Interview with Florence Hussenot (Founder and CEO of Adwise).
Courtesy of The Media Leader
It's a mistake to think that the world is in crisis.
It's not a question of resolving 'a crisis' so that everything goes back to the way it was before; the world is changing and it won't go back to the way it was before. And tackling these changes head-on requires the world of (qualitative) research to change its perspective and identify where the battle needs to be fought.
The trend today is to focus on data collection and technology, but that's not the only battle. Of course, we need to broaden the sources of information and take advantage of the fact that social networks and open source data are enriching the declarative; but in a complex world where individuals are torn by contradictory injunctions, the battle is being fought in the ability to take a step back in the analysis and grasp the plurality of impact factors.
Integrating foresight methods to give insight a new lease of life
New behaviours mean that we need to look higher in order to understand, to go back and forth between the power of reality and the power of imagination in order to put them into perspective and give new strength to insights. We need to look beyond the data, and analyse the Information as a whole to focus on the individual as a whole, and not just the consumer.
That's why our data collection is multi-faceted: declarative, observation, monitoring, listening to social networks. And our analysis takes into account the socio-cultural dynamics that enable us to identify what is in the past and what will be significant in the future. Our overall approach is to integrate all this information, as foresight methods do, to weave together meaning.
Adopting a Life-Centric approach and drawing on imaginary worlds
We strive to take a life-centric (and not just a consumer-centric) approach, based on a systemic understanding of individuals (their life system, their values and aspirations, and their behaviour in a broader sense). But to go further and realign reality with aspirations and behaviours, we mobilise the imaginary. Imagination is a vector of meaning AND a powerful force: it changes the way we represent ourselves and the way we behave. They help us to build tomorrow's offerings, which in turn will shape tomorrow's behaviour, particularly in the food sector.
The case La Vie illustrates our approach
In this way, we support the brand La Vie (plant-based alternatives to pork) to reinvent itself, on the one hand by analysing aspirations and practices from a broader perspective, in order to develop innovation platforms targeting the entire mix (products, packs, prices, processes, partnerships, etc.) today. We have participated in the development of 12 innovation platforms, 30 concepts and 20 products; and secondly by initiating the creation of future generations of products based on imaginary worlds, i.e. offering a new narrative, new objects, new functions and new experiences.
Article co-written with Florence HUSSENOT and Sylvie LE TADIC - ADWISE
