The biggest threat to the validity of an answer is the question. Avoiding or reducing the number of questions is a good way to enhance the validity of consumer research. This technique is perfectly in line with the fundamentals of qualitative interview techniques: Don’t ask leading questions.

1. Connecting Statements: Getting Answers without Asking Questions
-Dr.Dirk Lorré and Benoit Gaillard.
The biggest threat to the validity of an answer is the question. Avoiding or reducing the
number of questions is a good way to enhance the validity of consumer research. This
technique is perfectly in line with the fundamentals of qualitative interview techniques:
Don’t ask leading questions.
What are leading questions?
Let’s start with the 5W questions:Who, What, Where, Whenand Why. Although an efficient
method to structure research data, these are not the most appropriate questions to ask
directly to consumers. Especially the “Why” question it is an open invitation to consumers
to lie. Typically, human beings are not the best at consciously explaining their own
behaviour. When you ask “Why?” you ask people to justify their own behaviour. Most
respondents are prone then to give you the most socially acceptable answer.This is the
rationale behind qualitative interviewing 101: Never ask why.
The Whyquestion leads people towards social desirability. When you combine it with that
other popular research question: “Do you like it?” it further encourages a “please lie to
me”type of answer.Think about it,consumers are not stupid. If you ask the question, “Do you
like it?” they know the next question will be “Why?”.Examine the psychological
mechanismat play here: first you ask someone to position him/herself (Do you like it?) and
then to justify that position (Why?). Because people tend to like what they know and what is
already accepted in society, they find it easy to justify and explain it. And the result of this
way of questioning for our industry is dramatic: we kill beautiful ideas before they are born.
“Do you like it? Why?”– The brutal and effective innovation killer!
So how can you avoid a situation like this? In our research we use another type of
questioning methodology that focuses on relevance rather than preference. We engage in
and apply a different type of stimuli: The Connecting Statements.
Working with Relevance
Instead of asking questions like “Do you like it?” and “Why?”, we run group discussions using
questions such as“Is this interesting?” We are asking for relevance. There are many variants
you can use to probe interest: “Is this about you?”, “Would you like to know more about
it?”, and so on. What level of differentiation does this offer from the “Do you like it”
question?
Try this experimentwith your friends. Ask some of them “Do you like China?” and ask the
others “Do you find China interesting?”. If you want to have the full list of stereotypes
(negative or positive) about China just start with “Do you like China?”. On the other hand, if
you want to see how China triggers a mixture of curiosity and fearwith a lot of people, try
the interest question.
A group discussion run on relevance tends to have different social dynamics. People are less
tempted to judge, and instead seek to explore more. What is important is not the “yes” or
“no” of the answer, but the body language and the ease withwhich they can comment on
the stimulus and relate it to their own life.

2. The beauty of the Internet is that you do not need to ask “Are you interested?”. A simple
click is the consumer behaviour expressing initial interest. This feature of the Internetcan be
used to research and select connecting statements; we will explain this in more detail later.
Working with Connecting Statements
In addition to a leading question the way we present the object of our research can be
leading as well. Let’s take an example of financial planning. We may ask the question, “Do
you undertake financial planning?” The fact that we isolated and“decontextualised” the
object, i.e.“financial planning”, makes the question even more leading. Various respondents
will have different conceptions of “financial planning” and the answers will reflect this
diversity of views. But most of them will think, “Financial planning” sounds like something
serious; I better answer: “Yes, I do indulge in it”. The problem here is that “financial
planning” is a concept in the mindof a banker, not necessarily common in the mind of the
client. To research it, we have to find out how financial planning is conceptualized in a
consumer’s mind. Aconcept exists in the mind of the beholder. In our questioning, we lead
consumers to our own concept of the world around us and are blinded by our own
interpretation.
To get over this, we need a 2-way communication process that will help create mutual
understanding. So we need to talk to the banker first.
We will ask the banker not to explain how he sees financial planning but how he thinks he
can interest his customer. This may seem like a difficult exercise, but it can be very beneficial
for the banker. If he thinks there is a need for financial planning, if he has customer insights,
it should be possible to trigger that insight by stating a simple sentence conveying an idea.
This is a connecting statement: the most simple sentence that triggers the interest for what
you are selling in the mind of the consumer. This is the concept pick up line!
So we invite the banker, our client, for a brainstorm about:
“How do you make someone consider a financial planning service?”
Maybe we have to refer to the stock market going down (and your savings
evaporating)
Maybe we have to dwell on the idea of outliving your savings
Maybe we have to consider the cost of retirement
Maybe we have to refer to the number, the sum of assets, people think they need to
feel secure in the future
May be….
Using Connecting Statements in Google Ads
The result of this brainstorm is a set of connecting statements we present to our target
customers in a group discussion with the simple question: “Is this interesting to you?”
This is a proven way to avoid asking leading questions weprovide all types of possible
answers and we check which one connects best with our target audience.
The same way that you use connecting statements in a group discussion, youcan also use
them effectively in Google ads. To determine who will see the ads, we select a set of

3. keywords related to our field of research: financial planning, retirement, saving money,
investing, etc.
Fig. 1: shows how an ad might look to a surfer…
Table 1: Shortened list of connecting statements, their CTR, and number of impressions
Connector Connector CRT Imprs
How much do you need to live comfortably
What is your number? the rest of your life? 1,40% 45353
How much do you need to live comfortably
Calculate your number the rest of your life? 1,02% 2741
Does it impact your plans? Learn about your
Stock market is down Number 0,89% 27863
Is money enough to stop working? Downshift
Planning retirement for better lifestyle 0,74% 945
How much is my net Calculate your Number to safely plan the rest
worth? of your life 0,57% 7740
Do you expect Family is always here to support. Plan the
inheritance? rest of your life 0,56% 6473
Planning retirement beyond money? Time
Downshift for better life for you? Time to do what? 0,55% 542
How much is my net I count my friends, not my money. Plan for
worth? the rest of your life 0,53% 1522

4. Calculate how much you need to live
How much is rich? comfortably the rest of your life 0,50% 801
Who will take care of you if you have to take
Cost of elderly care? care of your parents? 0,48% 2078
You may grow older than you expect to live.
Outlive your savings? Plan the rest of your life. 0,47% 6114
Planning retirement is all about me. How
Me, me, me ... much do you need for the rest of your life? 0,33% 600
I know I will have to take care of my parents.
Cost of elderly care? Plan the rest of your life 0,27% 1130
Can money buy Beyond financial planning. What do you need
happiness? for the rest of your life? 0,26% 387
Lifestyle defines life expectancy. Learn about
Outlive your savings? your Number 0,24% 1667
In this case the connecting statement about the number seems to get maximuminterest
from surfers. In the case of connecting statements as Google ads, we get answers without
having to ask questions.The click through rate (CTR) is a very valid vote with afinger clicking
the ad.
Whether it is a group discussion or ads on the Internet, the principle is the same: create
many possible answers in order to avoid asking leading questions. The difference is that we
can switch from the laboratory setup (the group discussion) to an in vivo, in system type of
experiment online.
Making Connections that Go Beyond Mere Concepts to Create Meaningful Dialog
But finding connections with customers is not an end in itself. With the information about
the interest generated by the different connecting statements we go back to the client to
rethink, to hypothesize, to make the connecting statements more relevant, and to create full
concepts based on them.
At the end of this iterative process there is a lot of insightcreated; not on paper, but in the
mindof the client. We can use these insights to create full connecting concepts. What we
aim to do is to help clients understand their customer, and help consumers to better
understand the concepts that they are being offered.
In everyday life situations, we call this a dialog: the best way to get answers without
questions. And creating a dialog between marketer and consumer is what marketing
research is all about. That is when communication becomes effective, useful and generates
results.