When you want to push beyond people’s stated rationale to understand the emotional drivers that actually shape behaviour; when you want to give people more space to talk through challenging ideas and hear how they connect them to their lives; when you need honest, unguarded reactions to propositions and messaging – free from the pressure respondents can feel from moderators or strangers.

Classic Applications:

• Kickstarting an innovation programme (i.e. Step 1 in KSBR Live)
• Assessing the offers in your market
• Understanding a new target audience segment
• Building starting points for messages

Respondents singly or (e.g. for joint purchase decisions) in pairs are briefed on how to work through what we call KSBR Conundrums: carefully structured concepts which present rhetorical questions, or both sides of an argument, all connected to decision making in your market. These are crafted by KSBR from detailed conversations with your stakeholders, then stress tested and optimised using AI. Respondents work through the materials to camera using their phone.

Because there’s no moderator, they do a lot of things that don’t normally happen in conventional qual; they can contradict themselves, they can ‘not know the answer’, they can change their minds; none of which people are inclined to do in public with strangers, but all of which characterise more natural and free-flowing conversations with friends.

Traditional market research methods like focus groups and ethnography remain essential – especially when it comes to validating ideas. Unmediated Listening is designed for a different but equally important job: getting the inputs right from the start, uncovering rich, unfiltered insight into particular audiences and building sharper, more resonant messages grounded in how people really think and talk.