Spotlight: ‘Day-in-the-Life’ Research

By Dorothy Nam

“The shortest path between two points is a straight line.”

This proverb suggests that simplicity and directness are analogous to success, but whether this line holds true often depends on the context. For instance, while it might appear logical for brands to focus on the point of purchase, this approach can overlook pertinent details that influence consumers’ choices. Effective market research can delve into the various pathways that guide decision making―investigating consumer dynamics that require an examination of behaviors, perceptions, and interests.

A Day-in-the-Life study, often conducted as a digital ethnography, is a unique qualitative approach that explores the impact of consumers' daily life and attitudes on their product choices and brand interactions. This methodology enables a holistic observation of participants’ experiences over an extended period, detailing their routines and product interactions, and capturing valuable moments that map the consumer journey.

Digital ethnographies not only provide greater flexibility to participants, including diverse geographic recruitment, digital immersion (i.e., media uploads of daily activities, product engagement, habits, etc.), and enhanced user-friendliness, but also allow clients and stakeholders to direct and active engagement throughout the research. From collaborating with the study’s moderators to further probes on participant responses, to virtually attending follow-up interviews, a ‘Day-in-the-Life’ study can be conducted with minimal disruptions to actual day-to-day routines.

The following case study highlights W5’s role in exploring attitudes toward health and wellness situated among broader lifestyle beliefs, defining health and wellness in personal lives, and learning about the daily experiences of the product to capture a consumer’s ‘Day-in-the-Life’.

Case Study: A Day-in-the-Life of a Health Enthusiast

Photo Credit: Marcus Aurelius (from Pexels.com)

A leading health and wellness company sought to gain deeper understanding of a key consumer target and bring the Health Enthusiast segment to life. W5 was engaged to uncover opportunities for building a successful ‘go-to-market’ strategy to better target consumers, generate interest among the segment, and fuel creative and strategic outreach.

Approach

To understand lifestyles and behaviors of the client’s primary consumer target, W5 conducted a three-day Online Discussion with Health Enthusiasts followed by ‘All-Star’ Virtual Interviews among select participants to further explore insights. This approach allowed W5 to adopt a non-intrusive observational role as participants documented their everyday life, and simultaneously optimized longitudinal and in-depth data collection.

W5 leveraged an engaging online platform that supported a variety of activities to express perspectives and beliefs concerning personal outlooks, lifestyle, and approaches to health and wellness. The research design included activities such as diary prompts on product use, collage and image exercises, and cooking demonstrations on how the product could be integrated into daily meal prep. These activities captured a mix of aspects around how participants define themselves and their aspirations, as well as category behaviors and attitudes.

Results

The research incorporated a Jobs-to-be-Done framework that detailed expectations for the product’s health benefits, consumption occasions, and usage pain points, providing a comprehensive understanding of the client’s target segment.

Insights helped guide strategy across a variety of platforms including campaign messaging, social media channel selection and approach, the product innovation pipeline, and key product promotion.

To ensure the research was socialized and adopted throughout the organization, W5 was added to the National Sales Meeting Agenda and hosted a Day-in-the-Life session. Discussions were focused on how to activate Health Enthusiasts through each of the business units.

Reach Out

Curious if W5’s Day-in-the-Life research is right for your organization? Reach out to set up a call with our team of in-house researchers and ethnographers.

Interested in seeing an example of a W5 Day-in-the-Life Research Final Report? Drop us a line and we’d be happy to send one to you.