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In-person observation, and a preoccupation with small data, is
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data—that is to say, the marriage of big data and small data—is a crucial ingredient of marketing survival
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Americans believed they lived in the freest nation on earth, but did they? When was the last time most Americans felt genuinely free? The answer: when they were
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truth is that sometimes you have to entertain a symphony of insights or observations that at first make no sense, and follow them to wherever they take you. You may in fact end up Small Mining a bunch of clues that lead nowhere. But you may also notice that a narrative has begun forming, that threads connect the figurine on the windowsill with the old, half-tied shoe with the mayonnaise inside the refrigerator—or in this case, that a thread links together the placement of kitchen spices with a generational color preference that’s ubiquitous across India.
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If companies want to understand consumers, big data offers a valuable, but incomplete, solution. I would argue that our contemporary preoccupation with digital data endangers high-quality insights and observations—and thus products and product solutions—and that for all the valuable insights big data provides, the Web remains a curated, idealized version of who we really are.
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these keepsake passwords, as I came to call them, are like tchotchkes of our inner lives.”13 Big data might find it hard to find meaning, or relevance, in insights like these. In every study I mention there is a missing question: How might these findings be combined with small data to affect or transform a brand or business? Subtext Research might reveal that a 16-year-old girl who listens to “intense” music might find it a poor fit with her teenaged identity, and a 45-year-old Englishman who listens to John Coltrane and Chopin
Earlier, I wrote that despite the 7 billion or so people inhabiting the earth, in my experience there are only anywhere from 500 to 1,000 truly unique people in the world. This isn’t to put down individuality; instead, it recognizes the degrees of connectivity aligning humans who ultimately can be “divided” by four criteria: Climate, Rulership, Religion and Tradition.
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The 7Cs in my Framework stand for Collecting, Clues, Connecting, Causation, Correlation, Compensation and Concept.
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better stepping-stones that lead, finally, to a concept.
“What are you most proud of?”
Finally, I ask people to answer two questions: What is most important in your life? and What worries you the most? Don’t be discouraged if at first you don’t find what you are looking for. Such is the nature—even the definition—of detective work.
Mine—distill and analyze—the clues you’ve accumulated Illustration by Ole Kaarsberg
In the correlation stage, we seek evidence of a shift, or change in a consumer’s behavior, otherwise known as an entry point. When did this change take place? Did it happen when she got married? When she had her first child? When she got divorced? An entry point, or personality shift, can be expressed via clothing, or by adopting a new set of friends, getting (or losing) a partner, sending children off to college or any other major milestone or career transition.
Inside these two poles—where people felt emotionally fulfilled versus where they are right now in their lives—is where you will find desire. Does the desire you have identified complement the cultural and local observations, as well as the clues you observed inside respondents’ homes?
