Historically, market research methodologies have allowed us to better understand social problems. Censuses, for example, have been conducted by states since the time of the Ancient Egyptians, to gain more information about the population and to support governments in public policy planning. Over time, many market research methodologies have also been used to comprehend important social, physical, and environmental factors that affect our society.
The rapid evolution of technology has drastically changed the way research is conducted – it has provided numerous options for new methodologies. The introduction of new tools such as data collection via smartphones, artificial intelligence, and machine learning have all improved how researchers solve problems.
Gathering real-time photos, along with consumer data, is one such tool.
With the power of geolocation technology in mobile devices, it is now possible to conduct research via smartphones and collect images to get insights into people’s behavior. Doing so can provide great information for analysis and can help researchers get unique insights into people´s everyday rituals, consumption habits, and attitudes.
And the best part?
This technology is now being used to study complex problems regarding our society. One such problem is food wastage in Brazil.
The Social Problem
Food waste in Brazil has severe social and economic implications. This is compounded by the fact that Brazil isn’t yet a developed country. This means that a fraction of the population still lives in poverty. To fully understand this problem, Embrapa, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, together with FGV, a Brazilian higher education institution, conducted a study to analyze food waste habits in Brazil as well as its implications. This study was supported by MindMiners, a technology company focused on digital solutions for market research.
The Tools Used
- 62 face-to-face qualitative interviews in supermarkets and open markets, across 9 different locations in São Paulo
- A survey to investigate the most important variable on people’s eating habits and their perception and practices concerning food waste
However, conducting a survey about food wastage posed two problems:
- Ensuring participants tell the truth about a sensitive topic such as food waste
- Making participants feel comfortable, be honest and share their opinion and real habits
The solution to these problems was simple: collecting real-time photos along with quantitative data.
The Understanding Generated
Our tools allowed us to understand how:
- Brazilians prioritize taste when buying food
- The Brazilian mindset that having a surplus and stocking food is better than taking the risk of running out of food
- Abundance isn’t noticed as an excess
- People recognize the waste of food only when it comes to other peoples’ habits and attitudes.
Consequently, we concluded that a typical Brazilian wastes 40 kg of food per year.
Other Applications of Collecting Real-time Photos
The issues of openness and honesty in research span many areas outside of food wastage. In the following cases real-time photos can help solve these issues:
- Diet: sending pictures of their refrigerators to analyze food habits and consumption to understand poor eating habits
- Values: using photo collection to answer questions like: “what kind of image represent peace for you?” and “what kind of image represent happiness?”
So next time you’re conducting research on sensitive topics, where eliciting truths could be problematic, consider using real-time photos to help increase your understanding.
