I received a white paper in my inbox last night from W5 (here’s a link to their website and blog). The white paper discusses a spin on the traditional focus in a casual dinner party setting. Participants, clients and moderators all sit around a dinner table for an in-depth discussion. W5 claims this more relaxed environment helps participants provide more candid responses as they build a natural rapport with moderators through a flexible and free-flowing conversation.

I think this is an interesting mix of  structured/casual environment that would probably fit somewhere between Xploring and a typical Shopper Insights Lab. While this type of methodologymay not be suitable for the majority of research we do, it is interesting to see what other companies are doing to try and differentiate themselves in the field.

NOTE: Contact me at bmiller@saatchix.com if you would like a copy of the white paper.