The Power Of Observation: Championing The Forgotten Methodology
Watch and learn. Observation is a hugely powerful tool that allows the researcher to uncover insight into the complex and contradictory nature of human behaviour. Yet, pure observation techniques are often overlooked, forgotten, or embellished into intercepts.
At Magenta, we know that digging into people’s lives in the moment provides a rich opportunity to uncover human truth. But why is an observational approach just so powerful?
Uncovering actual, as opposed to claimed, behaviour
What people really do is often very different to what they say they do. One of the key benefits of observation is that it provides a direct measure of behaviour, rather than relying on participants to recall their behaviour at a later time. Not intentionally, but people often forget the details, behave slightly differently to what they say or simply misremember. Observing people in their natural setting allows us to get closer to the truth. There’s no hiding!
Uncovering subconscious decision-making
Many decisions that consumers make are on the subconscious level; a brand, an image or a situation may generate feelings and attitudes without a person even realising. Furthermore, people often have difficulty articulating feelings and emotions. Taking a step back and simply watching how people behave can provide great richness of insight and allow us to delve deeper into system 1 thinking. For example, we can:
notice the mood people are in and how it changes as they engage;
watch them think, linger, buy, chat with other people;
see how they navigate a space, what catches their attention and what they walk straight past; and
hear the style of language they are using, the expression and tone of their voice.
Little to no bias
The beauty of observation is that it incurs less bias than traditional market research techniques, particularly with naturalistic observation where people are observed in their natural setting. As they’re usually unaware they are being observed, they act in the way they normally would, overcoming several biases of focus groups and in-depth interviews such as:
environmental bias where the research occurs in an environment atypical to the tested environment (such as asking about shopping habits while sat in a hotel room);
social desirability bias where people give incorrect information in order to be accepted or liked; and/or
sponsor bias when participants suspect or know the company funding the research and alter their responses based on their opinions and experiences with it.
Capturing the detail
Observation is wonderful in allowing us to capture the finer details which would otherwise be missed with more traditional methods. We’ve employed an observational approach in several recent studies and below are some examples of the depth of insight we’ve captured:
while exploring different shopper missions for a major supermarket, we picked up details that might have otherwise been missed such as the time spent searching for the price label, the stop and start down aisles as they try to locate the desired item, the taking of products from the back of the shelf, or seeing items shoppers discard from the basket as they find alternatives;
while understanding the experiences of face painting from a child’s perspective, we observed many intimate moments between child and face painter the child would be unable to articulate such as a sigh, a smirk, intermittent eye contact, a deep look of concentration, a wiggle in the seat, a widening of the eyes, or a kicking of the legs; and
while watching children watch TV, we observed the exact moments they engaged and disengaged with content through watching their body language, movements and facial expressions.
As researchers, observation techniques should be part of our methodology toolbox. We know it has its shortcomings and we’re not oblivious to its weak spots. Observation alone does not provide us with all of the answers; as we have less insight into the thoughts, motivations and drivers of people, we cannot fully understand the ‘why’s’. However, when combined with other, more explicit research methods, it has the power to contribute enormously to depth of insight.
So, next time you have a research question you need answering, why not take a step back and simply observe? You may be surprised at what you uncover!
