Background

Vehicles are a platform of significant lived emotional experiences. We believe that it is in these moments of experiences and expectation and interaction that memories are formed and a consumer’s feelings about a brand are developed. We know that through direct interaction with consumers on-line, in-person, in labs and elsewhere engaged in exploration and discussion, we are able to capture, map, understand and maybe predict and guide their feelings about a brand. Within this effort, we apply various collaborative research methods to study consumer’s imprinted memories and perceptions of a brand from the Past.

Complementary methods are also applied to understand customer’s everyday experiences and moments of interaction with the vehicle, its services and its systems. These everyday moments usually trigger a range of feelings - some of which might include confusion, pride, frustration, vulnerability, self-doubt, determination, happiness and more. And this might all surface while simply driving to work or a business meeting.

Those experiences that are new or novel, transitional and surprising and have a clear conclusion are the most memorable. Most others have a psychological presence that lasts about three seconds. Lastly are the hopes and aspirations and future desired memories of consumers. We also explore the futures that they wish to have and how they come to life in sketches, stories and reenactments.

Brand Challenges

Every brand is unique and has its own distinct defined brand attributes, ideals or elements, or said another way, “what they want to be known for.” One version or group of these brand attributes may exist at the highest platform level and affect the entire company while another version may be relevant to the mobility services team or the electrification team or the autonomous vehicle team. And if they are all part of the same company, then some element of those attributes ought to permeate everything and everyone.

From Transparent to Reliable to Consistent to Fun - these words usually reflect the company's philosophy of product & service development, internal culture and maybe the mindset of its founders. They are attributes that have been shown to resonate with their target market, provide some market differentiation or uniqueness and reflect how the company wants to be perceived and known.

On the Complexity of Vehicle Systems

The industry suffers from conceptualizing, designing and implementing (at significant cost) dozens of features that are rarely used by consumers. These features are usually informed by an emerging or maturing technology. A few contemporary paradigms include ...

• Driver Assistant Technologies (DAT / ADAS)

• Drive Modes

• Connectivity (modems, WIFI, wireless charging, NFC pairing, Bluetooth)

• Application & Service Integration

• Over-the-Air Updates

• Personalization - of Settings, driver recognition & identity management, memory

• Advanced Sensors - cameras, motion, thermal

• Intelligent (Digital) Assistants

• Remote Control - state of the vehicle, remote cameras, remote movement of vehicle

Many features and interaction paradigms (like auto park assist and gestures) have a novelty, but rarely pass the test of time. One-time use and frustration do not positively impact brand affinity and trust. The industry has reached a point of “feature fatigue” where consumers are completely saturated and partially confused by the dozens of tech-driven features that are available to them in the vehicle interior. At purchase, they may be seduced by the appealing and cool description and then “check the box”, but often they never really know if the features exists and how to operate it. This uncertainty leads to discomfort and mistrust. 

Consumer Scenarios

Everyday lived experiences with our vehicles elicit different personal feelings. Be it self-doubt, surprise and delight, pride of mastery, confusion or something else, these feelings are memorable and affect our perception of the brand. They have a cause and effect that influences the efficacy of a brand touch-point or interaction. We observe and discuss both frequent high-value scenarios as well as those “on the edge” to better understand consumer interactions, behaviors and perceptions. 

Variations of these lived experiences are ...

• Occasionally in my new vehicle, the heater automatically goes on “full blast”. I don’t know why and it is difficult to get it back to normal.

• I can get Waze to work in the vehicle's center screen, but I’m not sure how to make it happen? Sometimes it launches automatically, but most of the time it doesn’t. I think most of the time my phone is connected via a cable (?). I’m not sure what this “SDL” logo is on my phone when Waze is active (?) 

• My car tells me when my phone is not connected which I love. That means I usually left it in the house.

• I spent an hour configuring the ability to pay at the pump but it is my least favorite neighborhood gas station. So I only tried it once.

• I definitely have a preference of rental cars … because some are just easier to figure-out and drive than others. 

• Part of learning how to drive was learning to look around and make judgments. Today’s cameras and warnings erode those skills in my opinion. So I just turn them off.

• I like the idea of an electric SUV but I still don’t see any charging stations at the places that I go.

• This driving service always goes to the wrong corner even though my pick-up point looks perfect and accurate.

• Why am I going to choose one AV service over another?

Woven through these stories and accounts are new opportunities for increased value and innovation.

Unique Research & Synthesis Activities 

The methods are more or less a combination of collaborative and participatory techniques supported by video capture and an intelligent platform that does text and video sentiment analysis of core emotions. We have evolved various rating and scenario-based questionnaire types and participatory design protocols to probe a specific list of attributes (or ideals, elements or human goals). Storytelling and narrative methods supplemented with automated detection to inform frameworks, measures and subsequent strategy. Some specific methods are defined below:

• Show & Tell

• Object Stories

• Metaphor Exploration

• Day-in-the-life Stories

• Narrative and Open-ended sketches

• Emotional AI Filtered Video

We surveyed most of the Trust-related indexes, barometers and scoreboards out there and realized that most are question and answer and self-reported formats. They also focus on the brand versus the direct experience. So, we are focusing on extracting, shaping, understanding and guiding the lived experience with a vehicle + brand. Currently capturing and synthesizing Memories (past), Moments (present) and Hopes (future). 

Our methods and techniques rely completely on the lived experience. Recalling experiences, recording in the moment, longitudinal journaling and other grounded techniques provide the lived expression. Some of our contributing measures include ...

• Functional Trust

• Perceived Convenience & Usefulness

• Symbolic Value

• Behavioral Controls

• Brand Perception

Establish a baseline of perception and feeling elicited by existing vehicles and those of the recent past. Recognize and identify opportunities to “move the needle” towards the perceptions and emotions that you prefer and strive for. Learn, Prototype, Test with Consumers & Learn more.