Modern Marketing
Information & Analysis (Week 4)
Business & Marketing vocabulary and jargon can often become quite confusing for some. Today, I hope to get rid of some of that confusion and tell you all about Qualitative data. I've also thrown in a few tips and tricks on how to improve focus group performance as well as few advantages, disadvantages and theory too so ENJOY!
(Also, special thanks to Vic for some of this information in today's lecture, it's been a massive help with my coursework!)
I'll start off short and sweet;
Qualitative Research can often be used first as an exploratory tool to identify consumers behaviours/attitudes
Quantitative Research then follows to confirm incidence of these behaviours among a sample group
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| Qualitative and Quantitative Differences |
Qualitative
Research involves the collection of data which is easily open to
interpretation. For example, “people’s opinions where there is no intention of
establishing statistical validity” (Brassington & Pettitt, 2007, p.145).
“This type of research is especially useful for investigating motivation,
attitudes, beliefs and intentions rather than probability-based samples”. In
particular, qualitative data can be generated from focus groups and in-depth
interviews. Results can “reflect the complexity that underlies consumer
decision-making and identifying how and why consumers act in the way they do”.
This can help organisations gain an insight into consumer behaviour, attitudes
and opinions. It also allows the interviewer to obtain “deeper and more
penetrating insights into topics than would be the with a questionnaire”
(Wilson, 2012, p.103).
Quantitative
Research involves the collection of information was is easily quantifiable and
not open to the same level of interpretation as qualitative research. It can
include audience figures, market share/size, demographic information etc.
According to Brassington & Pettitt (p.145, 2007), the success of
quantitative research depends in part on “establishing a sample that is large
enough to allow the client and the agency to be confident that the final
results can be generalised to apply to the wider population. It may then be
possible to specify that ‘45% of the market think that... whereas 29%
believe...’ for example”. As a result, quantitative research can be
generated from questionnaire and survey results. Overall, gathering
quantitative data is more structured than qualitative and analysis of the
findings will tend to be more statistical in nature and is often undertaken
with the help of computer software such as SNAP, Excel or Word (Wilson, 2007,
p.131) to publish the final results (e.g. pie charts, graphs and tables).
Qualitative Research
Qualitative
research is especially useful for investigating motivation, attitudes, beliefs
and intentions, rather than quantitative data such as questionnaires. It is
often based on very small-scale samples and, as a result, cannot be generalised
in numerical terms. Although results are often subjective, tentative and
impressionistic, they can reflect the complexity of the consumer decision
making, capturing the richness and depth of how and why consumers act in the
way they do. (Proctor, p.234, 2000)
The
real value in qualitative research lies in helping marketers and companies to
understand not what people say, but what they mean. Focus group discussions and in-depth
interviews are the two most commonly used qualitative research methods.
Some
advantages of qualitative research are;
·
It
is usually much cheaper than quantitative research.
·
There
is no better way than qualitative research to understand the in-depth
motivations and feelings of consumers. Using Qualitative research will allow
Marlow FM obtain first hand experiences with ‘flesh and blood’ consumers. Black Sheep Marketing will be able to observe
the consumers reactions to concepts, hear consumers discuss Marlow FM at length
using their own opinions.
·
It
can improve the efficiency of quantitative research.
Focus Groups
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| Focus Group Characteristics |
Group discussions are the most popular method of qualitative marketing research. An
interviewer recruits 6 to 10 people with similar characteristics who meet in a
relaxed informal atmosphere, for a discussion that can last up to two hours.
The discussion is convened by a moderator who will introduce the subject matter
and encourage the participants to discuss the key issues identified during the
briefing with the client. The quality of the discussion is largely dependent on
the accurate recruitment of participant’s and the skills and experience of the
moderator. Participants should be recruited to specification. Catterall (1994,
p.16)
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| The Procedure for Planning and Conducting Focus Groups |
Key Qualifications for Focus Group Moderators
1) Kindness
with firmness: The moderator must combine a disciplined detachment with
understanding empathy so as to generate the necessary interaction.
2) Permissiveness:
The moderator must be permissive yet alert to signs that the group’s cordiality
or purpose is disintegrating.
3) Involvement:
The moderator must encourage and stimulate intense personal involvement.
Incomplete
understanding: The moderator must encourage respondents to be more specific
about generalized comments by exhibiting incomplete understanding.
Implementing a "Discussion Guide" as depicted in the model below, can result in successful results for the focus group. Many professionals refer to the concept as the "funnel technique".
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| The Focus Group Funnel Technique |
Focus Group Advantages
Synergism, Snowballing, Stimulation, Security, Spontaneity, Serendipity, Specialization, Scientific Scrutiny, Structure, Speed
Focus Group Disadvantages
Misuse, Misjudge, Moderation, Messy, Misrepresentation
In recent years, the rise of online focus groups has been performing well. This may because the process is much quicker to conduct and respondents can come from anywhere within the world. However, there are a few disadvantages to online group discussions and moderator control can be easily lost and body language/opinions may not come across as effectively as face-to-face. The table below compares the effectiveness of an online focus group and face-to-face.
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| Online/Face-to-Face Focus Groups Comparison |
About Projective Techniques
- An unstructured, indirect form of questioning that encourages respondents to project their underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes or feelings regarding the issues of concern.
- In projective techniques, respondents are asked to interpret the behavior of others.
- In interpreting the behavior of others, respondents indirectly project their own motivations, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings into the situation.
Word Association
Word Association as a warm up technique can allow respondents to feel at ease with one another (particularly if they had never met beforehand) which can open up more opportunities for each individual to feel more comfortable with expressing their true opinion. The results of associating different words and key phrases with one key word can often have similarities within the group. This can then help the moderator to identify similar opinions and attitudes of the market and wider discussions can take place.
Completion Techniques: Sentence Completion, Picture Response, Cartoon Tests
In sentence
completion, respondents are given incomplete sentences and asked to complete
them. Generally, they are asked to use
the first word or phrase that comes to mind. A variation of sentence completion is paragraph completion, in which the respondent completes a paragraph beginning with the stimulus phrase.
- A person who shops at ASDA is ______________________
- A person who receives a gift certificate good for Marks and Spencer would be __________________________________
- Sainsburys is most liked by _________________________
- When I think of shopping in a large supermarket, I ________
With a picture response, the respondents are asked to describe a series of pictures
of ordinary as well as unusual events.
The respondent's interpretation of the pictures gives indications of
that individual's personality.
In cartoon
tests, cartoon characters are shown in a specific situation related to the
problem. The respondents are asked to
indicate what one cartoon character might say in response to the comments of
another character. Cartoon tests are
simpler to administer and analyze than picture response techniques.
In story
completion, respondents are given part of a story – enough to direct attention
to a particular topic but not to hint at the ending. They are required to give the conclusion in
their own words.
Projective Techniques Advantages and Disadvantages are shown in the table below.
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| Advantages and Disadvantages of Projective Techniques |
In-Depth Interviews/Discussions
Of course, focus groups are not the only method of qualitative research and in-depth interviews can also be conducted under the same research tool. Although they mostly have the same advantages and work in very similar ways, there are a few differences. In-depth discussions do allow for much more extensive answers (with fewer respondents) so those individuals may be more likely to express particular opinions or attitudes towards a certain topic. However, with any type of research, there are a few disadvantages. Conducting in-depth research and analysis can be very time-consuming and costly. A comparison of both methods is shown in the table below.
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| Contrasts and Comparisons of Focus Groups and Depth Interviews/Discussions |
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