One of the key success factors for designing new services is not just the world’s best brainstorming technique but even more important are deep consumer insights that look beyond the obvious. Using the right set of methods for market research the task to uncover consumer needs, motivations and behavior becomes very doable. With this knowledge it is usually pretty straightforward to identify new opportunities for service improvement. The Nordic Consumer Policy Research Conference is one stage where consumer insights are presented and - contrary to common practice - the complete proceedings can be downloaded for free on their website at http://www.consumer2007.info/

The consumer insights are structured into the following sections:

1. Ageing
2. Children
3. Competition
4. Culture
5. Technology
6. Finance
7. Design
8. Family
9. Food
10. Housing
11. Inequality
12. Politics
13. Sustainability
14. Innovation

Here are the summaries of a few selected papers that are currently of special interest to me, be sure to have a look since there are a lot more online.

Enjoyment and Concern. The Importance of Food and Eating for Ageing Consumers (Link to PDF)

Sweden, as well as most Western European countries, faces an ever-growing older population. The overall aim of the project has been to contribute to an increased in-depth, knowledge and understanding of consumers’ over 55 years of age, their views, preferences and expectations for food and food consumption. In three separate studies, each lasting a year and each applying qualitative, ethnographic methods, three groups of consumers +55 of special interest have been studied: city centre dwellers (n=29), new Swedes in the city suburb (n=24), and inhabitants in a rural area (n=28). The results demonstrate the importance of food and food consumption in the respondents’ lives. Even so consumers +55 cannot be considered as one group but several. Different values and habits in relation to food have been shaped by a complex interrelation of experiences during earlier periods of their lives and their present situation: social, economical and physical. Healthy food – gourmet food; food as a necessity – food as pleasure; food as a mediator of change – food as a tool for holding on to traditions are only a few of the images resulting from the project.

Broadband Internet Access – Product or Service? (Link to PDF)

There is a mismatch between product providers’ market strategies and consumers’ demands and concerns related to broadband in Norway. Providers of broadband internet access focus heavily on price and technical descriptions, like bandwidth, in their market communication, while consumers have great expectations to time efficiency and content availability. One might suggest that they view the purchase differently, where the consumer consider broadband internet access to be foremost a “service” as opposed to the provider who consider

it a “commodity". This discrepancy causes frustration – probably on both parties. This paper focuses on the consumer side of this issue, and argues that the mismatch can be fruitfully understood in light of two factors: competence and time. Required technological competence can be seen as an important factor related to the domestication of broadband internet access, and as time is scarce in modern households it is subordinated to the moral economy of the households (hence the focus on functionality).

Women dining alone in restaurant rooms (Link to PDF)

The purpose of this project was to discuss women’s single dining by investigating the reception of a woman arriving alone in the evening and ordering a dinner including glasses of wine in upper class restaurants. Methods used: Visits to ten different restaurants in a large city in Sweden. Field observations were done and interviews, i.e. colloquies, were held with both women and men who had experience of single dining in restaurants. The results show, that there is neither any hindrance for a woman to enter an upper class restaurant and dine alone; nor were there any special treatments offered. The colloquies were interesting, women talked with fear of single dining in restaurants, they talked about being exposed and placed in public view as a body of womankind. She and her sisters may need some other kind of concept to feel relaxed when visiting restaurants. What can be done to offer comfort? How can she become a satisfied customer? A new group of customers, women in urban society, needs a new consumer policy, which makes them feel comfortable when dining in modern restaurants.

Read these and other research findings at www.consumer2007.info

Photo courtesy of *Your Guide

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