Author: Vitalija Narstyte

A NEW PERSPECTIVE FOR MM-EYE

Following a management buyout in June 2020, the MM-Eye business is now stronger than ever. Long term client relationships and a highly skilled, loyal team have seen MM-Eye through the turmoil of Covid, and ongoing client commitment means we are positioned strongly for future stability and growth.

We have taken time to review and challenge what we do. We believe MM-Eye can and should be a business that can help clients and wider stakeholder groups deliver positive change.

As a start we are working to achieve B Corp certification in 2023. This will involve a complete review of our internal and external commitment to social and environmental sustainability and a proactive stance to working as a force for good. We are engaging with internal and external stakeholders to understand how we can work together to deliver positive change for people, planet and profit.

For clients we want to ensure that our market research has genuine long-term value for both their business and the wider community. We will review each brief to assess how the research can be designed and executed to deliver to the project objectives and simultaneously have a positive social or environmental impact. We aim for the sweet spot that identifies insights that support the alignment of environmental, ethical and commercial targets.

We believe passionately that the benefits of market research should not be limited to commercial organisations. This is why we are partnering with Pilotlight (https://www.pilotlight.org.uk/) to make our expertise available to UK charities who might otherwise not be able to afford it.

WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES

CHALLENGE

Our clients, who were developing an electric vehicle (EV), wanted to understand the consumer reality of owning such a vehicle: what’s it’s like to live with an electric car, day-to-day?

They were conscious that those responsible for the design development were removed from the reality of everyday consumer needs – despite their technical understanding of the model.

There was a requirement to bridge this knowledge gap quickly and without the cost of a full-blown research project.

ACTION

Typically, for such a challenge, we would undertake an ethnographic approach. However, given that there was neither the time nor budget available for such a detailed study, we had to think laterally and look for a more immediate, low-cost alternative.

A member of the MMEYE team was actively considering buying an electric car. On the face of it, she’s an ideal target for the product under development: living in a London suburb and commuting into central London. She’s a frequent driver, looking for a small, city-style car to replace her current car. Hoping for something modern, fuel efficient and, ideally, eco-friendly, an electric car appears to be a perfect match. The only potential obstacle is that she lives in a flat, with no access to charging at home (a frequent problem for urban dwellers).

She hired a BMW i3 (with range extender) and took to the road. With a combination of everyday self-ethnography, and a day of professional video footage, she lived the EV ‘dream’, experiencing two weeks of ownership. She travelled and charged in different locations, testing the product to see how well it would meet her needs.

OUTCOME

Two weeks of experience were condensed into a six-minute video that allowed our client’s internal teams to be fully immersed in the world of EV ownership and walk a mile in the shoes of an EV “owner”.

The client reaction was immediate and positive. The video changed the assumptions and expectations that had underpinned the product development, forcing a change in perspective and providing an essential reality check.

The need to attract an urban customer and the reality that many of these would not be able to charge at home, combined with the complexity of charging elsewhere, demanded a refocus on the importance of EV range provision.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE OWNERSHIP

CHALLENGE

Consumer uptake of electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) is rapidly increasing, and external pressure on manufacturers to develop low-emission vehicles continues to mount.

However, there are still significant barriers to customer adoption of plug-in vehicles and in order to enable customer take-up manufacturers need to understand these barriers and make efforts to remove them.

Our client came to us seeking to uncover customer truths about the experiences and needs of these drivers.

ACTION

To get close to the customer in the most authentic way, we conducted in-car + in-home depth interviews, sharing the experience of EV/PHEV in real-life scenarios.

This allowed us to engage with the emotional and rational aspects of EV ownership, such as usage, charging and future expectations. Our work covered four markets: UK, USA, China and Netherlands.

OUTCOME

Through this qualitative research, we identified four specific customer types, representing the key motivations behind EV ownership. Insights were presented on film, highlighting the pain points of ownership, and the key positives that needed to be communicated to attract future customers.

Our client used these insights to enhance their EV/PHEV strategy, focusing product development plans on the ‘must have’ areas for future customers. Product development refocused to ensure they produced a functional, fast and beautiful EV that remained true to core brand values.