Roleplay - Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre

Step-by-Step

On one hand, you can carry out the roleplay method in the classic way by taking the perspective of your target group. On the other hand, you can also present your idea, an experience or your product to the users and analyze their reactions to it.

1. First conduct the roleplay internally among the project members. This can give you access to your target group's point of view.

2. Decide which idea you want to implement in the roleplay, e.g. a situation in which the product is used; e.g. how a person reacts to a certain service. Assign appropriate roles to team members.

3. Take about 30 minutes to immerse yourself in the assigned role. The more background information you have about each role, the better you will be able to get into character. Perform the play and change roles in between. Use props and costumes to make the role play more authentic.

4. Note down conspicuous behavior of the actors. A video recording facilitates the analysis afterwards.

5. Analyze your own reactions from your role play.

6. As an alternative to a classic role play, in which you take on the perspective of the users, you can also integrate your target group directly into the method. For this purpose, record a radio play in which the respective situation is described from the target group's point of view.

7. Play this radio play to people in your target group. At the same time, ask them to write down their thoughts on the situation.

8. After you have performed the radio play, analyze the reactions and notes of your users. Use these findings for the further development of your product/service.

More about the tool

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

If the target group is very different from the project team, the role play can help with generating ideas to better address the needs of the target group.
This procedure is suitable for informing potential participants about the project without obligation, for establishing contacts, for exchanging ideas and for identifying initial attitudes towards the project.

Disadvantages:

It can be time-consuming to get into the given roles and present them. It is therefore important to take this time for preparation and also to make use of necessary props.
Social desirability effects could cause a bias in the results.
If the target group is not included in the play and the project leaders differ greatly from them, the situation may not be presented appropriately. This can consequently lead to false findings.

Application into practice

Promoting civic engagement and cooperation - that is the goal of the "Fall Management with Civic Engagement" sub-project in münster.land.leben. Senior citizens or people with disabilities in particular are at risk of domestic falls after which they are unable to get themselves up again. This scenario is used as an example case for civic engagement. Those responsible for the project wanted to investigate the extent to which domestic falls are a relevant issue for the population and the ways in which they can be responded to. Options for this would be, for example, to provide technical assistance, to organize volunteer personal helpers, or to form neighborhood associations for mutual support. The initial aim was to make the potential target groups aware of the project and at the same time to investigate their reaction to such a project. For this purpose, the roleplay method in the form of a radio play was chosen. In order to make citizens aware of the project, the project team played pre-recorded short radio plays in the Münsterland region, which dealt with the topic of "falls in one's own home". These short radio plays were about people who act as emergency helpers in the immediate vicinity and rush to help a person who fell, and about people who are in the same situation as the person who fell and are waiting for someone to help them. While the radio plays were being played, the citizens were able to write down their thoughts on printed mind bubbles. Afterwards, they were asked to answer a number of questions and thus actively engage with what they had heard. The thoughts, notes and answers were then analyzed by those responsible of the project and used for further implementation of the project.

Hints from practice

If you have the opportunity to include your target group in the role play, this will increase the quality of your insights.
Getting to know each other and loosening up exercises can be helpful to build trust in the group for the role play.
The more information you have gained about the target group through other methods, the better the actors can empathize with the role.

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