The Study
Acumen have worked with The Value Engineers for a number of years, collaborating on a wide range of market research studies, so we were delighted when they asked us to help on an international study for their client about PlayStation users.
The aim of the research was to ‘bring gamers to life’ with a multi-phase project which sought to identify specific types of PlayStation users, with a segmentation tool developed by The Value Engineers, before the second phase of the project where the participants would be interviewed and filmed in their homes.
The challenge of this project was that the client wanted the second phase of the project to take place in 5 international markets – Turkey, Poland, France, Spain and Italy – with all research completed within a short space of time. This presented logistical challenges for the team at Acumen who were responsible for finding and screening all participants to ensure they met the requirements of the segmentation tool and schedule all the in-home interviews across multiple countries and time zones.
Our Approach
As an established fieldwork agency Acumen have built up strong networks of suppliers in all of the markets required for this project and we worked collaboratively to cast as wide a net as possible to ensure we could find the exact types of participants needed. We also worked closely with the client, providing regular updates on how the recruitment and screening process were progressing. This meant that we were able to respond proactively to any changes in requirement or expand the search when potential participants fell out of the segmentation tool.
During the second stage of the project, when researchers were visiting participants in their home, the team at Acumen acted as a single point of contact, arranging the schedules of the researchers and providing in-field support to ensure all elements of the research were completed within the required timescales.
The Outcome
The Value Engineers were delighted with the content they were able to collect and collate through the second phase of this project and, following an evaluation of this project, have begun further development on their segmentation tool which will allow for it to be embedded in a way that will enable us to use it as part of our recruitment process when working with them. The findings from the research have also been reported back to the end client and shared internally. Initial feedback has been that the study enabled them to understand their customers in new and exciting ways.
