While nearly every participant is willing to answer our questions in market research, very few actually share what’s really happening inside their minds. By leveraging insights from the field of narrative psychology, Kristian A. Alomá, PhD, an academic and practitioner in the field, will demonstrate how consumers really think about brands and the role narratives play in that thought process. He’ll break down what that means for businesses and market researchers and how we can move past surface-level answers and get to the rich stories driving consumer behavior. This presentation is part of the Story Time: Narrative Research forum event, hosted and produced by the Irrational Agency and NewMR, bringing together leading proponents of commercial narrative research across disciplines, to share how organisations can use story to generate unique and impactful insights. To listen to the presentation and access the recording, visit NewMR.org/Play-Again.

1. Uncovering Consumers’ Hidden Narratives
Presented by Kristian A Alomá, PhD, Founder & CEO at Threadline

3. Relationship Identity

4. Relationship Identity
Inclusion of the Other
into the Self

7. People make sense of brands through
stories that feature them.

8. Jobs-To-Be-Done

9. Stories-To-Be-Told

10. Narrative Economy

11. Traditional Research
• Interrogates for Answers
• Asks for Predictions
• Pushes for Explanations

12. Narrative Psychology reveals how people use
narrative structure to make sense of themselves
and the world around them.

13. We do things that make
sense based on the
narratives we create.
We create narratives that
make sense of the things we
do.

14. Narrative Research
• Elicits Stories
• Transcends the Artificial
• Reveals Relationships

15. From Interrogating Questions to
Narrative Prompts

17. “Why did you book an Airbnb?”
“Airbnbs are cheap, are often
just as conveniently located as
hotels, and have more
amenities in the home itself.”

18. “Tell me the story of your last
Airbnb booking.”
“Airbnbs allow you to feel more
immersed in the culture. Travel
is about getting away, but
hotels sanitize the experience
so you feel like you could be
anywhere.”

20. “What did you get from using
an online platform instead of
doing it the traditional way?”
“We couldn’t travel because of
the pandemic and needed a
way to share the news of her
passing.”

21. “Tell me how your story about
LifeWeb 360 compares to the
first story about what it means
to mourn someone.”
“Wakes and memorials are for
the rest of us. To share stories,
to cry together, to laugh
together. I needed a way to
bring her community together
no matter how far away they
were.”

22. HERO GOAL ACTION EMOTION

23. “If you want to know me, then you must know
my story, for my story defines who I am.”
Dan McAdams, PhD