I offer freelance research consultancy services based on 25 years experience applying experimental psychology and consumer research methods in industrial, academic and real-world settings.
Questions I can offer approaches to answer:
- How to capture attention and increase product sales on-shelf
- How to determine what consumers 'want' (even if they don't know it)
- How to design and evaluate new products/services/experiences that resonate emotionally with consumers and test cheaply and quickly
- How to manage stress and stimulate optimal performance, high productivity and mental wellbeing
- How to use digital and virtual technologies effectively for consumer data collection, design, behavioural change (including VR and AI)
In over 20 years experience working in a global, world-leading FMCG R&D facility I developed and applied Consumer Research Methods across a diverse array of projects contributing directly to innovations that had real impact in the market place. I have patents on product designs that are commonly seen across the world and a mainstay in consumer homes!
Principle applications to which I can offer expertise:
- Consumer perceptions and judgements measures pertaining to products (existing and novel concepts) - probing 'what consumers cannot tell us' as well
as what they can using techniques from experimental psychology, prior examples including:
- What captures attention on-shelf in packaging design?
- Psychophysics of product cues differentiation (what is the threshold for perception of stimulus attributes in product design)
- Expectations of product experience and what 'satisfies' or 'delights' the consumer
- Experience design - fundamental aspects of consumer experience based on perceptions, emotion and behavioural responses to tailored environments, products and services:
- Using principles from psychology, neuroscience and design thinking to construct new 'experiences' such as scenarios that stimulate consumer
engagement and motivate behaviours, including using Virtual Reality designed-environments coupled with experimental methods to measure impact
- Optimal performance and stress management - how to foster productivity and build resilience through task-focused attention:
- Principles from psychology and cognitive neuroscience employed to help individuals and organisations 'switch off' distraction from habitual thought patterns and manage stress-load by focusing on relevant environmental cues
- Incorporating metrics of attention and cognition, and tailored scenarios (such as may be simulated in VR)
Specialisms:
In more detail:
Please get in touch to find out more:
David Gallagher
cognitvexplorer@gmail.com
Tel. 07772706807
Questions I can offer approaches to answer:
- How to capture attention and increase product sales on-shelf
- How to determine what consumers 'want' (even if they don't know it)
- How to design and evaluate new products/services/experiences that resonate emotionally with consumers and test cheaply and quickly
- How to manage stress and stimulate optimal performance, high productivity and mental wellbeing
- How to use digital and virtual technologies effectively for consumer data collection, design, behavioural change (including VR and AI)
In over 20 years experience working in a global, world-leading FMCG R&D facility I developed and applied Consumer Research Methods across a diverse array of projects contributing directly to innovations that had real impact in the market place. I have patents on product designs that are commonly seen across the world and a mainstay in consumer homes!
Principle applications to which I can offer expertise:
- Consumer perceptions and judgements measures pertaining to products (existing and novel concepts) - probing 'what consumers cannot tell us' as well
as what they can using techniques from experimental psychology, prior examples including:
- What captures attention on-shelf in packaging design?
- Psychophysics of product cues differentiation (what is the threshold for perception of stimulus attributes in product design)
- Expectations of product experience and what 'satisfies' or 'delights' the consumer
- Experience design - fundamental aspects of consumer experience based on perceptions, emotion and behavioural responses to tailored environments, products and services:
- Using principles from psychology, neuroscience and design thinking to construct new 'experiences' such as scenarios that stimulate consumer
engagement and motivate behaviours, including using Virtual Reality designed-environments coupled with experimental methods to measure impact
- Optimal performance and stress management - how to foster productivity and build resilience through task-focused attention:
- Principles from psychology and cognitive neuroscience employed to help individuals and organisations 'switch off' distraction from habitual thought patterns and manage stress-load by focusing on relevant environmental cues
- Incorporating metrics of attention and cognition, and tailored scenarios (such as may be simulated in VR)
Specialisms:
- Experimental psychology research methods: cognitive task design and analysis; bespoke methods fit for question; attentional measures, cognitive performance metrics
- Neurocognitive indicators of task performance
- Affective state measures (eg. Valence-Arousal)
- Neurophysiological indices of optimal performance
- Mixed consumer methods pertaining to experience design
- Partnership network building (academic, industrial) including forging links and funding applications – interdisciplinary, inter-organisational
- Communication of insights: speaking engagements to diverse audiences (academic, corporate, public)
- Science and translational writing – consumer engagement, optimal performance, experience design
- Literature reviews
- Stimulus production (multimedia including VR)
In more detail:
- Experience design
- How can consumer product experiences be improved with an understanding of fundamental perception, emotion and behavioural responses?
- By using techniques, principles and data-capture methods from experimental psychology, we can understand more about what drives the consumer (consciously and unconsciously) - capturing attention and motivating him/her to pick up the product off the shelf, or inspiring new behaviours, changes of habits (taking the decision to try a new activity or travel to a new destination, in the context of tourism and adventure activities for instance). I have applied such an approach in diverse contexts, including in design of a market leading (and extremely well known) consumer laundry product (chances are you could well have this in your kitchen already!), and in the tourism arena, to design new experiences that offer potential for personal growth through adventure travel (working with a leading university business school on their tourism course).
- Virtual Reality and digital technology applications for increased engagement in product experiences
- The Digital Revolution is well underway! Modern life is experienced through an 'augmented' digital lens where the boundary between real and virtual is blurred. To what extent does your business consider how to synthesise the digital experience with the 'real' service you offer?
- By incorporating virtual/digital technologies with consumer research methods, and the latest in cognitive neuroscience techniques and data capture, an exciting new world opens up and aligns with future direction. The consumer of this future will experience a blended reality in which virtual content is seamlessly integrated with the real world, and real time feedback from perception and behaviour will be facilitated into that experience via ongoing data capture from the individual. How is this occuring? We already know how the likes of Facebook are capturing our every move, decision, attention and behaviour online, then tailoring the content we view based on this behavioural signature. To be ahead of the curve is to embrace the latest methods using virtual and augmented reality, to use these tools to explore how your product/service can be enhanced with measurable impact on the consumer experience. I offer an approach that looks to remodel your service using VR coupled with cutting edge 'neurocognitive' metrics to 'lean prototype' novel iterations of product innovation. Cost and time effective, this can offer a steer to consumer data-driven innovation without the complexity and longer-term investment demanded by traditional product development processes. I am working with design agencies and leading academic institutions to stay ahead of the curve in this arena, designing environments and experiences with high profile clients, whilst keeping abreast of the evolving and exciting space that leads the way in VR-enabled neuroscience (and neuro-enabled VR!).
- Artificial Intelligence for consumer engagement and rapport building
- Are you a bot? Do we know who we are talking to anymore? Does it matter? What is the best mode of communication between a customer and a brand?
- It is all a matter of emotional engagement. As AI researchers have long sought to establish (such as in the Turing Test), if the consumer is unable to distinguish between a human and a 'bot' in a dialogue then the question is immaterial. Once the 'rules of engagement' are established, the template is set for effective communication, building trust and rapport and building that relationship between brand and client/consumer. Considerable research has blended consume research / experimental psychology methods with AI to increasingly set this template of interaction that builds an impactful system, paves the way for automation and high throughput with costs savings - and a formula for success!
- I offer insight and methods into building this effective 'system for interaction'. I have worked in the interface between industry and academia on the latest developments in methods and systems, including applications in real world contexts with big name funders tackling socially relevant challenges on a grand scale seeking to change lives in impoverished regions. This was done by synthesising research methods and insights with technology based solutions to create new modes of interaction between grass roots consumers and retailers in Africa offering health solutions and education facilitated through artificial intelligence.
- General consumer research methods for capturing data insights and product innovation
- Tried and tested (mixed) methods toolbox available based on 20+ years working in global consumer goods company across diverse markets.
- Includes focus on developing markets, data capture in more remote regions, using both controlled (small scale/constrained local samples) and real world contexts (field-based, demographics specific to regions and across comparative regions). Mixing experimental and ‘traditional’ approaches, including online (cost effective, broad reach) and in-market face-to-face (real consumers in situ) scenarios.
- Example areas of focus including: product design cues and benefits impacting on consumer decision-making, shelf standout, ergonomics of product handling, perceived benefits, novel concept evaluation, effort and workload management, sensory psychophysics (noticeability of benefits and cues), product expectations and satisfaction
Please get in touch to find out more:
David Gallagher
cognitvexplorer@gmail.com
Tel. 07772706807