Qualitative Research

Examples Tiffany’s is researching possible positioning options for their new ad campaign Starbucks seeks to understand its brand associations Winthrop seeks to understand why students love the university Face book seeks to understand how it can improve user engagement even further

Common theme What is the common theme that runs through these research questions: You have no clue about the “trait” Qualitative inquiry to find out the ‘trait’

Information Collection : Qualitative and Observational Methods Qualitative methods

Individual In-depth Interviews Non-directive interviews Semi-structured or focused individual interviews Laddering:

Tiffany’s ad campaign

Laddering – Another example

Laddering – another example

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, devil’s advocate, false termination

Focus Groups Hershey’s has plans to introduce a soya milk chocolate bar. (Design and structure a focus group agenda for the above)

Effective focus groups Plan the agenda Recruitment Moderator Results

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

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

Projective Techniques Word Association –Immediate response word to the stimulus word (stimulus word is mixed with neutral words) –Conclusions based on –Used to find out brand associations (refer to our in- class example)

Projective Techniques Completion tests Dialogue balloons Picture Interpretation techniques

Projective techniques Third person technique Role playing –Respondents attitudes surface during the role-play

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

Projective Technique – Sentence Completion Test “I love Mauritius because______”