I am constantly being reminded that one size never fits all. This happens with each project on which we embark – even when we feel it is the same, it never is.
I was recently reminded of this when researching new food ideas with young people aged 8 to 16 years. Whilst research typically tests each facet of a product idea and then brings them all together at the end, we realised early on in this project that this would give us a very unrealistic understanding of what the kids really were conveying.
Kids, tweens and teens buy into the whole product experience, not an individual part. Most consumers – especially young people – are buying the total proposition, not usually only a part. The taste of the food is important (it always is – ‘taste’ is a cost of entry for food), but eating the product out of its packaging in the context of the young person’s real life gives much clearer guidance. Importantly, the sum of the parts, in product development for kids, does not always equal the whole.
Breaking down the elements that make up a brand is not how kids operate. They take a holistic approach and view the overall ‘experience’ through a wider lens – they need it to work in fine detail, but also want the big brush strokes and the immediate connections.
In order to get an accurate result the entire experience should be seen (and ideally experienced) in totality. In the specific project about which I am referring, our overall objective relied on the fact that no element was taken unnaturally out of context; we had to clearly demonstrate how all the elements worked together toward a total solution.
Simple as this may appear, it is sadly not how research is usually conducted. By re-aligning the entire way we delivered these new ideas to be experienced and evaluated, we were able to tap into how the kids related immediately to what we were referring – we had their interest and their engagement – something which is not always that easy to achieve with adults let alone young volatile minds.
Let’s think about things differently – or more correctly – let’s think about things the way consumers do. The whole, rather than the sum of its parts.