Consumer Shopping Habits for Wellness and Environmentally ...

In total, we spoke with 33 consumers through two formats, those being combined In-Home and
Shop-and-Talk Interviews, and Ethnographic Research Groups, both of which are detailed below.
IN-HOME INTERVIEWS AND SHOP AND TALK TOURS (15 PARTICIPANTS)
There are many things that people seldom talk about (at least not openly), or that only manifest
themselves after intense discussion, particularly matters of habit that are rarely reflected upon. For
this reason, we carry out in-depth interviews in consumers‘ homes where a trained ethnographer
talks with a consumer in detail using a discussion guide. The interviewer gives the participant enough
space to express his/her opinions and leads the discussion flexibly along pre-structured topics and
by asking targeted follow-up questions and probes. Mutual trust between the interviewer and the
participant develops, which enables them to talk openly about difficult questions or ―hard to
remember‖ events and circumstances before proceeding to more targeted engagement techniques.
As part of these interviews, we conduct ―house tours‖ to explore pantries, medicine cabinets, etc.
These explorations help us to identify the common disconnect between what people say they do or
aspire to and what they actually do with respect to Health and Wellness. For example, we often meet
consumers who tell us they buy ―lots of organic‖ however, upon inspection of their pantry, we may
find few organic products.
Following In-Home Interviews, we accompanied consumers on Shop and Talk tours of relevant
retailers. These are anthropological on-site interviews undertaken within retailers wherein we ―tag
along,‖ as unobtrusively as possible and interview the consumer as s/he shops. We rely on this
technique as a means of exploring consumer retail experiences; to see a store through their eyes. In
this case we paid particular attention health and wellness cues and markers where they are present
in general merchandise, health, beauty and wellness categories, and just as importantly, where they
are absent. Unlike store intercepts, this method permits us to understand the retail experience from
entrance to exit within the context (established during the in-home interview) of the consumer‘s H+W
lifestyle.
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH GROUPS (3 GROUPS OF 6 CONSUMERS = 18 PARTICIPANTS)
In these Groups, consumers gather at a ―neutral‖ location such as a coffee house, restaurant or loft
space and are guided by a Hartman Group researcher through a conversation centered on their
involvement with H+W. Some of the participating consumers may know one another, but there are
also unknown individuals in the group, providing for an interview that is comfortable yet not subject to
the social dynamics of a close group of friends. Unlike focus groups, consumers at these groups are
relatively unencumbered by self-presentation bias.
PARTICIPANT SCREENING
The 33 qualitative participants for this study were screened for
Representation across all three Health and Wellness segments (Periphery, Mid-level,
Core), with the most (~60%) recruited from the Mid-level, some from Periphery (~25%),
and the smallest group from the (~15%) from the Core
Age (22-59)
Diversity across race/ethnicity, age, gender (but no more than 25% male)
Shopping patterns including specific retailers of interest
Mix of household incomes $40k+
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