Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

Performance vs. Preference Research -- They supply a different perspective and require different research techniques.

My December Views on the Sequential Monadic design was an excerpt from a paper I had written in 1979 on Adaptation Levels associated with different protocols in consumer research. In that paper was a section on the effects of diaries in consumer research studies. I am concerned about the use of diaries in studies where we are attempting to evaluate the acceptability of a product or group of products. Much like the Sequential Monadic method, the use of diaries presents a risk of introducing attributes or variables that would not ordinarily exist in the real world assessment.

With the use of diaries, we point out to the test participant those variables or attributes that we are particularly interested in assessing. Under normal circumstances, these attributes or variables may not be considered by the users in their assessment but with our direction to observe and assess them we run the risk of altering the user's equation of excellence and thereby distorting the real consumer evaluation. The diary study takes on much of the same characteristics of a "concept & use" study whereby both test products are evaluated on the basis of the concept. Note: I am not opposed to diary studies or concept & use studies. I am just pointing out that they can be mis-used. As a matter of fact, I am a strong proponent of both methods but always under the proper circumstances. There is a time and place for each method, which I will discuss in a later paper.

As an example of the effects of diaries, consider the following two tests. Both tests were paired comparison blind tests. Each was conducted with and without a diary.
Test #1 Test #2
Diary: With Without With Without
Preference:
Brand A 38% 22% 29% 7%
Brand B 56% 72% 30% 32%
No Preference 6% 6% 41% 61%
100% 100% 100% 100%

It is clear that the presence or absence of the diary affects the interpretation of the data. Diary studies are directed interest studies and therefore, yield different results than the conventional paired comparison blind tests.

Frequently our clients will attempt to talk us into incorporating added data collection vehicles such as diaries in order to capture additional data. The old adage still holds, that there is no such thing as a free lunch. As I stated above, there is a time and place for directed interest studies, concept & use studies, identified (branded) studies, and blind tests. It is our responsibility as market researchers to insure that the data we collect is appropriate for the business questions at hand.


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