This is a three-part, disguised case series.

In June 2009, Diana Zanzi was hired by Ventoso Ship Supply, an Italian sailboat manufacturer, to help them understand their boats’ puzzling selling patterns. Zanzi was informed that sales rates for two higher-end boat models were especially odd. Despite one’s superior technical specifications, speed, amenities, and overall value-for-money, their higher end models were hard to sell. However, a lower-quality boat was sold at an astonishing rate. Existing survey work conducted by the company only served to confirm the rational assumption that customers generally preferred more technically advanced sailboats; as such, the survey would not solve the mystery. Tasked with solving this mystery, Zanzi was given the contact information for Ventoso’s roster of potential customers and asked to conduct her own interviews to discover what could possibly explain customers’ preferences when acquiring sailboats. Zanzi was told that consumers may not be consciously aware of how they choose sailboats, and so she needed to figure out a good method to understand these unconscious preferences.

In part B of the series, the reader is introduced to the multisensory interview methodology that Zanzi developed to interview Ventoso’s customers and uncover their unconscious sailboat preferences. The reader is asked to consider how useful this interview technique is compared to other popular customer research methods. Can we use surveys or focus groups to tackle this and similar problems? What are the best techniques for exploring unconscious and metaphorical associations? The reader is pushed to understand that no marketing research technique is better than another in absolute terms, but each problem requires a combination of specific tools.