qualitative research. ¿what is qualitative research? 0 is a term used loosely to refer to research...

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

What is qualitative research? 0 Is a term used loosely to refer to research whose findings are not subject to quantification or quantitative analysis. 0 Qualitative research could be used to examine the attitudes, feelings and motivations of the heavy user, essentially how to communicate with them.

Qualitative research VS quantitative research. QualitativeQuantitative Types of questionsProbingLimited probing Sample sizeSmallLarge Amount of information from each respondent SubstantialVaries Requirements for administration Interviewer with special skills Interviewer with fewer skills or no interviewer Type of analysisSubjective, interpretiveStatistical, summation HardwareTape recorders, pictures, discussion guides Questionnaires, computer printout Degree of explicabilityLowHigh Researcher trainingPsychology, sociology, social psychology, Statistics, decision models, computer programming Type of researchExploratoryDescriptive o causal

Why does the popularity of qualitative research continue to grow? 1. Qualitative research is usually much cheaper than quantitative research. 2. There is no better way to understand the motivation and feelings of consumers. 3. It can improve the efficiency of quantitative research.

All marketing research is undertaken to increase the effectiveness of decision making. Qualitative research blends with quantitative measures to provide a more thorough understanding of consumer demand. Qualitative techniques involve open-ended questioning and probing

Limitations of qualitative research 0 One drawback relates to the fact that marketing successes and failures many times are based on small differences in attitudes or opinions about the marking mix, and qualitative research does not distinguish those small differences as well as large-scale quantitative research does. 0 The second limitation is that they are not necessarily representative of the population of interest to the researcher.

THE IMPORTANCE ON FOCUS GROUPS 0 Focus group consists of 8 to 12 participants who are led by a moderator in the discussion on one particular topic or concept. 0 The goal is to learn and understand what people have to say and why. 0 The emphasis is on getting people to talk at length and in detail about the subject. 0 The intent is to find out how they feel about the product, concept, idea or organization; how it fits into their lives and their emotional involvement with it.

Popularity of focus groups 0 Focus groups allow the research to experience the emotional framework in which the product is begin used. 0 In a sense, the researcher can go into a persons life and relieve with him or her all the satisfaction, dissatisfactions, rewards and frustration experienced when the product is taken home.

Conducting focus groups STEP 1 Prepare for the group Select a focus group facility and recruit the participants STEP 2 Select a moderator And create a discussion guide STEP 3 Conduct the group STEP 4 Prepare the focus group report

Step 1. Prepare for the group 0 Setting: is often conference room, with a large one- way mirror built into one wall. Microphones are placed (usually on the ceiling) to record the discussion. Behind the mirror is the viewing room. 0 Participants for focus group are recruited from a variety of sources. Two traditional procedures are mall-intercept interviewing and random telephone screening. Researches normally establish criteria for the group participants.

STEP 2. Select a moderator 0 Having qualified respondents and a good focus group moderator are the keys to a successful focus group. 0 A focus group moderator needs two sets of skills. 1. The moderator must be able to conduct a group properly. 2. He or she must have good business skills in order to effectively interact with the client.

STEP 2. Select a moderator 0 Key attributes for conducting a focus group include the following: 1. Genuine interest in people, their behavior, emotions 2. Acceptance for de differences in people. 3. Good listening skills. 4. Good observation skills. 5. Good oral and written communication skills 6. Objective

STEP 2. Create a discussion guide. 0 A discussion guide is a written outline of the topics to be covered during the session. Usually the guide is generated by the moderator based of the research objectives and client information needs. It serves as a checklist to ensure that all salient topics are covered and in the proper sequence.

STEP 2. Create a discussion guide. 0 The guide tents to lead the discussion though three stages: 1. Rapport is established, the rules group interactions are explained are objectives are given. 2. The moderator attempts to provoke discussion. 3. Is used summarizing significant conclusions and testing the limits of belief and commitment.

STEP 3. Focus group length 0 Many managers today prefer shorter (around an hour)focus groups. Yet the average group today is still about 90 minutes. 0 The group length issue is not an insulated one, it is intertwined with a second key factor: the number of the discussion guide. 0 The managers should examine the interactions between the length of the focus group and the size of the discussion guide.

STEP 4. Focus group report 0 After the final of the group in a series is completed, there will be a moderator debriefing, sometimes called instant analysis. 0 A formal focus group report is typically a PowerPoint presentation. The written report is nothing more than a copy of the PowerPoint slides.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Focus Groups 0 The benefits and drawbacks of qualitative research in general also apply to focus groups. But focus groups have some unique pros and cons that deserve mention. Advantages of Focus Groups: The interactions among respondents can stimulate new ideas and thoughts that might not arise during one-on-one interviews. And group pressure can help challenge respondents to keep their thinking realistic. Energetic interactions among respondents also make it likely that observation of a group will provide firsthand consumer information to client observers in a shorter amount of time and in a more interesting way than will individual interviews. 0 Another advantege focus groups offer is the opportunity to observe customers or prospects from behind a one-way mirror. In fact, there is growing use of focus groups to expose a broader range of employees to customer comments and views. 0 One more advantege of focus grops is that they can be executed more quickly than many other research techniques. In addition, findings from groups tend to be easier to understand and to have a compelling immediacy and excitement. I can get up and show a client all the charts and graphs in the world, but it has nowhere near the impact of showing 8 or 10 customers sitting around a table and saying that the companys service isnt good. By Jean-Anne Mutter (director of marketing research at Ketchum Advertising).

0 Disadvanteges of Focus Groups : Unfortunately, some of the stengths of focus groups also can become disadvantages. For example, the immediacy and apparent understandability of focus group findings can cause managers to be misled instead of informed. Mutter says, Even though youre only getting a very small slice, a focus group gives you a sense that you really understand the situation. She adds that focus groups can strongly appeal to peoples desire for quick, simple answers to problems, and i see a decreasing willingness to go with complexity and to put forth the effort needed to really think through the complex data that will be yielded by a quantitative study. Other disadvantages relate to the focus group process. For example, focus group recruiting may be a problem if the type of person recruited responds differently to the isues being discussed than do other target segments. White middle-class individuals, for example, participate in qualitative research in numbers disproportionate to their presence in the marketplace. Also, some focus group facilities create an impersonal feeling, making honest conversation unlikely. Corporate or formal setting with large boardroom tables and unattractive or plain decor may make it difficult for respondents to relax and share their feelings. 0 Video Transmission of Focus Groups: Live video transmissions of focus groups has occurred for the past 20 years. The advantage for researchers and clients is that not everyone has to travel to every focus group to participate. A survey found that users of video focus groups were typically quite pleased. Sixty-seven percent rated the experience excellent or good. Approximately 22 percent of all U.S. focus groups involve video transmissions.

Other Qualitative Methodologies 0 Most of this chapter has been devoted to focus groups because of their pervasive use in marketing research. However, several other qualitative techniques are also used, albeit on a much more limited basis.

Other Qualitative Methodologies 0 Individual Depth Interviews: (IDI) are relatively unstructured one-on-one interviews. The interviewer is thoroughly trained in the skill of probing and eliciting detailed answers to each question. IDIs are the second most popular form of qualitative research. 0 Advantages of depth interviews over focus groups are as follows: 1. Group pressure is eliminated, so the respondent reveals more honest feelings, not necessarily those considered most acceptable among peers. 2. The personal one-on-one situation gives the respondent the feeling of being the focus of attention- that his or her thoughts and feelings are important and truly wanted. 3. The respondent attains a heightened state of awareness because he or she has constant interaction with the interviewer and there are no group members to hide behind. 4. The longer time devoted to individual respondents encourages the revelation of new information. 5. Respondents can be probed at length to reveal the feelings and motivations that underlie statements. 6. Without the restrictions of cultivating a group process, new directions of questioning can be improvised more easily. Individual interviews allow greater flexibility to explore casual remarks and tangential issues, which may provide critical insights into the main issue. 7. The closeness of the one-on-one relationship allows the interviewer to become more sensitive to nonverbal feedback. 8. A singular viewpoint can be obtained from a respondent without influence from others. 9. The interview can be conducted anywhere, in places other than a focus group facility. 10. Depth interviews may be the only viable technique for situations in which a group approach would require that competitors be placed in the same room. For example, it might be very difficult to do a focus group on systems for preventing bad checks with managers from competing deparment stores or retaurants.

0 Disadvantages of depth interviews relative to focus groups are as follows: 1. The total cost of depth interviews can be more expensive than focus groups, but not on a cost per respondent minute. 2. Depth interviews do not generally get the same degree of client involvement as focus groups. It is difficult to convince most client personnel to sith through multiple hours of depth interviews so as to benefit firsthand from the information. 3. Because depth interviews are physically exhausting for the moderator, they do not cover as much ground in one day as do focus groups. Most moderators will not do more than four or five depth interviws in a day, wheras they can involuve 20 people in a day in two focus groups. 4. Focus groups give the moderator an ability to leverage the dynamics of the group to obtain reactions that might not be generated in a one-on-one session. The success of any depth interview depends mainly on the skills of the interviewer. And classic applications of depth interviews include: 0 Communication checks such as (review of print, radio, or TV advertisements or other written materials) 0 Sensory evaluations such as (reactions to varied formulations for deodorants or hand lotions) 0 Exploratory research such as (defining baseline understanding or a product, service, or idea) 0 New prduct development, prototype stage 0 Packging or usage research as (when clients want to mirror personal experience and obtain key language descriptors)

A variation of the depth interview is called customer care research (CCR). The basic idea is to use depth iterviewing to understand to dynamic of the purchase process. The following seven questions are the basis for CCR: 1. What started you on the road to making this purchase? 2. Why did you make this purchase now? 3. What was the hardest part of this process? Was there any point where you got stuck? 4. When and how did you decide the price was acceptable? 5. Is there someone else with whom i should talk to get more of the story behind this purchase? 6. If youve purschased this product before, how does the story of your last purchase differ from this one? 7. At what point did you decide you trusted this organization and this person to work with in you best interests? 0 Cost of Focus Groups versus IDI: In a standard, eight-person, 90-minute focus group, there are nine people (eight participants plus moderator) sharing the floor. On average, therefore, each respondent is allotted 10 minutes of talk time across those 90 minutes (90 minutes divided by nine people). The cost of a focus group of this type is about 6.000$. That number includes every-thing: recruiter, moderator, participant stipend, food, facility, report write-up, and the cost of getting a few observers to the event. Divide 80 minutes of participant talk time (the moderator doesnt count) into the 6000$ expense, and your cost per respondent minute in this case is 75$ (6000$/80) If, however, a typical in-depth interview runs 30 minutes and costs between 400$ and 500$ (including recruiting, interviewing, participant stipend, and reporting), the cost per respondent minute is in the range of 16$ to 25$. The big difference results from the amount of time the respondent spends talking, which is typically about 20 to 25 of those 30 minutes in an in-depth phone interview. Thus, when considering the cost per respondent minute, in-depth interviews can provide much greater value. Of course, the quality of both the focus groups and the IDI determines the real value of the research.

0 Using Hermeneutics: Some IDI researchers use a technique called hermeneutic research to achieve their goals. Hermeneutic research that focuses on interpretation through conversations. For example, a reseacher and consumer in conversation about why that individual purchased a high-end home theater system may discuss the reasons for making the purchase, such as holding movie parties, enjoying a stay-at-home luxury, or immersing one-self in sporting events. The researcher may interpret holding movie parties as a reason for purchase to mean that without the system, the consumer would not hold the parties at all, and so the researcher will return to the consumer for additional information. Upon reviewing the data and talking more, the researcher and consumer determine that why the item was purchased and why it is used (which may or may not be the same) are not as telling as how the product makes its owner feel. In this case, the owner may feel confident as an entertainer, more social, powerful, wealthy, relaxed, or rejuvenated. Talking and probing more about the use of the home theater, the researcher uncovers both new data and new issues to address or consider moving forward. 0 Using the Delphi Method: The Delphi Method is often used in new product development when firms are looking for creative new ideas to incorporate in products or services. In conclusion this method rounds of individual data collection from knowledegeable people; results are summarized and returned to participants for further refinement. The purpose of anonymity in a Delphi study is to exclude group interaction, which can cause a number of problems, such as group conflict and individual dominance. Dlphi relies on a structured, indirect approach to group decision making; that is, participants dont meet, relying instead on statistical aggregation of individual predictions and ideas.

Projective Tests 0 This is a technique for tapping respondents deepest feelings by having them project those feelings into an unstructured situation. These techniques are for penetrating a persons defense mechanisms to allow true feelings and attitudes to emerge.

Why is projection important? 0 Consumers may not tell us everything that influences them. Three obstacles stand in the way: 1. Respondents may be unconscious or unaware of a particular influence. 2. They may be aware of an ingluence, but feel it is too personal or socially undesirable to admit (e.g. prestige image or racial bias). 3. They may be aware that they perceive a product a particular way, but they may not bother to mention this because, in their view, it is not a logical, rational reason for buying or not buying the product. Some doctors. For example, are adamant that what they prescribe has nothing to do with the sound of a drugs name or the attractiveness of the manufacturers logo, and is based solely on decision-making factors such as research findings, clinical experience, and patient compliance.

0 But the most common forms of projective techniques used in marketing research are word association tests, sentence and story completion tests, cartoon tests, photo sorts, consumer drawings, storytelling, and third-person techniques. Other techniques, such as psychodrama tests and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), have been popular in treating psychological disorders but of less help in marketing research. Most common forms of projective techniques

Word Association Tests 0 This is a projective test in which the interviewer says a word and the respondent must mention the first thing that comes to mind. 0 Word association tests are used to select brand names, advertising campaign themes, and sologans.

Analogies 0 Analogies draw a comparison between two items in terms of their similarities. 0 For example, a researcher investigating consumers perceptions of Ford automobiles may ask: Im going to read you a list of stores, and then id like you to tell me which of these is most similar to Ford cars. If possible, try to give the first answer that comes to mind. The stores are: Neiman Marcus, Wal-Mart, Macys, JC Penney, Kmart, Nordstrom, Target, and Lord & Taylor. As a follow-up, the researcher would then ask: What is it about (Store X) that is most similar to Ford cars? How are the qualities of Ford cars similar to this store? This line of questioning induces the respondent to talk (indirectly) about his or her perceptions of Ford cars. 0 The use of analogies in this instance is not to determine which store(s) people associate with Ford cars but rather to get people to talk about their perceptions of Ford cars in ways they might otherwise be unable to do.

Personification 0 This involves drawing a comparison between a product and a person. 0 Thus we can appreciate as the person is if that people choose such kind of car.

0 Sentence and Story Completion Tests: this is a projective tests in which respondents complete sentences or stories in their own words. 1. Best Buy is 2. The people who shop at Best Buy are 3. Best Buy should really 4. I dont understand why Best Buy doesnt 0 Sentence and story completion tests have been considered by some researchers to be the most usefutl and reliable of all the projective tests. Decision Analyst is now offering both online sentence completion and online word association research to its clients.

0 Cartoon Tests: consists of two characters with balloons. Similar to those seen in comic books. But more specifically its a test in which the respondent fills in the dialogue of one of two characters in a cartoon. 0 Photo Sorts: consumers express their feelings about brands by manipulating a specially developed photo deck depicting different types of people, from business executives to college students. Respondents connect the individuals in the photos with the brands they think they would use. Then photo sorts is a technique in which a respondent sorts photos of different types of people, identifying those people who she or he feels would use the specified product or service.

0 Consumer Drawings: researchers somethimes ask consumers to draw what they are feeling or how they perceive an object. Then consumer drawings can unlock motivations or express perceptions. 0 Storytelling: this requires consumers to tell stories about their experiences. It is a search for subtle insights into consumer behavior. This technique can be known as metaphor technique. 0 Third-Person Technique: Perhaps the easiest projective technique to apply, other than word association, is this. Here the interviewer learns about respondents feelings by asking them to answer for a third party, such as your neighbor or most people.

Future of Qualitative Research 0 The rationale behind qualitative research tests is as follows: 1. The criteria employed and the evaluations made in most buying and usage decisions have emotional and subconscious content, which is an important determinant of buying and usage decisions. 2. Such content is adequately and accurately verbalized by the respondent only through indirect communicative techniques. On the positive side, the use of focus groups will grow. Focus group research can provide data and insights not available through any other techniques. Low cost and ease of application will lend even greater impetus to use online focus groups. Finally, the qualitative-quantitative split will begin to close as adaptations and innovations allow researchers to enjoy the advantages of both approaches simultaneously.

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qualitative research. ¿what is qualitative research? 0 is a term used loosely to refer to research...

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