Story Telling as a Research Tool

I am a great believer in the power of stories as a tool for understanding and communicating insight. Story-telling is an intrinsic human habit. It is how human beings have transmitted learnings, values and morals from one generation to the next, ever since we started stringing words together. Stories are also the easiest way to remember information, to make it stick and are therefore a good way to share your insights with your business partners. Listening to people's stories, rather than their rational answers, often provides a more fertile opportunity for discovering insight. We spend a lot of time in research asking consumers "why" they do things. And the truth is, consumers can only ever answer that question rationally, and we seldom do things for rational reasons alone. In addition, rational answers are not particularly exciting or stimulating from a creative point of view. Within the subtext of consumers' stories, however, we find people's motivations - the reasons why they may be doing the things they do. And these possible "why"s" provide richer springboards for idea generation - whether that's for communication strategy, new product development or creating ongoing and meaningful engagement with our brands.