June 16, 2005 | Issue 36

Editor's Note

	MR Perspectives is a twice-monthly newsletter that provides perspectives on market research topics of interest, best practices tips, emerging trends, quick case studies, and other useful information. Subscribe View Past Issues

Events

	June 19-24, 2005 Montreal, Canada WAM – Worldwide Audience Measurement The World Association of Opinion and Marketing Research Professionals is hosting a conference for the WAM -- Worldwide Audience Measurement community at The Ritz-Carlton Montreal in Canada.

	June 23, 2005 Chicago AMA Hot Topic Series: Better Marketing ROI The American Marketing Association will host one of its Hot Topic Series workshops on Better Marketing ROI with Marketing Dashboards at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers in Chicago, IIllinois.

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	How Much Does Marketing Research Cost? Projecting the cost of a marketing research project is a skill, an art form – and something that has driven many a business executive crazy at first. After determining that the information they need should be collected through marketing research, then there’s the decision of just how to go about getting the research done. You have to decide how much will be done in-house, trying to determine how much expertise and staff time is truly available for the task. Then there’s the drawing up for an RFP for assistance from outside marketing research firms. And there’s the issue of which firm to select. More information on these and other issues can be found at www.polarismr.com.

Qualitative Research Gives Insight

Qualitative research allows researchers to gain insights into how consumers think and feel about ideas such as products and concepts. It employs techniques that help the researcher explain key consumer motivators or drivers, and understand how consumers perceive a particular product, service or topic. Consequently, qualitative research helps decision-makers understand what consumers are looking for in a product or service. But it is not meant to help forecast outcomes as quantitative research techniques do.

Qualitative market research draws on various disciplines such as anthropology, ethnography, psychology and sociology. Qualitative techniques such as focus groups were first conducted in the 1930s to assist companies gain insights into how consumers made their purchase decisions.

The most commonly used qualitative market research methodologies are focus groups and individual in-depth interviews, referred to as IDIs or “one-on-one” sessions. Here are some common qualitative research methodologies and when these techniques are useful or not:

Individual in-depth interviews conducted by a moderator with a single participant, ideal when dealing with confidentiality. Useful because there are no group influencers, but costly to conduct.
Dyads and triads conducted by a moderator with two or three participants, used when the researcher wants to minimize group influencers such as when dealing with a current “hot” topic. Can effectively apply projective techniques, but low turnout severely impacts session.
Focus groups vary from 90 minutes to two hours per session with eight to ten participants led by a moderator. Clients usually monitor the focus group session behind a one-way mirror. Ideal for new product development on a short time frame. Turnaround is quick. Clients can observe and hear direct responses. Negative: some participants may be group influencers.
Mini-groups Similar to a focus group but with fewer participants, four to six instead of eight to ten. Ideal when there are a lot of objectives that need to be presented to the group. Has the same positives and negatives as a focus group.
Focus group panels Multiple focus group sessions with the same participants, used for evaluating a product over a specified time frame. Participants can provide trended perceptions on research topics. The challenge is maintaining the same group participants.
Online focus groups are held in a “virtual facility,” and the group is conducted in a written format rather than in person. The moderate asks questions using software that communicates to all participants. A good format for testing visual concepts, it is ideal for participants who are spread out geographically, but it does not allow for the study of non-verbal communication of the participants.
Usage testing gets participants to use and evaluate products and services, which is ideal for testing out new technologies. The researcher can get honest feedback but a poor study design can produce biased results.
Taste testing gets participants to taste and evaluate food and beverage products. Such tests have a quick turnaround but usually only evaluate taste of the product and not perceptions.
Mystery shopper A researcher experiences a service as a consumer would and provides feedback about the experience, usually in a written report. Used most often in the prepared foods, retail, travel and tourism industries. Ideal for evaluating services such as restaurants, it has a quick turnaround but it’s more costly than other forms of qualitative research.
Ethnography research involves observing a participant in the environment that the research is trying to gain insight into, such as observing how a consumer prepares an evening meal at home. Sessions are usually audio or video taped. This is more thorough than other methodologies but the cost is significantly higher and if not conducted properly could be biased by the participant being too careful in his or her actions.

When do you use qualitative research methodologies to address research questions? When you need to explain how individuals’ feelings and beliefs, comprehension and familiarity with issues, and experiences influence their behaviors.

Don’t Try To Turn Qualitative Research Into Quantitative Data

When clients conduct a costly and extensive qualitative research study, perhaps testing a particular concept on a nationwide level, they will sometimes look for ways to stretch their research dollar. They can’t use the information they’ve gained as if it were quantitative data, however, as tempting as this may be, even if they’ve conducted a large number of nationwide focus groups with a large number of participants. You can’t treat the participants as if they responded to a survey.

Although it’s easy to just think that research is research, it is important to remember that each qualitative market research methodology employed, such as focus groups, is not conducted in the same manner 100 percent of the time. From group to group, many internal and external factors can impact the insights gained, making it impossible to replicate the group. The order of questions could have been changed. How the questions were asked could have varied. Some questions may have been asked in one group and not another. Who is in the group and how the group dynamics formed can impact the flow of the focus group. With quantitative research, on the other hand, the survey questions stay exactly the same and the data is designed to be replicated, added together and compared.

Finally, participants in qualitative research are not randomly selected so they are not representative of the population as a whole. With quantitative research, every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected to participate, which means information gathered from the respondents can be projected accurately onto the population at large. But that is not so with qualitative research.