Every year St. Nicholas travels all the way from Spain to reward the well-behaved children of Belgium and The Netherlands. On the night of December 5 “Sinterklaas” goes from rooftop to rooftop, dropping gifts and sweets through the chimneys. The following morning is one of jolly happiness amongst pampered kids.
In Belgium the traditional sweets that Sinterklaas brings are tangerines, brown spiced biscuits (or “speculoos”) and chocolate figurines. Now let’s take a close look upon these chocolate figurines and try to figure out what they really mean to parent and child.
Let’s start at the very beginning, namely the chocolate that these figurines are made of.
Chocolate offers us a regressive experience. The soft, melting texture of the product, as well as its sweet taste take us back to our carefree, innocent childhood and make us feel protected and safe. This is especially true for the milk chocolate variant, which melts in your mouth, feels soft and tastes sweet. The warm and fuzzy feeling we get makes chocolate one of the so-called comfort foods.
The regressive experience becomes a bit more active when the indulgence makes us feel happy and delighted. Eating chocolate can even bring about a certain high. This addictive quality, in combination with the fact that chocolate contains quite a few calories, leads to a connotation of guilt, making chocolate a sweet sin.
Within the chocolate category however, we find different subcategories, each having their own emotional meanings. Not everyone can or wants to deal with the regressive side of chocolate, as it implies being powerless, inactive and having no control. The more inaccessible the taste and the harder the texture, the more the meaning and experience of chocolate moves over to the realm of maturity and independence.
Dark chocolate for instance is linked to adulthood and sophistication rather than to childhood and innocence. Because of its bitter taste, it requires a more experienced palate and is more difficult to enjoy. As such, it offers a form of control over the general regressive experience of chocolate.
Chocolate can also support a feeling of power. Chocolate with nuts for instance has a real bite to it and is therefore associated with action and power. One can imagine that combining the two, dark chocolate and nuts, makes for a strong, mature and powerful substitute to the comforting, smooth milk chocolate tablet.
Chocolate bonbons, or “pralines” as us Belgians call them, offer control and maturity in a different way. They induce formal and aesthetic pleasure. The detailed and small pieces of chocolate often contain perfumes, fruity aromas or liquor, upgrading them and making them more mature. The pleasure they give is being controlled by the smallness of the praline, making it easier to measure the intake.
Chocolate can be a personal pleasure, in the form of a comforting bar of milk chocolate or in the form of a fancy, expensive treat like a Toblerone. However, chocolate also has a social dimension. It is used for bonding amongst friends and family.
It is also a popular gift item. The chocolates we buy as gifts are often individually wrapped. A simple chocolate bar is too much of a commodity and is not refined enough to use as a gift. We use these individually wrapped chocolates to express our gratitude, to congratulate someone, to show our respect… Yet also to show off our own status and refined taste. This is where, for example, Pierre Marcolini comes in.
Now let’s get back to Sinterklaas’ chocolate figurines and figure out how they work on an emotional level. The chocolate figurines are Sinterklaas’ rewards for well-behaved children who have earned the treat of eating chocolate. They are predominantly made out of milk chocolate, which induces an experience of regressive pampering and tends to the inexperienced palate of children, who value the accessible, sweet taste. Eating the chocolate is an indulgence, which makes them feel happy, safe and warm. Next to eating the chocolate, there is another thing the children enjoy, namely the fact that the figurines are figurines. This brings a dimension of fun to this particular form of chocolate. The figurines allow the children to play with them, marvel at them, … Towards the children, they are edible toys, as well as things of beauty.
The figurines are gifts from parent to child. By buying them and keeping up the story of Sinterklaas, parents demonstrate their love and appreciation for their children. It gives them the personal gratification of being a good parent. Next to that the figurines establish conviviality and joy within the family, which brings the family members closer together.
In conclusion, Sinterklaas’ chocolate figurines satisfy parent and child, offering each of them a range of pleasurable emotions. So, don’t forget to put your shoe in front of the fireplace on the evening of December 5, pleasure awaits!
by Charlotte Boel
Researcher at WHY5Research
Qualitative research is mainly about ‘going beyond’ as many of the case studies clearly demonstrated. It has the power to research the un-researchable. For the time being offline qualitative research is still dominant, taking up 93% of the qualitative research pie (itself accounting for 17% of global research). However, given the way in which technology and (some) consumers are evolving, it becomes more complex to establish what the best way of diving into consumer’s lives may be.
Hence, the key theme of the Vienna conference evolved around the question what the future of traditional qualitative research might be. The extent to which it will coexist, develop or blend in with new online techniques and quantitative research gave rich food for thought.
It was argued that online procedures are pivotal to reach current consumers and especially the very individually empowered generation Y (born between ’80 and ’95). New techniques such as real time blogging, online communities, video blogging, assessing click rates on statements and google ads, … can empower consumers by letting them engage in research more on their own terms. On the other hand it may lead to more shallow thinking and loss of empathy. Whatever line of reasoning is right seems irrelevant. Most speakers agreed that new channels are becoming available and that it would be unwise to ignore them. Clients – who’ll in the future will be more directly connected to their fan base – will grow together with research agencies in defining the best ways of understanding consumers. Ultimately it is about adjusting to the consumer – just like brands try to be in tune with consumer needs, research techniques should do likewise.
An interesting side effect of a multi-approach (offline & online) is increasing complexity and an (even) bigger amount of data for clients. This exploding amount of data available highlights the need for proper analysis and synthesis. All in all research techniques are but a means to an end and clients are (luckily) more concerned about the quality of data & analysis gathered, than the actual techniques used.
What the best way of conducting qualitative research is, will still be open for debate in the coming years. But in the end it all comes down to quality and the need to establish real contact with people, trying to avoid getting stuck at face value and overestimate isolated (dis)liking, … All things said, the question doesn’t seem that new. Fundamentally it is about finding ways how to make people open, relaxed and honest – precisely the territory where solid qualitative research has huge experience & expertise.
Erik Van Gelder
Senior Researcher at WHY5Research
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