Qualitative Research: Part 1
Slide 1
This series of two lectures discusses exploratory and qualitative research methods as they pertain to marketing.
Slide 2
Exploratory research is the initial research conducted to clarify and define the nature of a problem. This research is typically qualitative, although qualitative research can also be used in a final research effort to further explain the results of a quantitative study. Exploratory research by definition does not provide conclusive evidence. Exploratory research is typically the first stage in a multi-study approach in which it’s conducted to inform subsequent descriptive and/or causal research.
Slide 3
As this slide shows, exploratory research can be used for both analysis of a situation and for problem definition. It’s not used for symptom detection or for a formal statement of research objectives. There’s no requirement that exploratory research be conducted, but often it’s advisable to further define the problem and to understand the situation in question.
Slide 4
There are several reasons for conducting exploratory research:
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To diagnose a situation or to help to better define the problem area .
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To screen alternatives . There may be dozens or even hundreds of alternatives that might be considered, and it ’d be cost prohibitive to conduct extensive research on all of them. Exploratory research, because it ’s typically less expensive and quicker, can be used to reduce an initial large set of alternatives into a pared down and more manageable set that ’s appropriate for study with descriptive or causal research.
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To discover new ideas.
Quantitative research tends to be more structured and as a result may be less well suited to identifying new possibilities.
Slide 5
When researchers talk about exploratory research, they talk about it as part of one of these four categories: an experience survey, a secondary data analysis, a case study, or a pilot study. I’ll briefly discuss each of these in the next several slides.
Slide 6
An experience survey is a type of in-depth interview in which knowledgeable people are asked about a particular research problem. These surveys typically are unstructured and in-depth, so they require more than an hour to conduct. Fortunately, most experts are very willing to talk about their expertise and their impressions of the problem or situation at hand. Such interviews offer a rare venue for experts to display their expertise to an interested person.
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Slide 7
Secondary data was covered in a previous lecture. Nonetheless, secondary data analysis also can be considered a type of exploratory research. In secondary data analysis, data are collected for a purpose other than the research problem at hand. Recall internal and external secondary data. Such data is economical, in the sense that it ’s almost always less expensive to acquire it than to collect primary data. Such data can provide a quick source for background information.
Slide 8
Most students are familiar with case studies. Case studies intensely investigate one or more situations similar to the problem at hand. Marketing case studies provide very in-depth analyses that may reflect the problem of interest. Often, case studies require the cooperation of a host site. For example, many of the cases you studied in marketing required one or more companies’ managers to provide detailed information to case writers.
Slide 9
Pilot studies are as the term indicates; they ’re small-scale exploratory studies. If a larger, more comprehensive, and more rigorous study is intended, but if there are concerns about possible errors in that study’s design, then a pilot study would provide a feedback about the viability of the planned larger study, whether new procedures are required, and the like.
Slide 10
In general, qualitative methods are less structured, in a large part because they’re supposed to be flexible and allow research to pursue directions they didn’t anticipate. The more structured quantitative methods don ’t permit such flexibility. Qualitative methods also tend to be more intensive, in the sense that fewer respondents are surveyed in far more detail. Due to small and nonrepresentative samples, there’s no interest in generalizing results to a larger population, which is the purview of quantitative research. Instead, researchers mine this small number of people extensively for their opinions and potential behaviors. Hence, the non-probability samples associated with qualitative research.
Slide 11
Qualitative and quantitative research differs from one another in several ways. Each has its relative strengths and weaknesses. Each has its own requirements as well. Qualitative research intended for exploratory research provides initial understanding; in contrast, quantitative research tends to be descriptive or conclusive and intended for recommending courses of action. Qualitative research relies on smaller and non-representative samples rather than larger and representative samples useful for extrapolating to larger populations. Qualitative research tends to rely on a range of flexible questioning rather than highly structured questions. That flexibility is needed to explore unanticipated leads. Structured questions, by their nature, are more focused and therefore provide insufficient flexibility for exploring unexpected avenues.
Qualitative research, given the nature of the data it yields, requires subjective interpretation of that data. In contrast, quantitative research, with its very structured questions, often provides numerical scores that are easily subjected to subsequent statistical analysis.
Slide 12
This cartoon captures the subjective nature of evaluating qualitative data. Hence, this researchers claim that the company seems to be qualitative good shape despite the numbers
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suggesting otherwise. That’s not to suggest that qualitative research is necessarily suspect. All it suggests is that the analysis of qualitative data is subjective.
Slide 13
Here’s a useful way to think of the differences in quantitative versus qualitative measures.
Because one is the flip side of the other, I’ll focus on the left-hand column associated with qualitative measurement. With qualitative measures, questions are relatively easy to write and therefore questionnaires are relatively easy to create. However, such questionnaires require more careful thought by respondents, are more slowly answered, and are in the respondents own words (so answers are more varied and require more effort to evaluate). Consider the relative ease of responding to a multiple-choice versus an essay exam. Most students would vote for a multiple-choice exam if given the choice between a multiple-choice and essay exam.
Qualitative measures have less social desirability bias because answers are in respondents ’ own words; they can carefully choose to answer in ways that will not reflect poorly on them.
Because the response categories are not hinted, there are more memory-related problems associated with qualitative measures. Consider aided versus unaided recall; y ou’re more likely to recall something if prompted. Given the nature of the qualitative data, analysis is slower and more subjective. It’s impossible to run meaningful statistical analyses on qualitative data. Such data is more flexible, uses smaller samples, usually precedes quantitative methods, and is very useful for exploratory research.
Slide 14
Here are a few of the many different appropriate uses for qualitative data research. I won’t read the right-hand column, with the answers to the questions, but will look at the marketing arenas that lend themselves to qualitative research. Qualitative research may be used to segment markets, to examine ad concepts, to facilitate new product development, to perform sales analysis and development, to help design packaging, to query potential customers about brand image, to help position or reposition brands in the marketplace, to design retail spaces, and to help better understand the marketing environment.
Slide 15
Here ’s a relatively complete summary of the differences between qualitative and quantitative research.
Slide 16
As I mentioned earlier, qualitative studies often are used for exploratory research purposes.
Here are three basic types of qualitative studies: in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, and projective techniques.
Slide 17
This cartoon shows a consumer behavior discoverable through a depth interview. I made a copy of this cartoon because it related to my previous smoking and driving behaviors. (I no longer smoke, so it no longer pertains.) When I used to drive from Houston to Dallas or Houston to
Austin, I thought of those drives in terms of the number of cigarettes I would consume. Typically the Austin drive, which was roughly three hours, was a three-cigarette drive, and the Dallas drive, which was closer to four hours, was a four-cigarette drive. Typically, I found that I smoked roughly one cigarette per hour whenever I drove long distances. When I found this cartoon, I realized I must not be the only one who equated driving times with cigarettes smoked per hour.
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However, it’s unlikely that a research would think, in a structured survey, to ask respondents whether or not they equated number of cigarettes per hour with number of hours driven. It ’s the type of unexpected finding that might be revealed through an in-depth interview.
Slide 18 (No Audio)
Slide 19
People who conduct depth interviews should behave in ways that encourage the best or highest quality responses from interviewees. At a minimum, field workers who conduct depth interviews ought to do the following.
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They should provide a comfortable environment, so that respondents answer as completely as possible and minimize the degree that they censor their thoughts.
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They should allow respondents to express their opinions and thoughts in their own words. That’s not to say that there isn’t a flexible interview guide. Rather, they should be as unobtrusive as possible and allow respondents to volunteer all their opinions while directing the conversation.
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They should reflect respondents ’ feelings as summary statements. After a respondent has spoken for a minute or two, the interviewer might say something non-directive, like
“Let me see if I understand what you’re saying” and then summarize what he or she believes the respondent said. If the interviewer misunderstood, and as a result the summary is inaccurate, then the respondent can then clarify. That’s not to say that the interviewer expresses his or her own opinion; rather, this summarizing effort makes the interview process seem more conversational and ensures that answers are properly interpreted.
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When appropriate, they should ask probing questions so that respondents can further clarify their self reports. The ability to ask probing questions is a major strength of indepth interviews , as it’s often impossible to anticipate how respondents might answer.
When respondents answers are interesting and unexpected, interviews can ask followup questions to further develop those answers.
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To be certain all pertinent topics are covered during the interview, they should use a topic outline. I ’ve worked from a flexible schedule (or outline) when I’ve conducted such interviews. Knowing I need to ask 20 or 30 questions, I anticipate the most logical sequence for asking those questions. Nonetheless, respondents may jump to answering questions I planned to pose much later in the interview. I f it doesn’t seem excessively forced, then I ’d try to return to my original question schedule. Regardless, the art of indepth interviewing is to be flexible with question sequencing. In summary, the topic outline is structured as logically as possible by the interviewer and only used to guarantee that only all the important topics are covered.
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They should avoid making evaluative comments or doing anything that might inhibit respondents’ behavior. To allow respondents time to think, a good depth interviewer will remain silent through extended pauses. This ‘need to fill the silence’ is a problem for many first and second year instructors. They’ll pose a rhetorical question to a class and then wait for a response. When no one responds in three or four seconds, new instructors become nervous and offer an answer. Similarly, it takes great interviewing
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skill and experience to be able to wait out respondents while they can contemplate their answers and then provide them.
In summary, the goal is to let respondents do the talking. Interviewer may know the questions, but respondents have the answers. It’s best to hear less from interviewers and more from respondents.
Slide 20
This cartoon shows the type of statement that the depth interviewer should never make to a respondent.
Slide 21
This cartoon makes the point that depth interviewers must be very careful in posing sensitive questions to respondents. Especially with probing questions, interviewers must be as careful as possible not to put off respondents.
Slide 22
To provide a still better idea of the type of facts that might be revealed in a depth interview, the next two slides provide sample texts for such interviews.
Slide 23 to Slide 24 (No Audio)
Slide 25
I found this cartoon in the New Yorker, so don’t blame marketing researchers for having a poor sense of humor. The important point of that an unfocused focus group isn’t especially useful.
Slide 26
What is a focus group? Think of a focus group as an unstructured, free flowing, laid back, relaxed group interview that takes between one and three hours to complete. This group interview is run by a moderator who ’s working from a somewhat structured script to ensure that all topics are covered and, as with depth interviews, manages the flow of the conversation.
Typically, such scripts start with a broad topic and then gradually focus on issues of more specific interest to the research sponsor. Such sessions are always audio- and video-recorded.
Sometimes, there are observers who sit behind two-way mirrors and watch the session as it proceeds.
Slide 27
Focus groups typically are conducted with groups of 6 to 10 people who have been prescreened by telephone, which ensures they are qualified to speak about the topic of interest to the research sponsor. For example, when I conducted several focus groups for a casino in Las
Vegas that was interested in understanding the motivations of local slot machine players, the
Las Vegans who were invited to participate in those groups were screened to ensure that they played video slots. Typically, focus group research requires moderating three to four different groups. The goal is to run sessions until they’ve revealed almost everything that can be revealed by them, and three to four sessions allows enough opportunities to hear enough different viewpoints and to learn enough about different behaviors.
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Although the people recruited for the multiple sessions may, by design, differ markedly from each other socio-demographically, behaviorally, and attitudinally, the people within a given session should be as similar to one another as possible. Consider the difficulty of managing substantive conversations between people who have little in common or who don’t use the same words to describe the same things. A successful focus group requires participants to converse meaningfully with each other, and intra-group similarity —at least in terms of the product or service in question —maximizes the potential for such conversations. Because focus group participants within a given session should have similar lifestyles and experiences, they should be pre-screened accordingly.
Slide 28
Focus groups are expensive, so that the incremental value of additional focus groups after the first three or four diminishes to the point that the cost exceeds the benefit. This slide shows the expenses associated with a single focus group. Running three or four focus groups should cost roughly $10,000. Surprisingly —given the person intensiveness of focus groups and the rising cost of human services —the nominal cost has remained stable for the last 15 years. Perhaps cost stability is due to technological improvements that reduced the time needed to generate summary reports; for example, low-cost-yet-high-quality video recordings have replaced verbatim transcripts of low-fidelity audio-only recordings. Nonetheless, the moderator ’s fee, preplanning expenses, rent for a facility with a two-way mirror (for unobtrusive live viewing and video recording), reasonable food service and respondent incentives (because people are unlikely to show up at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday unless they‘re promised free food and money), the analysis of participants comments, and written and oral reports, would cost roughly $2500.00 per session for four sessions. Although videotaping may now cost less than indicated on this slide, increased travel costs more than compensate. Without the ability to amortize costs over multiple sessions, a single session is likely to run roughly $4,000; hence, there are economies of scale in running three or four sessions on consecutive nights at a given facility. So, for standard consumer focus groups, running four sessions over two nights at a respectable facility and with edible food would run roughly $10,000. In contrast, focus groups with ‘experts’ are more costly. For example, it’s unlikely physicians would agree to participate in a focus group in return for a free deli sandwich, soft drinks, and $40. Instead, the remuneration for physician participants would run multiple hundreds of dollars, which would drive costs up considerably.
Slide 29
What should you include in a screener for recruiting participants to a focus group? Here’s a very reasonable list.
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A heading and the screening requirements.
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Identification of the prospect in terms of home/work address, phone number, and e-mail address.
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An introduction to the research; otherwise , it’s impossible to assess whether or not the potential participant is qualified to participate.
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Security questions that would reveal potential respondent over-participation or conflict of interest. Professional respondents should be avoided. Because focus group participants are fed, paid, and socially engaged, lonely/bored and lower-income people —who may be atypical of the targeted population —would participate excessively in focus groups if unchecked.
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Demographic questions that would allow construction of homogeneous groupings for the sessions.
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Questions about the frequency of product use, purchase history, or brand loyalty, which would qualify people for participation. Pertinent lifestyle, attitude, and knowledge questions would be asked as well.
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Questions to assess whether or not a potential participant is sufficiently articulate; that they would be willing and able to volunteer their thoughts adequately during a 2-to-3 hour session.
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The reason(s) why someone should participate in the study.
Slide 30
Here are seven rules for recruiting focus group participants.
Slide 31
I thought you might find this list of factors that would encourage or discourage people from participating in focus groups somewhat interesting. There are a large number of factors on both sides. The positive factors include ego enhancement, personal validations, catharsis, personal growth, socialization, and extrinsic rewards for participating. In contrast, the negative factors include ego threats, political correctness, memory decay, inarticulateness, reticence, and time constraints. These negative factors tend to inhibit participation, either to attend the session or to say something during it.
Slide 32
Focus groups are moderated. I’ve served as a moderator in several focus groups. What does a moderator do? As you might expect by definition, a moderator focuses the group’s discussion.
The moderator has written a loose script, similar to the one provided for in-depth interviewers, to ensure that all relevant topics ultimately are covered during the 2-to-3 hour session, although perhaps not in the sequence specified by the script. In essence, the moderator exerts loose control through his/her attempts to follow the script. His/her goal is to help develop rapport amongst the 6 to 10 people who have opted to participate in the session; to help them relax and be comfortable. The moderator interacts with these people, listens carefully to what they say, and may —as with in depth interviewers—attempt to summarize what someone has said and then ask other group members to comment on that summary. Ultimately, the moderator tries to hear equally from all group participants, which may be difficult when groups contain both reticent and highly talkative speakers.
Slide 33
Although conducting a focus group is not rocket science, moderators should share certain characteristics. They must be kind but firm. They must be permissive but alert to signs that the group’s cordiality or purpose is disintegrating. They must seem actively engaged even if the focus group topic is dull (like women’s deodorant, laundry soap and other mundane products).
They must seem enthused and involved, even if the group is discussing mundane products.
They must encourage specific and substantive comments and discourage glib, vague, and ambiguous comments. They must encourage respondents so that everyone participates in the discussion, and as a result, the group avoids a ‘group think’ in which one or two people dominate the group’s opinion. They should be flexible and be able to improvise; no matter how
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carefully a moderator plans a session, it never unfolds as planned. Once people are involved, the process becomes unpredictable. Finally, they must be sensitive; they must have good intuition about people and their comfort levels and be able to relate to people on an emotional level. Without those skills, moderators will be ineffective.
Slide 34
H ere’s how the planning and execution process proceeds. First, the researcher and the client must identify the objectives of the research and define the problem. Then, as focus groups research is a type of qualitative research, objectives specific to the qualitative research phase of the overall study should be specified. Third, the objectives and questions to be answered by the focus group sessions should be clarified. Fourth, a screening questionnaire to identify potential focus group participants should be written. Fifth, the moderator must work with the client to identify acceptable outlines for the sessions.
With outlines in place and participants arriving, sessions are conducted at a single site over two nights, with sessions running from 6 to 8pm and 8 to 10pm. For larger metropolitan areas like
Chicago or Houston or Dallas, people tend to stay awake later than they do in Las Cruces. After the sessions are completed, the audio and video recordings must be analyzed, a report must be written, presentations must be made, and suggestions for follow-up research must be developed . That’s basically the procedure from beginning to end.
Slide 35
Now that I’ve described focus groups, how participants are solicited, what moderators do, and the general process for conducting focus groups, wh at’s their value? This slide indicates the types and purposes of focus groups. They are divided into three types: exploratory, clinical, and experiencing. The purposes differ depending on the type of focus group. Truly exploratory focus groups help to define problems and generate hypotheses (i.e., formal statements to be tested); concept testing and pilot testing require focus groups run for exploratory reasons. Clinical focus groups can probe deeply into participants ’ psyches and reveal subconscious motivations for their behaviors. Finally, experiencing focus groups can reveal product or brand usage attitudes and beliefs. Although this last type is far more typical for marketing practice, all three types of focus groups are useful for addressing the range of marketing problem.
Slide 36
This slide shows specific marketing uses for focus groups. Allowing consumers to chat about their product usage and attitudes can help advertising agencies develop new ads. Establishing consumer vocabulary is an important precursor to descriptive research. (In fact, my first two focus group experiences were motivated by that need. I was conducting academic research on people who had relocated, and I wanted to identify the words they used to describe different things associated with moving so I could design a structured questionnaire that would use those words, as opposed to the words that appeared in academic journal articles about relocation.
There’s no sense asking consumers questions that only academicians can interpret properly.)
Other good uses for focus groups: uncovering basic consumer needs and attitudes, establishing new product concepts, generating new ideas about established markets, and finally to help interpret the results of previously conducted quantitative studies.
Slide 37
Focus groups are not limited to consumers. In one focus group I conducted as a doctoral student, I interviewed experts. At the time, the U.S. was experiencing another oil shock and
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there was extensive concern about the development of electric cars. (The more things change, the more they stay the same!) A colleague and I recruited battery technology experts, automotive technology experts, and an engineer for an electric car company, for a focus group session. We discovered many things by asking experts that we otherwise wouldn’t have discovered by asking consumers. Focus groups may be great for studying consumers’ attitudes, but they’re also useful for studying experts’ attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge bases.
Slide 38
This slide summarizes the advantages of focus groups over in-depth interviews. First, a focus group provides a group environment, and there are synergies when people talk to each other.
One person’s comments can trigger thoughts and comments by other people that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise. There ’s a synergy in speaking with 6 to 10 people simultaneously, rather than speaking with one person at a time.
The re’s also security in numbers. Often, people may be more willing to speak in a larger group with people who might confirm their beliefs. Focus groups tend to be spontaneous and relaxed affairs, which encourage open and occasionally unexpected responses.
The advantage to the research sponsor is cost effectiveness. Conducting 6 to 10 in-depth interviews costs far more than interviewing those same people simultaneously; hence, focus groups are a more efficient use of trained interviewers. The cost per hour for a depth interviewer and the number of hours required to interview that many people would cause interviewer costs to exceed focus group costs (like site and food costs). Focus groups are conducted in a centralized location and in a more controlled way. Typical in-depth interviews occur at respondents ’ workplace or home, and such interviews are not monitored. Focus groups are audio and video recorded, so there ’s more control over the interviewing process. A series of focus groups can be scheduled for two days; in contrast, one person trying to conduct depth interviews would complete, at best, two per day. Trying to interview 40 people might take a month or more.
Slide 39
Finally, I’ll talk briefly about the advantages and disadvantages of online focus groups, which are a relatively new type of focus group that doesn’t require participants to visit a centralized location. Such focus groups are fast, inexpensive, and can bring together participants from a diverse geographic area. Participants in online focus groups can be anonymous, unlike participants in traditional focus groups. Because online focus groups are text based, transcripts are automatically created in the process of running the groups. Traditional focus groups rely on audio-and video-recording; if transcripts are required, then they must be created after-the-fact from these sources.
Slide 40
There are several disadvantages with online focus groups. First, there
’s less group interaction.
Ten people in a chat room texting simultaneously to one another isn ’t the same as ten people sitting face-to-face and enjoying a meal. Second, an online focus group, because it occurs at ten different computing stations, lacks vital visual feedback. I t’s impossible for participants or the moderator to sense people’s facial expressions or body language; instead, everyone’s totally dependent on words. Finally, the moderator’s job differs markedly for an online focus group.
Instead of the social skills that I enumerated previously, the moderator may need technical skills to encourage people in physically remote places to participate openly.
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