5. Qualitative Research

(Textbook Page 143)

The role of qualitative research is to push beyond marketers’ preconceptions and dig deeper into consumer understanding.  The end result is a researcher’s reasoned interpretation rather than quantitative research’s numbers, that can be projected onto the population. 

The aims of qualitative research are to: obtain insights, generate hypotheses, understand the breadth of opinions, identify new or confirm existing perspectives, capture consumer language, provide colour commentary and allow for in-depth probing. 

The Qualitative Team (P. 145)

•    The moderator designs the study, leads the discussion, and analyzes and reports on the findings.  
•    Recruiters recruit participants, often from data bases they maintain
•    The facility rents out focus group rooms or intercept locations and provides on-site hosts
•    Hosting companies provide software for online methodologies and host the research
•    Simultaneous translators, note-takers and transcript typists capture participants’ comments
•    The client is responsible for briefing the team, approving the research instruments and can observe the proceedings and offer direction and feedback

Traditional Focus Groups (P. 146) 

This common technique is based on an extended conversation (1.5 to 2 hours) between a moderator and a group of participants (often 8 to 10), following a carefully constructed plan. Debate and disagreement are encouraged to ensure a range of perspectives is heard.

• The moderator’s role is to ensure the client’s issues are addressed while allowing the conversation to flow naturally.  They must have a thorough understanding of the client’s needs, the marketing environment and the stimuli that will be used.  This textbook unit details a long list of key moderating skills. (P.157)
• Objectives must be clearly defined and remain top-of-mind as the project and discussions evolve.  They help define the size and make-up of the groups.
• A recruitment guide spells out the composition of each group with specific questions to identify the right individuals.  Recruitment criteria should be important and relevant avoid over-complexity.  
• Participants are generally recruited via panels, data bases or by referral and should be capable of independent thinking, strangers to each other, inexperienced and not disruptive.  They should be established residents of the location they are representing, be able to see, hear and read the stimuli and able to articulate their answers in the language used.  
• Incentives are paid to cover the expenses of getting to/participating in the group. 
• The moderator and client work together to write the discussion guide, an outline of topics that is a ‘best guess’ of how the discussion should flow.  Generally following a ‘funneling’ structure, it must be adaptable to each group’s flow.
• The focus group room might be set up as a boardroom or living room.  There would be: 
  • a host to control comings and goings, maintain the technology and provide snacks and beverages
  • a one-way mirror masking an observation room
  • audio and video recording and live streaming capabilities.
• The group’s discussion will be informal, with exercises that open up participants and get beneath the surface.  Observers can learn first hand what consumers are thinking, provide feedback during breaks or after each group that may lead to modifying flow and contents.   

Mini Groups, Triads, Dyads and IDIs (P. 164)

If the topic is sensitive or the target audience particularly expert with a lot to say, a mini-group (4 to 5 participants) triad (3) or dyad (2) can provide more in-depth, revelatory discussions, but covering less breadth of types of respondents. 

An individual depth interviews (IDI), in which the moderator talks to one person at a time, is appropriate when the topic is too personal, sensitive or embarrassing, when others in a group can colour an individual’s opinion, or when you need to explore what people don’t know.  This may also be the only way to question senior executives, medical specialists etc.

Some Qualitative Techniques (P. 166) 

• Projective techniques allow participants to avoid admitting less socially acceptable feelings, emotions and motives by attributing them to others.  This textbook unit describes personification, transposed vocabulary, transference, sentence completion, cartoon tests, photo sorts and free-choice rankings.  
• Role playing can be useful to understand inherently interactive situations, and with those who may be hard to motivate.
• Ethnographic studies embed the researcher into the consumer’s life so an activity can be observed in the ‘real world’ and questioned as it takes place.  The researcher can notice things the consumer may not be aware of. 
• Semiotics, the study of signs, symbols and communication, involves disassembling and decoding the elements of a marketing message to map out how consumers might understand it and identify conflicting messaging that undermine its effectiveness.
• Laddering involves probing respondents to connect the perceived attributes and benefits of a product or service until they reach the underlying motivator or ‘end’.  

Online Qualitative Methods / New Technology (P. 173) 

The global growth of the internet has led to alternative qualitative methodologies, accelerated by pandemic lockdowns.  Mobile devices in particular have allowed us to capture consumer behaviour and motivations in-the-moment, where it happens. 

• Online focus groups use a website that allows participants (often geographically widely dispersed) to respond to posts from a moderator and each other during a set time.  Observers watch but can post comments only for the moderator and other observers to see.  The explosion of video conferencing, spurred by Covid-19, has created broader acceptance of video groups. 
• Participants in online Bulletin Boards and Ethnography check the bulletin board website periodically over several days.  Between visits, they can go about their daily lives with the questions in mind and are often assigned tasks.  With a mobile device, it can become online ethnography, with moderators observing and questioning what participants are experiencing while it is happening. 
• Online Communities are pools of respondents, often with a common interest, who can connect with researchers and with each other through several interactive tools.  They log in to a custom-designed website regularly to respond to requests, upload videos or images, answer polls or interact with other members.  It can be a short term ‘pop up’ or a long term commitment.
• Social Listening uses tools to scan social media discussions using keywords to ‘dip into’ the consumers’ mindset on a topic.  It can be a one-off inquiry or an on-going monitoring program. The timestamp lets you ‘listen in’ to posts from the past as well as the present. 
• Virtual Reality technologies allow participants to move through with an artificial environment and interact with products that can be brought up and altered with a few keyboard clicks.  They have both qualitative and quantitative applications. 

How to Analyze, Interpret and Report Qual Findings (P. 179)

This textbook unit describes the steps that could be taken in analyzing qualitative observations and discussions, including:

o    organizing quotes and notes by classifying them and looking for patterns, 
o    reporting on what happened (summarizing the salient points of the discussion)
o    analyzing what it seems to mean, identifying apparent consensus and dissent, looking for contradictions, drawing lines of meaning between different areas of probing and thinking deeply about the pattern of discussions
o    identifying how consumers might differ and hypothesizing potential market segments  
o    identifying potential emerging trends based on unexpected comments made in different interviews, groups or posts
o    thinking through the implications for the client’s marketing and communications objectives

The Report and Presentation (P. 181)

• A quick turn-around ‘moderator’s impressions’ report might be produced within days with a few topline observations on key discussion topics.   
• The final report often takes 2 to 3 weeks and interweaves the moderator’s careful analysis and reflection with verbatim quotes. 
• Text-heavy Word reports that build the analysis into a comprehensive revelation of findings and conclusions are increasingly being replaced by short PowerPoint or similar decks that are appropriate to present summaries to senior management and might include: 
  • insightful headlines that summarize the implications 
  • illustrations of people or products mentioned 
  • photo or video submissions from participants
  • video clips from interviews
  • photos of the results of exercises like collages or product sorts
  • bubble verbatims to provide consumer language  
• Qualitative findings must not be reported with numbers.  Participants represent the target population but are not a representative sample and their response cannot be quantitatively projected.  
• The presentation is an excellent opportunity to discuss what has emerged from the research, clear up any potential misunderstandings and align the understanding of different stakeholders. 

How does Bias Arise in Qualitative Research? (P. 184)

•    This textbook unit outlines the sources of potential study-related, moderator-related and client-related biases. 

When to use Qualitative Research (P. 184) 

Qualitative research works best when:

• There is an information vacuum that needs to be filled before quantitative methods can be meaningful and effective
• There is a need to understand the basis for consumer motivations etc. that may not fully emerge when investigated quantitatively
• Several initial possibilities need to be boiled down to more workable and promising possibilities
• The language consumers use needs to be understood
• It is used as input to the creative process
• The subject matter is too subtle to create efficient direct questions for a survey

It should not be used when the budget isn’t big enough for quantitative research, or when a quantitative estimate is the objective.