The Facilitator ...

What is a 'facilitator'?

How can facilitation skills possibly be linked to
innovation,
consumer insight,
market research results,
sensory science,
product development .....?

A good facilitator is worth his / her weight in gold!

A facilitator determines the outcome of discussions with clients and consumers.
Facilitators assist or 'make possible' interaction, discussion and more -- acting as 'devil's advocate', steering thoughts, guiding meetings, ensuring actionable outcomes -- without taking an active part in discussions or influencing decisions.

According to the Concise Oxford dictionary (1976, p.371), 'facilitate' means "to make easy, promote, help forward (action or result)"....

In business, this definition of facilitation and the work of facilitators are required in its fullest context -- and more.
Facilitation skills are required in almost every aspect of business.
We therefore need to be more specific and focus on the role of facilitation in market research, consumer insight and innovation.
Why is facilitation and good facilitation skills so important in this instance?
The answer is important...
A facilitator determines the value of all qualitative research results.
A person with good facilitation skills will be able to interpret body language (non-verbal communication), will understand all aspects of person perception, will be perceptive, know when to intervene, ask relevant questions with excellent timing, will know when to allow a discussion to flow, will know when to mine new avenues for discussion, and more.

With whom do facilitators work or interact?
Groups.
Any groups.
Facilitators 'lead' or guide discussions, meetings, ideation-, innovation-, evaluation-, trouble shooting sessions and more.
They work for companies, research agencies (such as market research agencies), and more, as consultants or permanent employees.
They understand

• the 'flow' of a discussion and all forms of communication -- both verbal and non-verbal,
• that what is unsaid can be just as important as what is said,
• the importance of peer pressure, group pressure, religion and more.

They are sometimes employed exclusively as facilitators, or in another capacity where their facilitation skills are used as required.

Are all facilitators good at their work?
Unfortunately -- No.

Many facilitators are extremely skilled -- yet do not deliver satisfactory results.
Why?
Excellent facilitators will tell you that they need to know their subject back to front -- and this is the problem.
The subject they need to know, is not about for example facilities, psychology and communication -- that is a given.
They also need to understand the subject under discussion or investigation by the group extremely well.

Why?

The reason is clear.
Without in depth knowledge about the subject under discussion, many casual remarks, non-verbal indicators from participants, respondents, clients or consumers, and more, will either pass them by or even worse, be unaddressed because they do not have an insight into the possible new avenues to explore in the discussion -- avenues that would have lead to new insight; more clarity and understanding in the interpretation of qualitative information.
Without such knowledge, it could be very difficult (if not impossible) to instigate more enlightening thought and insightful exploration of the subject and its underlying implications.
In plain language --
'it will be difficult to adequately word or phrase questions and statements that will lead to in depth enlightenment in the group and more insightful outcomes from such a discussion'.
It will be difficult to assist the group in attaining the much sought after "aha" moment or "wow" insight that brings the all important feeling of closure and satisfaction to the discussion; the feeling that movement took place, from here -- to there... forward... indicating the way to go with a lighter tread and enlightenment -- with (ideally) nothing left unsaid or uncovered.

Many people in the know will counter this by stating that all quantitative analysis must be structured -- that is the first rule in scientific research to ensure duplication of circumstances / repetition. New avenues of discussion are therefore less important.
Why?
They will quickly state that it could jeopardize the validity of previous results where the 'new avenues' were not explored.
That is true......
On the other hand -- if you know what you are doing as a scientist and are worth your salt (so to speak!), research structure and -protocols will not be endangered when knowledgeable, scientific facilitators mine new avenues of information. A well trained researcher / scientist will know how to cope with the new information and incorporate it into further research protocols to verify and validate findings -- that is a given.

What is important is the state of mind and training of the facilitator; the manner in which he /she views the work -- their profession and point of reference -- their outlook and professional adaptability.
If every group session is stagnant and stale -- the results will reflect it.
Even worse -- reports will offer nothing spectacular and company- or corporate decisions based on such findings or insights will result in mediocre products, ensuring mediocre customer satisfaction and mediocre return on investment.
How sad.

When will this sad state of affairs occur?
It is all in the approach.
It is about facilitation being a profession .... or a tool.
In many situations, facilitation skills seems most successful when viewed and used as a tool -- a means to an end.
The truth of this is found when facilitation skills used as a tool results in vigorous discussions, actionable results and an acceptable return on investment.

It all depends on the facilitator....

CMB
http://www.ewklibrary.com/

Creativity in Action?

What is 'creativity in action'?

Let's break it down first.

What is creativity?

This is easy.

It is the stuff artists are made of. It is about painting, photography, styling, the arts and more. It is about being imaginative and inventive. It is about creating beauty (whatever its definition) and new things. It is about designing and dreaming; baring the soul; seeing in ones minds-eye what no one else can envision. It is about taking from past and present to give the future wings. It is about ideas and concepts; leaps of the imagination and vision.

In the business world it is the same as dreams, talk and air....
It is words....

What about action?

Creativity requires one very specific component to make it real......it requires Action.

Without action, creativity does not make any difference -- none.

Without action, ideas, concepts and strategies do not turn into products, categories, sales and profit.

This action, in turn, has certain requirements -- it must be well planned, focused and well executed. It must be the actions of cross-functional, professional individuals functioning as a well-oiled machine.

Action is planned, structured, measured and valuated.

It has a beginning and an end.

It has specific results as aim.



How would one know which/what action is required?

The forerunner of action is intelligence -- not the IQ type (although that is always welcome) -- the research type.

Action is preceded by finding out as much as possible about the situation as envisioned by 'creativity' through secondary- and primary research respectively; It is preceded by "doing your homework" from all possible angles without researching the subject to death and bankrupting the company in the process. This requires skilled, expert knowledge and intelligence (of the IQ type) to plan the required research protocols and -analysis, statistically analyze quantified information , interpret qualitative information, mine the combined data for insights, reach specific conclusions, distinguish between actionable and non-actionable results, predict results of possible actions and advise a course of action.



Creativity is about ideas, ideals and dreams.

Action is about analysis, business realities, identifying the process to make the creative vision real -- and making it happen.

Creativity in action?

That is known as 'innovation'.....



CMB

http://www.ewklibrary.com/

Failures and Fickle consumers......

Why do products fail?

Products fail when they do not make a profit anymore.
Products fail when consumers choose a different product when they part with their money -- not your product.

Business and products are about profit .... sometimes. A failing product may be kept in the market to complete a basket of goods on offer to consumers. It then has more ad value than anything else -- it assists in the sale of other, more profitable products.

In general, however -- failing products die -- sometimes at great cost to the company that invested heavily in its predicted success.

Many reasons exists for failure.

At the root, however, is perhaps the inability to predict failure at the idea and concept evaluation stage; the apparent inability to act proactively regarding the eventual replacement of a current "cash cow" when that highly successful product starts its decline after many years of superior sales; the inability to understand how fickle consumers can be and how important it is to be in constant touch with their lifestyles, whims, feelings to predict and influence how they will act, react and more. All of this happening while the corporate world is focused on regimes, management systems and regulating actions. It is geared to eradicate "fickleness" -- not embrace it in an "organised" fashion.

How can this cause products to fail after years of development or many successful years in the market?
Many knowledgeable people will tell you that masses of product research, market analysis, sales analysis, trend analysis, ad analysis and more cannot all be wrong. The big picture is important -- markets, segmentation, categories, the brand- and company image. It is true -- all these can contribute to success -- but also to failure.

Why?

One of the most overlooked reasons for failure is the fact that products fail when the market and consumer requirements have been misjudged (although it is a given that here can also be other reasons for failure).

Why does this happen?

Surely -- with all the money spent on market research, more than four out of ten products in the FMCG (especially Food Industry) should succeed -- so what is the problem?

The problem may be that most of the tools used in market- and product research look to the past to identify tendencies and apply that to the current state of affairs, when in fact it should endeavour to predict the future with consumer insight in mind -- what consumers (not companies) live, feel and desire. All the things consumers apparently cannot put into words -- the things that everyone thought up to now, could not be quantified. It can be quantified with great success, but it requires faith and understanding of innovative new tools and protocols -- it requires bravery and trust in an unknown future. In many companies this is still a challenge. Embracing the unfamiliar can seem risky at times and business must really reach a critical stage before the apparent new and unconventional, yet innovative tools are looked at with new insight. By that time, many products already failed. Having successful products in the market and ensuring they stay that way as long as possible, takes bravery, enthusiasm, an innovative spirit, an entrepreneurial view of the world, new research and new possibilities -- it requires the hunger for success.



Fickle consumers do not cause product failures. Once that truth is understood, many products will be managed with new insight to ensure success.



CMB

http://www.ewklibrary.com

Consumer Insight and the Tower of Babel

You are what you feel.
What you feel is mostly very difficult to put into words.


In the Food Industry especially, it is vitally important to understand consumer perception, interpretation and action.

Where does it begin?

Some people say is all about communication – verbal and non-verbal -- but it is only the reaction to words that can be measured – and without measurements / results, there can be no sensible data analysis or data mining….no research….no insight….

Well, this is easy!
We all use words to communicate.
You just have to listen to what people say – right?
Not really.
This can only be true of we all had the same understanding of the meaning and implication of each word…..

Let’s look at some of the words in the English language used to describe food characteristics. Perhaps this will prove that words are more than sounds.
Just to make things fun, remember that in some instances the same word may also be used to describe different sensory perceptions which would change the meaning of the word.
For example: “Creamy” texture may imply “smooth, rich or luxurious”, but “creamy” color may imply “slightly yellow-white, thick, smooth, milky appearance” !


Appearance characteristics:
This is judged by looking, spooning, pouring, cutting etc. and includes
Color,
Surface characteristics, and
Internal / Interior characteristics
and is judged by only by sight:

Color descriptors:
name or hue (e.g. white, blue, pink, “sunshine yellow” etc.),
intensity (e.g. low or high – “sparkling blue” vs. “matt blue”),
bright, dull, creamy, milky, even, smooth, intense, psychedelic, fruit (e.g. “strawberry red”), ice-cream, flat, full, appealing, unappealing, uniform, uneven, spotted, multicolored, rich, happy, sad, friendly, warm, cold, healthy, sunny, strange, weird, old-fashioned, traditional, browned, pale …

Surface characteristics:
wrinkled, smooth, glossy, shiny, even, uneven, wet, moist, watery, dry, hard, tough, soft, creamy, coarse, gritty, volume (high, low), full, flat, shapes, oily, sticky, weepy, crystalline, veined, moldy, puffed, soggy, beaded, speckled, cracked, humped, peaked, shiny, dull, fluffy, baked, droplets, spotted, foamy, marbled, oily …

Internal / Interior characteristics:
foamy, smooth, crumbly, wispy, airy, whipped, flat, smooth, even, rich, volume, thick, thin, brittle, lumpy, grainy, gritty, clammy, sticky, dry, coarse, oily, creamy, crystalline, veined, marbled, puffed, speckled, layered, granular, fluffy, uncooked, color, fine, openings, cracks, tears, …

Flavor characteristics:

Smell / Odor:
This is judged by smelling the product, the fingers, the container, etc at specific temperatures and is judged only by sniffing (whiffing):


Herb and spice names (e.g. ginger, etc.), fruit names (e.g. orange etc), plant names (e.g. cactus, etc), vegetable names (e.g. raw potato, etc)
With or without additional descriptors such as –
fresh, moldy, unclean, clean, crisp, fruity, chemical, yeasty, baked, fried, alcohol, volatile, intense, weak, delicate, irritating, relaxing, warm, unfriendly, smelly, bold, natural, feed, acidic, caramel, mushroom, old, mature, sharp, distinct, vanilla, , ‘chocolaty’, creamy, onion, garlic, earthy, grassy, , full, diluted, clear, tantalizing, curry, ‘barny’, pungent, musk-like, floral, peppermint, spearmint, ethereal, putrid, synthetic, milky, organic, soothing ….

Aroma / Flavor:
This is obtained by smelling and tasting the product during consumption and is judged by the nose and taste buds in the mouth. Consumers swallow products on evaluation and Trained tasters usually expectorate the product, except when bitterness and aftertaste is an important characteristic (then the product should be swallowed):


The sensation is noted when the product is brought to the mouth, placed in the mouth and chewed (not swallowed) and is a combination of the Basic tastes (Sweet, Sour, Acidic, Salty) and Odor descriptors such as:
Plant names (e.g. blue gum tree, lemon verbena, etc), herb names (e.g. coriander, etc), spices (e.g. cinnamon, etc) --
Used in isolation or combined with descriptors such as:
fresh, old, delicate, harsh, burning, tangy, tasty, meaty, smoked, burnt, cooked, fried, oily, sweetener, full, rich, creamy, tingling, musty, moldy, earthy, chemical, metallic, distinct, sherbet, cupboard, buttery, cheesy, fruity, yeasty, fermented, mild, pungent, fishy, medicine, meaty, bean-like, tart, soapy, coffee, bran, stale, egg, sulfuric, woody, pine, fresh, natural, multiple, changing, intense, synthetic, flavorful, flavor-burst, explosive, shocking, tantalizing, tangy….

Taste:
This is obtained by tasting the product during chewing, before swallowing and is judged by the taste buds in the mouth.
Only four tastes can be identified, namely Sweet, Salty, Sour, Bitter with a possible fifth called Umami.
Everything else would be ‘Odors’, not tastes.



Texture characteristics:


This is determined by handling the product (molding, pressing, cutting, spooning, pouring etc.), biting, chewing, feeling in the mouth when chewing, sound in the mouth when biting and chewing.

Handling:
Hard, soft, smooth, grainy, sandy, pliable, brittle, flaky, creamy, thin, thick, viscous, “syrupy”, rubbery, plastic, foamy, “spreadable”, “pourable”, sticky, clinging, stringy, lumpy, cohesive, firm, clean-cutting, “gooey”, full, flat, clean, puffed, elastic, slimy, extendable, stretch, coarse, ropy, fine, uneven, uniform, free-flowing, caking, shearing, porous ….

Mouthfeel:
Evaluated when chewing


Crisp, smooth, tender, tough, brittle, crumbly, creamy, buttery, fatty, clinging, sugary, gritty, grainy, mealy, rubbery, soft, hard, moist, wet, tingling, light, pasty, viscous, slick, syrupy, burning, drying, tantalizing, clean, distinct, melting, watery, milky, rough, sandy, lumpy, coalescing, cohesion, waxy, clinging, gelling, chewy, astringent, puckering, irritating, starchy, oily, melting, foamy, powdery, coarse, curdled, crunchy, thirst-quenching, rich, luxurious, sticky, crystalline, chilling, warming, soggy, cooling, silky, tart, liquefying, aerated, wispy, delicate, floury, “gooey”, coarse, absorbing, gummy, velvety, granular, particles, carbonated, itchy, soothing, particulate, squeaky, slimy …

Sound:
Evaluated when biting or chewing versus kneading the product close to the ear:

Wheezing, cracking, crisp, loud, soft, noisy, silky, slurp, crunchy, slick, high, low, distinctive (similar to / ‘like”….) ….



Aftertaste or –feeling:


This is evaluated after swallowing or expectoration


Metallic, sweet, bitter, salty, acidic, chemical, burning, grainy, residue (described as graining etc), sticky, lumpy, intensifying, unnatural, bad, terrible, surprising, fascinating, unexpected, distinct, cleansing, refreshing …..



Will consumers describe products in this manner?
It is unlikely.
That is why it is so important to obtain information from consumers using the correct techniques if more than the usual “pleasant”, “unpleasant”, “acceptable” or “unacceptable”, is to be measured – and it can be obtained using the correct tools with excellent and surprising results!

It is very easy to identify words that describe food products from the view of an expert or trained taster.
It is a completely different story to understand the everyday manner in which consumers are comfortable to tell you what they experience.
Unfortunately it takes training and experience to mine the minds of consumers.
Without this knowledge and insight there will always be an apparent unfathomable chasm between what companies and markers think and deliver – and what consumers experience and desire with regards to each product, each experience, each product range, each product category, each company and its competitors.

Can success be achieved?
Most definitely…….

CMB
http://www.ewklibrary.com

Sensations, Senses and Insight

When we describe any object, we use words to try to describe what we perceive, experience, associate or remember. Often many words are linked together to describe complex perceptions.

In the case of food products, these descriptions become even more complicated, necessitating the differentiation of sensations into groups such as (for example) appearance, odor, texture (visual, when handling as opposed to in the mouth), taste, aftertaste and the feeling in the mouth after swallowing. In isolation, the words have limited meaning, but grouped together they project an holistic impression of a product. When the impressions of a group of people are combined and the data mined effectively, it becomes possible to describe the “aura” of a product or the feelings that it may evoke, from a consumer perspective.

Many of the descriptors or words used by consumers to describe a product, are language bound. It is sometimes very difficult or even impossible to translate descriptive terms directly from English, French, Spanish and so on, with a single word in Afrikaans, Zulu, Hindi, Xhosa – and vice versa. The language aspect can cause some difficulty in the work conducted for multi national corporations, and have also been a headache for many controlling bodies that address validity in Sensory Science and Market Research.
Is it impossible to overcome?
No.
It does however require much insight into research methodology, internal and external validity of questionnaires and insight into consumer interpretation and their use of words and ‘slang’. Standard translations that have been validated by international bodies do however exist to address mainstream translations. When it comes to research in FMCG products – especially food products, a word is clearly not just ‘a word’.

Why this is important? After all – blue is blue – or is it?
Only if my light blue is the same as your light blue -- not to mention midnight blue, dark blue, navy......
Ever heard of the Tower of Babel?
Insight into consumer experience start with understanding each word in its exact connotation as used at a specific point in time. It is the way to change Sensations into Insight.


CMB
http://www.ewklibrary.com

The power of "it"

Have you ever felt the urge to create something new?

Are you sure that you have the perfect idea that will make perfect sense to millions of people out there if you just had the opportunity to present it to someone?

What is keeping you back?

What will make you act?


There is one word that can make a difference -- "it".

No, not IT (Information technology or any other impressive explanation). Just the plain old word "it" -- as in "he, she or it". The word "it" is extremely powerful in innovation -- especially when insight, knowledge and logic is under pressure (which is often).

Where does its strength come from?
It can be found in the use of the multitude of verbs used in combination with the word "it". The use of "it" can encourage, distract, describe, discourage, create brand names and visions, become a call to action.
Look at these examples:

Make it...

Break it....

Create it....

Design it....

Revamp it....

Visualise it....

Embrace it....

Cook it....

Eat it....

View it....

Sort it....

Enhance it....

Combine it....

Admire it....

Adjust it...

Abbreviate it....

Master it....

Read it....

Look at it....

Leave it....

Lose it....

Foster it....

Free it....

Dump it....

Change it....

Adjust it....

Edit it....

Entertain it....

Energise it....

Zap it....

Focus it.... -- can you add more?



Suddenly a simple word is empowered to create optimism or define failure, give direction, inspire new ideas in marketing, products and more.

Perhaps this is what innovation is all about -- taking the insignificant and making it significant. Making the most of the opportunity to select phrases that inspire.

Selecting a phrase requires only that you do what the phrase implies. For example, if the phrase "focus it" seems to apply to your situation, project or effort, implement the term -- try to refocus or strenghten the focus in your project or product. Ask yourself expanding questions such as -- where should the focus be, how can it be achieved, how, by whom, by when.... before you know it, you will be taking action to help you on your way.

Ideas come from many sources -- Words communicate them, Actions make them real. It can start with something as insignificant as "it":

It was

It is

It can be

It may be

It will be....

Next time when your new idea or invention seems to be going nowhere -- put the power of "it" to the test. You may find that great ideas require small building blocks to keep them moving and make them real.

CMB