Image-based projective interviews: everything you need to know!
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Image-based interviews are a great visual way to understand emotions associated with a product or brand, and learn what will move your customers to take action.
Let’s go through an example to dive into the best way to utilize image-based interviews!
The setup:
If you’re over 30, there’s no way you don’t remember Downton Abbey. This TV phenomenon earned 3 Golden Globes, 15 primetime Emmy Awards, and became Britain's largest drama export it the US, with an audience of 120 million viewers.
In the height of its success, Bixa was called to understand why it was so popular. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) wanted to see if they could recreate the same magic with other shows—including selling the franchise’s merchandise on ShopPBS.org.
What we knew:
We knew viewers didn’t just love Downton Abbey—they were fanatics about it. The emotional connection between characters and audience reminds me of the following of Money Heist today. We knew this was one of the biggest unexpected surprises to hit PBS in years, and one of their biggest revenue-drivers too. We knew the WHAT. We didn’t know the WHY.
Our research goal:
We needed to understand WHY people loved this show and how they created such a strong connection with it, including the emotions that compelled them to keep watching.
The approach:
The way we started to understand this goal was to conduct a series of image-based interviews with Downton Abbey viewers. We asked participants to do some homework prior to our interview. Their assignment was to find 10-15 images of how Downton Abbey made them feel.
This technique works because as humans, our brains tend to link emotional moments with visuals in our minds. And you can leverage this connection by tapping into images that resonate with your customers in order to predict how you may feel about a product, brand, TV show, or anything else.
Using these images, we were able to facilitate a powerful conversation about each image. We started out by asking what made them choose the visual, then dug deeper, asking a series of laddering questions to gather the underlying feelings created by this show.
The conclusion:
In the Downton Abbey interviews, a few key emotions kept coming up. And it’s because we identified them with such precision that we were able to create messaging on the PBS website that immediately resonated. We were able to recommend a different mix of eCommerce products for the Shop PBS store, and we were able to document the elements that future shows might need to have in them to draw out the same types of strong emotions in viewers.
A question list to help you get started with image-based projective interviews:
Here are a few questions you could ask about each of their images. Remember, go with the conversation flow. You don’t have to ask all of them:
What spoke to you about this image?
What made you choose this image?
How does it make you feel?
What is the character in the image doing? What events led up to that?
If the character could talk, what would they say to you? What kind of voice would it be?
Tell me about how the character is feeling. What do you feel as a result?
Tell me about the colors in the image. What do they make you feel?
What is most compelling about this image? Most emotional? Most touching? Most memorable?
Imagine yourself in this image. What would you be doing? Thinking? Feeling?
What noises do you think are going on in this image? How do they make you feel?
What smells would be associated with this image?
Deep down, I wonder if this character is you. What was it exactly that pulled you to this image?
Asking a few of these questions is a good starting point. By understanding deep emotional drivers, we can create content, messaging, experiences, and products that we know will resonate.
Add this skill to your market research toolkit so that you can tap into the emotions that bring value to your customers, and get the research results you deserve.
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