Chapter Seven

1. Chapter Seven Information Collection: Qualitative and Observational Methods

2. Examples • Tiffany’s is researching possible positioning options for their new ad campaign • Starbucks seeks to understand its brand associations • Las Vegas tries to understand why tourists love to visit the city • You try to figure out the fierce loyalty HOGS have for Harley Davidson

3. Common theme • What is the common theme that runs through these research questions: • “seek to understand” • seek insights • You have no clue about the “trait” • (which if you did, you would frame a close-ended question and do quantitative research) • Qualitative inquiry to find out the ‘trait’

4. Tiffany’s ad campaign

5. Tiffany’s ad campaign

6. Information Collection : Qualitative and Observational Methods • Qualitative methods • To find out what is in the person’s mind • Relatively unstructured stimulus • A range of responses possible (e.g. What thoughts come to your mind when you think about Winthrop) • Prelude to a quantitative study • Used to measure motivations, hidden thoughts and feelings, etc. (the question ‘why’) • Greater potential for new insights

7. Qualitative Research • Exploratory • Problem definition (e.g. why are sales down in the Northeast?) • Suggesting hypotheses • Generating new product concepts and features (e.g. What new features would you like to see in your cell phone?) • Preliminary reactions to new concepts (e.g. millenials) • Pre-testing questionnaires (e.g. what problems do you see in the questionnaire) • Orientation • Appreciating new perspectives (cross cultural research) and vocabulary (what does a word mean e.g. meh, etc.) • Clinical • Insights into topics heavily influenced by desirability bias (e.g. why do at-risk people resort to questionable behaviors?)

8. Individual In-depth Interviews • Non-directive interviews • Semi-structured or focused individual interviews • Create a relaxed atmosphere • Ability to probe critical questions • Ability to bring back the interview on course • Laddering: A technique to elicit higher-order benefits / issues from a tangible product characteristic

9. Laddering – Another example

10. Laddering – another example

11. Focus Group Discussions • Discussion of 8 to 12 subjects moderated by a discussion leader • Used in the exploratory phase of the market research process • Intended to provoke spontaneity • Group interaction • Chain reaction (adding forces you to think), devil’s advocate (present extreme viewpoints), false termination (“one more thing…”)

12. Focus Groups • Hershey’s has plans to introduce a soya milk chocolate bar.

13. Effective focus groups • Plan the agenda • The introduction • The main issues • Recruitment • Homogeneity • Some contrast for a lively discussion • Experienced panels • Moderator • Friendly, flexible and firm (3 Fs) • Results • Recording, coding, inter-coder reliability

14. Problems with focus groups • Peer pressure • Desirability in the group / anxious to belong • Shy participants • Controlling participants • Undue influence • Sensitized participants- spontaneity is questionable

15. Projective Techniques • Used when respondent will not or cannot respond meaningfully • Comment upon rather unstructured or ambiguous object, activity. • Objective: reveal hidden feelings and opinions • Respondent projects own opinion on something else: task, third person, object

16. Projective Techniques • Word Association • Immediate response word to the stimulus word (stimulus word is mixed with neutral words) • Conclusions based on • Response latency • Frequency of mentioned word • Number of respondents who do not respond at all to the test word • Used to find out brand associations

17. Word Associations Tests

18. Projective Techniques • Completion tests • Give an incomplete sentence and ask the participant to complete it • E.g. I love Vegas because --- • Dialogue balloons • Show a picture / cartoon and suggest what the actors are saying • Picture Interpretation techniques • Project yourself into the picture and suggest the brand that comes to your mind

20. Projective techniques • Third person technique • Ask how friends, neighbors or an average person would react to a situation • Respondents tend to project their feelings • Address sensitive questions • E.g. “If you were to see your neighbor talk to his car, what do you suppose he/she would be saying?” • Role playing • Respondents attitudes surface during the role-play

21. Limitations of Qualitative Methods • Potential susceptibility of the results to get misused or misinterpreted • Small samples – limited generalizability • Moderator or interviewer's role – can heavily influence the outcomes • Volume and complexity of analysis

22. Observational Methods • Casual Observation • Systematic Observation • Direct Observation (observe an activity in its natural setting) • Contrived Observation (a situation is created and participants are observed) • Content Analysis (observation of written content) • Physical Trace Measures (trace of the behavior left behind) • Humanistic Inquiry (ethnography) • Behavior Recording Devices (people meter, bar code scanners, eye-movement, voice pitch analysis, etc.)

23. Evaluation of Observational Methods • Cannot be used to observe motives, attitudes or intentions • Often more costly and time consuming • Often the only method to collect data

24. Projective Technique