Jason: Most people in the industry know that Intel works closely with OEM customers and service providers to understand their requirements. What may be less well known is that Intel conducts consumer research and uses the results very early in our product planning cycle to help guide the platform definition process. The purpose of this research is to understand end users, their unmet needs and the ways people interact with technology.
Kimberly: Intel’s Voice of the Customer research involves doing some very innovative thinking about digital home usage models, and balancing this thinking with real-world consumer input. Intel’s Corporate Market Research and Voice of the Customer programs are based on rigorous, professionally accepted research methodologies to ensure reliability and objectivity.
Jason: There are several steps. We identify unmet consumer needs, quantify them within selected market environments, create usage models to meet those needs and then evaluate the usage models to determine whether Intel should include support for them in future platforms.
The first essential step is to identify unmet needs and discover what consumers really value. For example, as a consumer I might want to enjoy all of my available entertainment content, no matter where I am. During the first phase of the research process we would work to identify that need through in-depth interviews.
The needs-finding phase can result in a list of more than 100 or more needs. These are ultimately reduced down through focus group research to a list of 25 to 30 for a thorough quantitative study. The quantitative research is then given to a robust sample of consumers within selected geographic markets.
This quantitative phase of the research results in a list of consumers’ top unmet needs – those that are high in importance to them, but not yet satisfied in the market. Our next step is to brainstorm usage models that address these needs.
In this example, we might suggest a media hub or home server that would enable consumers to access media on a variety of networked devices, in and around their home.
The next step would be to quantify consumer acceptance of the usage model in multiple markets. We are looking to determine the overall appeal of the usage model, whether the usage model is unique and different enough to stand apart from other products in the market, and the degree to which consumers are willing to pay for it. During this phase we might involve as many as 400 respondents per market, with three or four different geographic locations.
Armed with this data, we can develop confidence in which functionality should be supported in future platforms, and what requirements need to be met.
Kimberly: Our recent results show that there are definitely usages that end users have higher willingness to pay than others. In the US for example, our results show that consumers would expect to pay for services such as personalized music downloads.
However, there are some usages we test that people find very appealing, but are less willing to pay for. With these usages, consumers expect the usage to be included in the price of the device.
Jason: Our base digital home respondents used a PC and the Internet during the 30 days prior to the research. They were between18 and 65 years of age, and were decision-makers for the purchase of consumer electronics and PCs in their household.
During the needs-finding phase of our research we talked with consumers in 12 homes within each geographic area and spoke with several family members in each home, including children. In the quantitative evaluation of the usage models, we surveyed hundreds of consumers in the US, Germany, China, Japan and Korea.
Kimberly: Marketing specialists and engineers joined us on these in-home needs-finding visits to see how consumers interact with devices in their daily lives, learn about pain points from an ease-of-use perspective, and the workarounds that people devise.
Kimberly: We select test topics on the basis of several key factors. In some cases, prior research might have shown consumer value, and we do additional research to explore the topic further. Another factor is strategic relevance -- essentially whether a particular topic is seen to be in line with Intel’s strategic direction.
Many times, Intel will select a particular area during a planning cycle and this becomes the key focus for research. When determining which usage models should be tested on a given topic, a key factor is whether Intel technology can add value. For example, we ask whether the usage model benefits from the processing power or platform flexibility Intel offers. And of course the usage must have market potential for Intel and our customers.
Kimberly: In broad terms, based on our research studies, the market potential of a given usage model is based on appeal, uniqueness and the user’s willingness to pay for it. Ultimate decisions on market potential must also take into account ‘bill-of-material’ (BOM) cost and ecosystem capabilities.
Jason: One appealing usage model is video phone technology.
Here is how we described it to our research participants:
“Your television or set top box has a video camera and microphone built in so that you can see people when you talk to them. Use it to let your parents see your kids, show someone far away how to bake a cake or show off your new shoes. You can do this with anyone who has a broadband Internet connection and a USB video camera, even if they don’t have the same TV.
“You can also use this example to have a live video chat with various professionals, like a doctor, nurse or lawyer. You could even use it to take a class or have your child interact with a tutor.”
We provided similar descriptions of other potential usage models, including accessing all your content on any device in the home or when away from home using a TV/cable server, personalizing a ‘My Interests’ Web page for your TV, transferring your photos and personal videos to your TV for viewing and editing, creating a channel on TV for your friends and family to share personal content, and other usage models.
Jason: First we should say that we cannot discuss our research results in depth here, due to the fact that we are continuing our efforts. It’s also important to emphasize that we have conducted research in multiple geographies, and consumer preferences vary considerably according to where they live.
We can say that some of the top-rated usage models included video phone capability. The ‘My Interests’ Web channel and TV/cable server also received positive ratings. Of course usage models may rate higher or lower than others for many reasons.
Kimberly: Some of the reasons someone might not like a usage model include the cost, a perceived lack of need, or perceived difficulty in using that particular application or service. We typically give consumers four to five answers to choose from when we ask why they do not find a particular usage model appealing.
Kimberly: We are always surprised how similar consumer needs are across the different geographies. The solutions for meeting those needs may be different, but we find that the needs are very similar. Some recent needs-finding research found that consumers are intrigued with new technology and new devices, but they are concerned about losing their old content, such as VHS tapes, or transferring cell phone numbers to a new phone.
Jason: We also continue to see that people generally want the TV experience to be enjoyable and the key aspect to make it enjoyable is being easy to use. The lesson for the industry is that whatever new consumer usage models we make available must be extremely easy and intuitive, and must not interfere with the TV viewing experience.
Kimberly: You know, as people who are immersed in technology on a daily basis, we are often surprised that the average consumer is not necessarily like you and me.
The more engineers and marketing people get involved in the in-home visits, the more successful we are. That’s because after they see how people interact with technologies, the technical people ultimately start to champion the point-of-view of the non-technical consumers.
Operating with this fresh perspective, we as an industry will ultimately create more successful and useful products – and that is what Voice of the Customer is really all about.