Leveraging WhatsApp bots for instant diary studies

The Setting

Our client was one of the major global FMCG manufacturers who had recently acquired a chocolate giant. They had been conducting continuous research for years with teenagers and youngsters; however they realized the research questions they had been asking and the insights they had gathered were not reflecting the actual consumption habits.

Asking the same questions and deep-diving into the same topics had started to provide little to no value. To capture an in-depth understanding of their consumers, the client turned to Uservision.

The Brief

Our brief was simple, yet challenging. As an FMCG brand, our client has to understand what their consumers eat, drink, consume, when and where. Of course, a survey could be introduced in such a setting, but asking the same questions would lead to getting the same answers. Knowing that consumers have a short memory span, surveys are not the ideal way to capture these insights.

Our Approach

We, as Uservision recommended instant diary studies leveraging Whatsapp bots. We asked 50 participants what they have done upon that moment, what they ate, drank and why 5 times per day and 4 times per week.

Methodology and Outputs

Every day, after breakfast, after lunch, at noon, just before dinner and before they sleep, we asked our participants what they consumed that day, with whom theye consumed, why they consumed and several open ended questions that would aid us in understanding the consumer’s mindset.

At the end of the research we had 5000 lines of open ended answers waiting for analysis.

We leveraged our own semi-automated software to cluster the data in a meaningful manner and leveraged our sociologists and anthropologists to analyze the output. To have a more in depth understanding of the data, we also reached some of the participants and asked them to elaborate on some of the input they provided. Our researchers analyzed the data and created a report which depicted a very different picture than any of its subsidiaries.

The Insight

Both in our research and also in former researches, it was apparent that consumers were slightly choosing healthier options and mixing their unhealthier snacks with healthier alternatives.

One of the interesting insights that we have discovered was that yoghurt consumption increased drastically. The core reason for this increase was not having a healthier alternative, but that yoghurt is cheap, fulfilling,, possible to eat on the go, and when an unhealthier snack is being consumed, yoghurt can cleanse the throat, hence helping consumers consume more snacks! Ultimately, yoghurt consumption is not hindering, but complementing snack consumption.

We also revealed when and why snacks are consumed; what kind of combinations people like with soft drinks, food and after consuming a certain food; what kind of consumer segments there are and their preferences in the market; and how to sell more snacks to these specific behavioral and psychographic consumer segments.

Ultimately, instead of swimming against the stream, we have led the brand to coexist and amplify its offerings leveraging timely trends.