ABSTRACT
As companies are becoming ever more capable of providing exactly the right new product or service for their customers’ expressed desires, the big question is, how can you find out what is it that they actually want? It is clearly apparent that, through the use of the sophisticated technologies now available, we can today really at last begin to configure products that specifically match user requirements, but how can we accurately identify these? With the wealth of product choice now available to consumers, whether retail or business based, with the vast array of overlapping brand propositions being offered and with the exponentially increasing variety of enabling technologies accessible by all, how can firms find out what it is that will prompt a shopper to become a customer? How can companies identify the unique user needs so that they can then create or configure the product to meet them? The answer is that several leading firms are now moving beyond traditional techniques to address attitudes and not demographics. User-centred design has prompted the development of user-preference based research and, through the use of new approaches from the worlds of psychology and behavioural science, targeting customers’ underlying attitudes, values and even beliefs is now being recognized as a key focus for increased innovation.
