RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

who study your customers' brains

best practices are
not always the
best practice

There’s a lot that’s been written about the “best practices” approach to research. But that means you’re starting with a built-in bias around what the “right” answer is. One thing that’s clear from our research is that the right answer is often the most counterintuitive answer. Starting with an ideal of what a best practice is will skew that perspective.
Best practices also are inherently “lagging practices.” It can take years to identify something as a best practice, and by that time, it’s a common practice. Best practices also suffer from being inherently company-centric and regional. Decision Science, on the other hand, is completely focused on the buyers and their behavior. It’s also timeless and globally applicable.

Like a true science lab, Smart Branding Expert uses a variety of tools to test hypotheses. These ongoing research studies are meant to either confirm or debunk conventional wisdom and the industry’s so-called “best practices.”
Sometimes the research results confirm what was expected. Other times, the results are completely counterintuitive. But in every case, all of Smart Branding Expert’ training and consulting solutions are guided by rigorous research, neuroscience, and Decision Science principles.

our research methodology

our research methodology

Like a true science lab, Smart Branding Expert uses a variety of tools to test hypotheses. These ongoing research studies are meant to either confirm or debunk conventional wisdom and the industry’s so-called “best practices.”
Sometimes the research results confirm what was expected. Other times, the results are completely counterintuitive. But in every case, all of Smart Branding Expert’ training and consulting solutions are guided by rigorous research, neuroscience, and Decision Science principles.

Framework Thinking ® Technology

To help you understand Framework Thinking ®, we have broken the process into five phases or modes, which are: 1. Empathize, 2. Define, 3. Ideate, 4. Prototype, and 5. Test. What's special about Framework Thinking is that Frameworkers' work processes can help us systematically extract, teach, learn, and apply these human-centered techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way – in our businesses and in our lives. Just to offer you an example, the great artist Auguste Rodin, who created the famous sculpture called "The Thinker" and originally "Le Penseur", would most likely have used the very same innovative processes in his artwork. In the same way, all great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practiced it and still practice it.

Most academic research is, well, academic. Researchers tend to study the most readily available subjects, which might include graduate students, gamblers, and convicts. But what’s the use of doing B2B and B2C research if you’re not tapping a B2B and B2C research subject pool?
That’s why our research studies report on simulations conducted with actual businesspeople, including executive buyers. Which means all of our solutions are based on the buying motivations of B2B and B2C decision-makers.

B2B and B2C Simulation

B2B and B2C Simulation

Most academic research is, well, academic. Researchers tend to study the most readily available subjects, which might include graduate students, gamblers, and convicts. But what’s the use of doing B2B and B2C research if you’re not tapping a B2B and B2C research subject pool?
That’s why our research studies report on simulations conducted with actual businesspeople, including executive buyers. Which means all of our solutions are based on the buying motivations of B2B and B2C decision-makers.

industry surveys

Although Smart Branding Expert uses some industry surveys in our research, we don’t rely on those surveys to generate results. Surveys are simply one window into the customer’s current thinking. In fact, there’s often a gap between what people say they believe (“declared preferences”) and what they actually do (“revealed preferences”).
Within that gap is where some of the most startling, counterintuitive results originate—and that’s what our scientific research and simulations aim to uncover.