Individual Student Interview Assignment
Each student on the team is expected to conduct a total of 4 individual interviews. It is expected that you will do this among your friends, families, school and work colleagues to help you better understand the category and the consumer segment you identify. You can do these in person or on the phone.
The assignment is worth four points and due Wednesday, October 16th. It is to be posted on Blackboard and distributed to your teammates.
Assignment Format
In addition to the questions listed below, I expect you to probe deeper at least 3 points during the interview. It could be to clarify or expand on something they said. Use at least 3 techniques from projective techniques and laddering you learned in Consumer Behavior (see Blackboard). Or it could be something that occurred to you while you were listening. As they say, your objective is to “peel the union and get at how people really think and feel”.
For each interviewee, list the name, age, occupation and a brief (3-4 sentences) description of their category usage and Identify which of the three consumer segments in your presentation they belong to (Use format attached)
List the 8-10 most important insights/consumer perceptions about the category (NOT FACTS) that you learned from conducting your interviews.
List the 8-10 most interesting quotes
Product Usage Areas/Questions to probe on
Why do people use the products in general? What motivates them?
What do they like (Benefits) and dislike?
What needs and wants are satisfied/unsatisfied by the product?
What brands do they use and why?
How do they decide what brand to purchase?
Where do they look for information about the product or brands?
Who influences what they purchase
TIPS ON HOW TO CONDUCT INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW RESEARCH
This provides resource material on how to conduct personal interviews (or as the expression goes “peel the union”) to get to a more specific and in-depth understanding of how consumers think, feel and act.
Specific tips on preparing for interview
Determine your objectives/what you hope to learn as well as a list of questions or areas to probe
Questionnaire should
Not look like a survey!
Be mostly open-ended questions and
Not contain too many questions overall
Be relatively short (not wordy)
Motivate the participants to think about what they feel, think or act
Shouldn’t feel “mechanical”
Include probes
Think of what techniques you want to use
Laddering
Projective Techniques
Word association
Personification
Think of what action will you be able