Laddering: Unlocking the Potential of Consumer Behavior

Chapter 6

Latticing

Finding the Overlap in Ladders

Deep inside us we’re not that different at all.

—Phil Collins

THE FOLLOWING BLOG post was written by Nicole Ovens, one of my colleagues at User Insight, in September 2012. It talks specifically about how social media has helped bridge the gap between individuals. It also supports the notion that we are driven by experiences and issues at our core and looks at how different forces of nurture and nature affect the way we live our lives.

It is just as important to look for these types of intersections, understand why they exist within your consumer groups, and assess how the different clusters interact and act at these intersections as it is to understand each individual cluster’s laddering. This post sums up the difference this latest round of disruptive technology has made to our lives:

We live in an amazing time—one during which social networking has brought attention to health issues that were [once] considered too insignificant to study. [Today’s online interaction has] provided support for those of us who once thought, “Wow, I am so different from everyone else I know.” This digital revolution increased awareness and identified a hidden demand surrounding a health issue that is near and dear to my life.

Thirty years ago, I was diagnosed with celiac disease. It took almost seven years (most of my life, to that point) to discover what was wrong with me. Misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis and invasive test after invasive test and ...