to literally invite researchers into their homes and share their journeys and experiences with them. One of the best examples from this project was when participants were asked to video themselves opening and trying the product. Some of the videos captured fantastic honest and expressive reactions that wouldn’t have been seen otherwise.
The Results
The marketing agency gained valuable insight into children’s snacking habits and opinions on the specific products and packaging. This project was particularly successful at getting participants to interact with each other and the researcher. Participants keenly answered questions and positively responded to each others comments. Participants were enthusiastic about uploading photos and videos of themselves in situ, providing ‘in the moment’ feedback. This was extremely valuable to both the researcher and the end client - bringing experiences to life and helping the client to better understand how to develop their packaging designs.
