Hammerson - Understanding shoppers through Ethnographic Research and Insight

Client lead: winning the new business, project scoping, and planning of the ethnographic research and insight programme for Hammerson. Hammerson was keen to understand more about shoppers at The Oracle shopping centre – their wants, needs and frustrations. The goal was to immerse stakeholders in the shopping centre journey and experience from the shoppers’ eye, and inform idea creation for future strategic planning on basics and experience development. Getting into the shopping mindset of key customer segments, we deployed Household's bespoke online research tool, emotiveye™ to research customers first hand and capture their experiences in real-time. Recruiting our target shoppers at The Oracle, we created assignments for them to evaluate their experience, and tell us how it really was. Our shoppers took photos and uploaded comments throughout their trip, building a rich picture of the highs and lows of the overall experience. Key differences between shopper segments emerged, including insights that families were the most interested in services and would choose a retailer based on the quality of family-friendly facilities offered. We shared insights, market analysis and global best practice innovation to inspire working sessions with mixed teams of Unilever experts. We facilitated group teams over a number of days, to build soft ice cream products, services and experiences for in and out of the home informed by both the customer and retailer. Led by Household, the stakeholder teams co-created future experience roadmaps for the defined propositions to win with customers and drive commercial value. To dive deeper we accompanied shop-a-longs with key stakeholders. Through the rich ethnographic data we captured, we used these insights to develop a customer journey map to chart peak and pain points, and develop ideas to inform Hammerson’s planning priorities for evolving the experience and creating value for both shoppers and the business.