They are often compared to qualitative techniques, but they do not operate in the same way. Where most qualitative approaches inventory and extract material to analyze it, creative techniques short-circuit this analysis. On the consumer side, where we urge them to express their thoughts and feelings using qualitative approaches, we will ask them to let go of reality with specific approaches.
Thus, both on the professional and consumer side, the pure qualitative and creative exercises are quite different in nature. This vision is not unanimous, especially among the most traditional qualitativists, who consider that a projective exercise alone reveals creative avenues.
Letting go of reality is an exercise that is just as delicate for the professional as it is for the consumer. A number of steps are necessary during the creative process. We're going through what can be considered the long version of the process.
Impregnation: the inspiration stage
The marketer sensed an opportunity, without having a precise marketing response. For the creative exercise, he will have to, without saying too much, suggest the universe he wishes to work with, through an atmosphere, an environment, an occasion of consumption. Without intellectualizing the anticipated need of the consumer, we will seek in some way to put the consumer participating in the creative group in a certain state of mind and to make them aware of a particular atmosphere. We are of course not guiding him towards this or that path. Only atmospheres. Readings, visuals, films, sound clips, everything that can awaken the consumer's senses around a certain atmosphere will be mobilized. This impregnation “material” can be transmitted before the group session or during it if the format allows it. It all depends on whether we expect a form of maturation from this impregnation or an instantaneous impact.
The break with reality: the stage of discovery of others and oneself.
The mental creative process often clashes with the references that each of us has with our daily lives and with our own modes of reasoning. It’s a bit like taking the same route every day and being abruptly ordered to be “creative” in your direction. The rupture test is not trivial. A truly creative exercise can be carried out if the participants manage to free themselves from what will hinder imagination: purely rational reflexes, logic, habits but also inhibition and the fear of being judged. The break with reality phase consists of a series of collective exercises. The objective is simple: let go, relax, have fun, feel good among this community of consumers who will have to work together during the session. This is a delicate phase for the professional facilitator because he must ensure that everyone plays the game, “lets go”, without feeling observed. The location is therefore also important and must offer comfort, light and isolation. Note that if the approach concerns the same employees of a company (within the perspective of creativity around a corporate project), the hierarchical relationships of the participants can constitute an obstacle to the break with reality. But successful, this break with reality will open the door to a tremendous burst of ideas.
Divergence: the playful stage of gushing
The professional will then ask everyone to offer feelings, impressions, or even ideas on the subject in question (which is directly linked to the impregnation material that may have been given to them). These thoughts should not be argued/rationalized, simply “expressed” as spontaneously as possible. Basic rules of decorum prevail: we do not interrupt, we do not criticize, we do not comment, at most: we encourage our neighbors. During different creative exercises, everyone expresses their little ideas, which take shape little by little. These exercises are numerous and led by the facilitator: collage, painting, DIY, mental construction, dream, story, narrated embodiment, etc., the range to allow individuals in the group or subgroups to express themselves is without any other limit than the agility and culture of the facilitator.
Emergence: the moment of light
During the divergence phase, a significant part of what is said and shown by consumers comes from trial and error, but at some point, the facilitator must be able to spot what Guy Aznar calls emergence, that is to say the moment when individuals manage to really be in tune with the exercise and to express real creative ideas. This is naturally an assessment which may appear biased, but which could be summed up by this thought from the facilitator "I think we are starting to have excellent ideas". A feeling that the host of course keeps to himself. The talent of the facilitator then consists of keeping the group as long as possible in this state of fertility and of expressing whatever creative ideas the group can deliver. We are nevertheless still in a state of divergence, we are not yet rationalizing. Once the material obtained seems sufficiently rich, the time has come to return to reality.
Convergence: the studious stage
Back to realities and the company brief. It is then a matter of structuring your ideas and bringing them closer to the client's problem. To order them by category, and try to prioritize them, to leave some aside. In other words, to encourage the group to put them through the sieve of reason. These structured and duly selected ideas will be able to be described in the form of insights and “concepts”. It is this material that will be returned to the marketer so that he can rework on it himself. It is at this stage of concept writing that the participants will have to write a posteriori the insights corresponding to the offer they have imagined.
This entire session generally lasts two days. Two extremely busy days. We will have asked a lot of consumers and the presenter. It is in a theatrical and sporting sense a real performance for everyone. A gripping and memorable experience.
In most cases, the marketer is present. He is the problem owner, that is to say the one who evaluates during the creative process whether we remain within the framework of the objectives he has given himself. This is a difficult position to maintain, because the temptation is sometimes great to intervene directly to ask the consumer for clarification on what he means by this or that idea, to reject certain ideas at the moment they are expressed. And that would be a fundamental error, because it would disrupt the delicate creative balance. It is always thanks to a discreet dialogue with the facilitator that any orientation instructions are given. Everyone has their own job
The outputs
Given the rational nature of these outputs, it is in the convergence phase that they are produced and not in the divergence phase (where insight would restrict rather than encourage creativity).
For the marketer who really plays the game, it is an inexhaustible source of inspiration, from which he will often draw some innovative products or services which will establish his reputation as a visionary in the company. Many great commercial successes have come from this type of approach. It is nevertheless recommended to evaluate the power of the insights generated (see insight tracker) as well as the associated consumer profiles, because the creative exercise cannot help evaluate the volume of the corresponding market.