Research Methods

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Marketing Research
Qualitative Interviewing
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Problem of Names

• In-depth, intensive, one-to-one, focused,
  depth, long, unstructured
• Ethnographic, creative, feminist,
  post-modern, phenomenological
• Many terms seem to refer to the same
  phenomenon

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Qualitative Interviews in Marketing Research

• First qualitative interview in MR in 1900
  (Locksley,1950)
• AMA recommends abandon term depth interview
  (Woodward, 1950)
• First QMR text describes 4 varieties of interview
  (Smith, 1954)
• Literature silent on subject until 1980s -
  increased interest amongst researchers

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Variations on a Theme

• Degree of structure
• Location
• Length
• Depth
• Purpose
• Interviewer style
• Relationship between parties

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Key Issues

• When to use qualitative interview
• How to select respondents
• Developing interview guide
• How to manage the relationship
• How to record interviews
• What kind of analysis

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Interview as Conversation

• No explicit purpose
• Avoid repetition
• Express interest to keep talk going
• Take turns
• Abbreviation
• Pauses/silences

• Explicit purpose
• Explain purpose recording
• Ask for descriptions explanations
• Encourage contrasts
• Less balanced turns
• Repetition
• Expansion

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Focus Group

• A number of respondents (participants) convened
  by an interviewer to discuss questions or issues
  relating to the research topic.
• The interviewers role is to facilitate
  moderate the discussion and ensure it covers the
  key questions issues.
• Participants may raise important new
  issues/questions.

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Focussed Focus Groups

• Group meets at a central location at
  pre-designated time
• Consists of an interviewer/moderator
• to introduce the topic encourage group members
  to discuss the subject among themselves
• Participants may be consumer, business people,
  children
• Ideally discussion topics emerge from group
• Allows discussion of true feelings, anxieties,
  frustrations and expression of depth of
  conviction in participants own words

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How is Focus Group Different?

• Group Interview
• Group Discussion
• Nominal Group
• Conflict Group
• Dialogical Group
• Brainstorming Group
• Intervention Group
• Sensitivity Panel

• Extended Group
• Synetics Group
• Delphi Group
• Commando Group
• Cyberspace Group
• Telephone Group
• Unmoderated Group
• Mini Group

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Group Vs Individual Interview

• The distinguishing feature of the group is
  its groupness
• Does this add to the data via the operation of
  group dynamics?
• Does this contaminate the data via
  group dynamics?

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Uses for Focus Groups

• Predominent use is for exploratory research
• Also useful in later stages of a research project
  to investigate the meaning of survey results
• To assess the effects of social interaction

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Focus Group Approaches
EXPLORATORY
EXPLANATORY
EXPERIENCING
ideas \ hypotheses for further research
explains motives, beliefs
understand everyday world of consumer
testing questions \ scale items
identify causal relationships
examine consumer experience
background research on problem
tapping layers of consciousness
social and cultural aspects of behaviour
explain \ confirm quantitative findings
skilled moderator required
language of consumers
(Source Calder, 1977)
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Types of Knowledge Output

• Everyday knowledge summary of what
  participants said
• Interpretive knowledge interpretive framework or
  theory applied to data
• Scientific knowledge hypotheses for
  scientific testing from the data

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Group Interviews Advantages - 10 Ss.

• Synergism
• Snowballing
• Simulation
• Security
• Spontaneity

• Serendipity
• Specialisation
• Scientific scrutiny
• Structure
• Speed

(Hess, 1968)
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Group InterviewsDisadvantages - 5Ms

• Misuse
• Misjudge
• Moderation
• Messy
• Misrepresentation

(Malhotra, 1996)
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Group Composition

• Between 6 - 10 is considered ideal
• Homogeneity is an issue
• Researchers wishing to collect information from
  different type of people should conduct several
  focus groups
• Most experts believe 4 focus group sessions can
  satisfy needs of exploratory research

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Environmental Conditions

• May take place at the research or advertising
  agency/a hotel/or one of the subjects homes
• May be in specialist facilities with video
  cameras observation rooms behind one-way
  mirrors
• Usual to offer refreshments to ensure relaxed mood

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Procedure for Planning and Conducting Focus Groups
Specify the Objectives of Qualitative Research
State Objectives/Questions to be answered in
Focus Groups
Write a Screening Questionnaire
Develop a Moderators Outline
Conduct the Focus Group Interviews
Review Tapes and Analyse the Data
Summarise Findings and Plan Follow-Up Research or
Action
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Planning the Focus Group Outline

• A discussion guide
• a written statement of initial remarks to inform
  re nature of focus groups and topics to be
  addressed
• Get everyone talking by introduction
• Initial objective is to break ice and establish
  rapport
• Open-ended questions to encourage discussion
• Moving from general to specific focus

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The Moderators Role

• To develop a rapport with the group/ must inspire
  confidence
• To ensure people become relaxed and eager to talk
• To promote interaction
• To focus discussion on topic areas
• When a topic is no longer generating fresh ideas
  the flow of discussion should be changed

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Stages of Group Formation

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Mourning

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Focus Groups in
Market Research Social Science

• Non-acquaintances
• Virgins
• Observers
• Comparatively cheap
• Skilled moderator
• Quick turnaround
• Client needs
• Clients benefit
• Non-intervention

• Acquaintances
• Experienced
• Assistants
• High organising costs
• Project knowledge
• Painstaking analysis
• Research needs
• Respondents benefit
• Intervention

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Direct Questioning Barriers

• Awareness
• Irrationality
• Inadmissibility
• Self - incrimination
• Politeness

(Oppenheim, 1968)
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Layers of Consciousness
structured questioning rational justifications
conventional responses
CONSCIOUS FACTORS
PRIVATE FEELINGS AND LANGUAGE
sympathetic interview
INTUITIVE ASSOCIATIONS
non-verbal play, consumers inner world
UNCONSCIOUS SYMBOLS, MYTHS
projective techniques
Lannon Cooper (1983)
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What is a Projective Technique?

• The projective hypothesis is that when
  respondents are asked to cope with a deliberately
  ambiguous situation or are given a task they will
  be unable to do so without projecting themselves
  onto the finished product.

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Origins and Rationale

• Ernest Dichters motivational research (1950s)
• Respondents may have insights into their own
  motives (at an intuitive level) and use of these
  techniques gives them social permission to play
  or fantasise
• Clues to tell us how consumers feel about brands,
  products, services etc.
• May be used to find out deeply held attitudes and
  opinions

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Reasons for Use in Research

• Overcome direct question barriers (Fisher,
  Oppenheim)
• Answered from respondents frame of
  reference
• Versatile - used with other data collection
  techniques
• Fun involving for respondents

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Projective Techniques

• Free Associations
• Sentence Completion
• Picture Completion
• Analogy
• Personalisation

• Third Person
• Role Playing
• Psychodrawing
• Thematic Apperception tests
• Collages

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Free Associations

• Ask respondents to say what comes into their head
  when thinking about a certain topic
• Then follow up with probes and amplifications
• Initial reactions tend to be pragmatic but later
  ones show paths to emotional ideas
• Useful for relaxing and warming up a group

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Sentence Completion

• Respondent is asked to complete a sentence
• I think the new Beetle
• Most people think the new Beetle
• The new Beetle reminds me of ..
• People who drive retro autos.
• The most important thing about any auto.
• People who drive foreign autos

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Picture Completion

• Bubble picture where respondents fill in a
  dialogue between users/non-users before/after,
  different brands etc.
• What people say / what they really think
• Exercise
• A drawing shows a couple standing in front of a
  Volkswagen showroom, looking at the new Beetle.
  The respondent is asked to imagine, first what
  the man says, then what the women says.

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Analogy

• Imagining the product/brand not as it is but as
  something else (music, animal, a texture etc.)
• Or like a brand in another product field, a car,
  drink, restaurant etc.
• Analogies work by freeing respondents from
  logical constraints and forcing up emotional
  responses
• Can tap into social, product, and personal imagery

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Personalisation

• The product or brand becomes a person (or vice
  versa)
• Helps bring brands to life
• Feeling, thought, character etc (like brand
  values)
• Or respondents can project themselves into the
  roles of user and non-users
• Making up eulogies or obituaries can help

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Third Person

• What kind of people drive Porsche?
• What kind of people drive new Beetles?
• What kind of people drive Saturns?
• What kind of people do you imagine the VW dealer
  has the most success selling new Beetles?
• What kind of people does the VW dealer have most
  trouble selling to?

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Role Playing

• Dramatising relationships between brands with
  advertising or highlighting decision making
  process
• Group members take on roles and act out their
  fantasies
• Specific adaptations
• soap opera / legend/ romantic story/ salesman
  technique
• Specific aids may be
• dolls / houses / setting/ masks etc.

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Exercise on Role Playing/ Personality Projection

• A new family moves into your neighbourhood (into
  your apartment/house). Before you see them, you
  notice that their car parked out front is a
  Jaguar
• Now what kind of people would you guess they are?
• Tell me anything you think about them -
  personalities, experience, interest, anything
  like that

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Psychodrawing

• Uses colours, shapes and symbols to express how
  they feel about brands (Ralph Lauren)
• Can be analysed for symbolism
• Can be used as catalysts for probing when
  respondents are asked to elaborate on what they
  were trying to visualise

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Thematic Apperception Tests

• Respondent is asked to tell a story around a
  picture or pictures
• Can reveal dimensions of the imagination
• Requires some sort of narrative or plot