I went to Amy's Bread shop at the weekend, in Hell's Kitchen, here, to pick up breakfast. I took a seat in the small cafe section of the shop, at the back. It was a great experience. Not just because of the great food - I had a walnut twist bread and a semolina twist with seeds, butter and jam which was delicious - but the vibe. It was tight for space, which helped to create a sense of friendly, chatty, almost familial intimacy, and the baristas/servers had this ongoing chat between themselves which maintained the feel of low level bustle, occasionally punctuated by the squeaks of delight as the most obviously gay server revealed which guests he would marry - the state law has recently changed - a few seconds after they had left.
If you tried to work out using research what worked about the Amy's Bread breakfast experience I'm not sure you could. Say you wanted to create the 'ideal' breakfast experience - and Amy's wasn't far off it - and used research to establish the key drivers of the 'restaurant' style breakfast choice, I doubt if you would end up with a cluttered seating area (with no windows to look out from), noisy staff (commenting on which customers they fancied) or a ridiculously limited menu (bread).
It reminds me a little of Komar and Melamid's 'People's Choice' series which Jon Steel has spoken of. Komar and Melamid are Russian artists, now resident in New York, who commissioned research in 11 countries to find out what people wanted in their ideal work of art. This is the United States' 'most wanted' work of art:
There is an outside scene, traditional in style. There are deer frolicking at the edge of the lake. There are three people, normal folk, in the picture and there proudly, in centre stage is George Washington.
I don't think it even works as a picture in its own right, let alone something that inspires us like a great work of art should do. And perhaps it also shows us why market research is not likely to come up with an Amy's Bread.
2 comments:
A nice read but I disagree with you. The key to carrying out research as stated is to frame it in the correct manner, focus on relevant identification and recruitment of participants and ensure the questions are synonomous with the brand. It may be expensive but could be done online but through the local community and with the right incentive the results should help drive strategy.
Thanks for the compliment. I would be interested to hear what you mean by 'framing it' in the correct manner. Qualitative research has more chance when framed well to get to something useful. I am less sure about quantitative work. Research may help you get to 'I want a local bakery/place to eat breakfast' and help a little with some diagnostics, but that is where it breaks down. My contention is that as soon as you start to deconstruct a great experience it starts to lose some of what made it great: we've all had that 'you had to be there feeling' (which incidentally, is why trusted recommendations work more than just attribute description). And in the same way it is very difficult to build something great up from a battery of deconstructed attributes.
The other point here is that my post was about creating something from scratch; an 'ideal'. There is no brand when starting from scratch in the scenario I was describing. So ensuring questions are synonymous with the brand is a redundant issue here. Though granted, if we are talking about brand extensions, it is a factor.
Your point about expense. If I am thinking of creating a local bakery/breakfast cafe like Amy's bread, how much market research am I realistically going to commission? Big surveys are out. Expensive qual most likely out. I have a vision about the feel I want, I have the logistics of space, location, that I can't get around etc. I am going to informally ask a few friends and friends of friends about it. Perhaps I have to justify to accountants why I am doing it, which in turn helps me work out the best way forward, and I have my gut instinct.
Even if I had the money would it really be a good use of budget, and time, to try to create something via research that I have a very strong feeling for anyway?
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