Case Study: How Motives Helped PZ Cussons Turn Private Self-Tan Routines into Boardroom-Ready Insight
By Motives
- case study
- AI Moderated Interviews
- Mobile Ethnography
- Transcription
PZ Cussons is a global consumer goods company whose portfolio includes personal care brands such as St. Tropez, Carex, Original Source, and Child’s Farm. The insight team needed to understand how consumers used the St. Tropez self tan range, including overnight application routines, associated frustrations, and emotional responses. Because self tanning is a private, solitary activity, focus groups produced limited candid disclosure. Traditional qualitative research also took up to six weeks from briefing to findings, a timeline the business could not accommodate.
Motives, an AI-moderated research platform, conducted the study entirely within participants’ own homes using its AI Moderator, which spoke to consumers one-on-one at the moment of product use. The absence of a human moderator or other participants removed social pressure and the risk of social desirability bias. The platform captured video responses, enabling emotional intensity to be observed alongside verbal feedback. Motives’ Ask the Researcher feature allowed the PZ Cussons team to query all interview transcripts using AI after fieldwork closed, enabling ongoing interrogation of source material.
The study was completed in four days from start to finish. Consumer language captured during interviews was used to inform St. Tropez product and range naming, and the team built an evidence base on category pain points to use in retailer conversations. Marketing, product, and R&D teams continued to reference the source material three months after the project closed.
“What really appeals about Motives is the ability to talk to people in the moment of usage – because then you get unfettered, unfiltered, emotional reactions.” — James Mackenzie, Head of Insight, PZ Cussons
Read the full version of this case study on the Motives website here.
