Pure. Rare. Eternal.

Editor's note: Kelly Hancock handles communications for the Qualitative Research Consultants Association. This case study was presented at the 2011 QRCA Symposium on Excellence in Qualitative Research.

Is it possible to take nine countries, nine languages and nine vastly different cultures and capture them in a single platform that informs very emotionally-driven decisions? That’s exactly what the Platinum Guild International aimed to do with its Web site redesign.

The Platinum Guild International, an organization that promotes platinum jewelry worldwide, initially launched its site, PreciousPlatinum.com, in 2003 and refreshed it in 2006. By 2009, with the site experiencing low traffic, low levels of engagement and high bounce rates, organization leadership realized that the site again needed some improvements.

The Platinum Guild seeks to convey a consistent message globally but regionally-focused microsites were popping up that were impacting the primary, organization-wide site, says Huw Daniel, president of the Platinum Guild International’s U.S. office. Different markets were starting to drift away from each other and as each market introduced a new initiative, it wasn’t integrated into the main Web site. “A review of our online strategy revealed that the site wasn’t clearly defined; each market was defining the role differently. We had completed a global brand repositioning and realized that the Web site was undermining this. We needed to bring all markets back to the central global positioning: Pure – Rare – Eternal.”

Further, many consumers were visiting the site because they thought they could buy jewelry there. But the site was never meant to be used for e-commerce, as the Platinum Guild’s purpose is to create desire by showcasing beautiful platinum designs and provide practical advice and expertise to help jewelry buyers make informed decisions. This misperception caused a lot of people to leave the site quickly. In addition, there was no strategy for keeping people on the site once they got there.

Meet global and local needs

Part of the central strategy was to have one Web site that consistently positioned the platinum brand across all markets while simultaneously accommodating specific needs determined by market and consumer differences. The Guild needed to create one Web site that would meet both global and local needs.

With a mock-up of a new Web site in hand, the Platinum Guild began a qualitative research project that would ensure that 1) the new site clearly communicated its goal; 2) the new structure, with a design gallery at its core, matched the intuitive consumer journey; 3) it delivered a clear and differentiating global positioning for platinum overall; and 4) it effectively addressed consumer needs in each of the key markets equally.

On behalf of the Platinum Guild, Simon Patterson, CEO of London-based QRi Consulting and a member of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association, designed a research project that would test each of these initiatives and also help determine the content and messaging that would fit into the Web site’s framework.

The research methodology was designed to dive into the minds of potential jewelry buyers – and therefore users of PreciousPlatinum.com – in three of the Platinum Guild’s key markets: China, Japan and the United States. Patterson, working closely with his Japanese and Chinese colleagues, completed a series of 32 face-to-face, in-depth interviews across the three markets.

“Going into the project, we knew from previous research that the typical user of the site varied somewhat by market,” says Patterson. “We knew that the most common user in all markets is the bridal consumer. But in Asian markets, you also sometimes have just a young jewelry consumer purchasing for themselves. In Western markets, it’s primarily bridal consumers, as they search for the perfect engagement ring.”

Respondents for this research project were selected with these key target audience segments in mind. In the U.S. market, Patterson conducted 12 in-depth interviews: four with pre-engaged women, four with pre-engaged men and four with pre-married couples. Patterson then traveled to Tokyo and Shanghai. There were also 12 interviews in Japan, but the audience segments changed slightly: four interviews with pre-married couples, four with female light-jewelry owners and four with female heavy-jewelry owners. In China, Patterson hosted eight interviews: four with bridal pre-married couples and four with female jewelry owners.

Face-to-face environment important

The Platinum Guild and QRi Consulting agreed from the beginning that doing the interviews in a face-to-face environment was very important for the study. “The subject matter is deeply personal,” Patterson says. “Jewelry, especially bridal jewelry, is something precious. It’s intimate and emotional. We didn’t want to try to capture such a significant experience online, when being there in person could maintain the humanity behind the whole experience.”

In addition, the in-person interviews created an opportunity to clearly observe how respondents navigated the site. Patterson could see their posture, body language and facial expressions. This up-close experience allowed for observations of personal and cultural attitudes and behaviors and it also allowed for conversation and probing to dig deeper into the respondents’ thoughts as they navigated the site.

The face-to-face interviews also proved beneficial in overcoming some of the challenges that naturally come with multinational research. Patterson could ensure consistency among the interviews while also being sensitive to the cultural issues and needs in each market. Physically being in each market and being directly involved with the research project gave him a unique understanding of all the cultures and turn those insights into one, distinct vision. “I essentially wore two hats. In addition to actually doing the qualitative research, it was important for me to act as a diplomat to bring everyone together. There were differences of opinion among the separate markets but as an independent researcher, I could say, ‘I saw all the interviews, and here’s what really happened,’” Patterson says.

During these in-depth interviews, which lasted about 90 minutes, the respondents described their personal backgrounds, including their experiences with jewelry and the Internet. Then, they were asked to browse through the site and provide a running commentary on what they were doing and why. The computer monitor was also projected onto a screen and filmed so Patterson and the Platinum Guild could see how the mouse pointer moved about the screen. Pairing the visuals with the respondents’ commentary, it became clear what was actually going through their minds. “If they didn’t tell us on their own, we were able to ask them why they clicked a certain spot or where their eyes went on the screen,” Patterson says. “With this approach, we were able to figure out what gave them the wrong impressions or why they veered off the path we thought they would take.”

Different motivations

The findings showed different motivations among the different audiences. In all situations, cultural and consumer needs strongly influenced motivations, but platinum is consistently an emotional purchase when a wedding is involved. The research report summarized the audiences like this:

  • U.S. women: “The ring will be a reminder, the beginning of my future.”
  • U.S. males: “I want to know why platinum is worth it ... I need an explanation and breakdown.”
  • Japanese and Chinese males: “I want to get involved, ‘to get it right,’ I want to feel informed.”
  • Japanese females: “I want to find beautiful items to inspire my dreams.”
  • Chinese females (pre-bridal): “It’s a certification of our love. I want the guarantee of the platinum brand.”
  • Chinese females (buying for themselves): “I’m interested in the latest designs. I want to see what is popular this year.”

Across all markets, there were some similarities in gender. Males were scared of making the wrong decision; they were really unsure of where to begin and how the process of purchasing a ring actually works. “When you’re talking about couples and being engaged, the men have one priority in mind and that’s finding the ring that’ll make her happy,” Daniel says.

“With women, we saw that they were looking for a large emotional investment,” Patterson says. “They wanted as big of a rock as possible. They see the ring as a symbol of love and their emotional worth to their partner. This is especially true with platinum, which is really seen as the ultimate seal of bond and relationship between a couple.”

While those gender differences were true across the board, different cultures have different interpretations of the same sentiments. For example, a man in the United States might be researching the differences in metals to see if he can get away with a lower-cost product, while his soon-to-be fiancée is saying that it has to be the ultimate. In Asian countries, traditionally, men put a certain percentage of their salary toward the engagement ring. With such a significant investment, they want to feel informed to be sure they’re making a worthwhile investment.

Many of the differences in culture, gender and purchase types that were discovered in the qualitative research project are depicted in the imagery and semantics incorporated into each version of the Web site. For example, a page on the U.S. site explains four key traits to look for in a platinum ring, catering to the U.S. male’s desire to understand what makes platinum worth the extra cost investment. And the Japanese and Chinese sites feature images of women wearing beautiful, trendy pieces, showing women in those markets that platinum offers the utmost in jewelry options.

One template

Based on the research findings, the Platinum Guild now has one, uniform site template that has been tailored for each market. The template was designed to accommodate various initiatives within each market, eliminating the need for microsites and maintaining the organization’s global brand standards. As a result, the bounce rate decreased significantly, from 90 percent in 2008 to 35 percent in 2010, and the average time on the site doubled, from five minutes in 2008 to 10 minutes in 2010.

However, the Platinum Guild likes to think that the real success lies in the thousands of happy couples around the world who are now wearing rings made from the metal of their dreams.