In-depth Interviews &

Ethnography
Exploratory research design
- Undertaken when objectives focus on gaining
background information, defining terms and
establishing priorities
- Does not aim to provide the final and conclusive
answers to the research questions, but merely explores
the research topic with varying levels of depth.

Reasons to conduct Exploratory Research?

1. To diagnose a situation
2. To screen alternatives
3. To discover new ideas
Exploratory Research – qualitative research
methods
1. In-depth Interviews
2. Observation
3. Focus group interviews
4. Ethnography
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 Advantages & Disadvantages of Qualitative Methods
Advantages Disadvantages

1. Economical and timely 1. Lack of generalisability

data collection 2. Inability to distinguish
2. Richness of the data small differences.
3. Accuracy of recording 3. Lack of reliability and
marketplace behaviors validity
4. Difficulty finding well-
4. Preliminary insights trained investigators,
into building models interviewers and
and scale observers
measurements

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 Situations to use Qualitative Research
Identify a business
problem of Establish information
opportunity requirements

Understand customer Build theories and

purchase behaviour models
Qualitative
Research
Determine the
preliminary
effectiveness of their Obtain insights into
marketing strategies the motivation,
emotional, attitudinal
Develop scale and personality
measurements factors
In-Depth Interview
A data-collection method in which a skilled interviewer
asks a participant a set of semi-structured questions in a
face-to-face setting
Goal: to elicit rich, detailed information that can be used
for analysis
- Face to face
- Telephone Interview
When do we prefer to conduct it?
- Detailed info sought
- Busy, high-status respondents
- Highly sensitive subject matter
In-Depth Interview Example:
For example, we might ask participants, staff, and
others associated with a program about their
experiences and expectations related to the program,
the thoughts they have concerning program
operations, processes, and outcomes, and about any
changes they perceive in themselves as a result of their
involvement in the program.
In-depth interviews should be used in place of focus
groups if the potential participants may not be included
or comfortable talking openly in a group, or when you
want to distinguish individual (as opposed to group)
opinions about the program. They are often used to
refine questions for future surveys of a particular group.
Skills Required of an In-depth Interviewer

1. Interpersonal
communication skills
2. Listening skills
3. Interpretative skills
4. Personality suitability
5. Ability to probe
Objectives of In-depth Interviews

1. To discover preliminary insights of what the subject thinks

or believes about the topic of concern or why the subject
exhibits certain behaviours.

2. To obtain unrestricted and detailed comments that include

feelings, beliefs, or opinions that can help better understand
the different elements of the subject’s thoughts and the
reasons why they exist.

3. To have the respondent communicate as much detail as

possible about his or her knowledge and behaviour towards a
given topic or object.

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Another Example
Marriott conducted a study to understand how to deliver
better on-site services to business customers. The
researchers can conduct on-site, in-depth interviews with
selected business travellers that include these semi-
structured questions:
1. What were the specific reasons that made you select
Marriott for accommodation during your business trip
to (venue)? – Motive
2. What hotel services have you used during your stay
with us? – Behaviour
3. How satisfied are you with those services? – Current
feelings
In-depth Interviewing Characteristic
Probing Questions
- The mechanism to get more data on the topic from
the subject
- By taking the subject’s initial response and turning it
into a question, the interviewer encourages the subject
to further delineate the first response and creates
natural opportunities for a more detailed discussion of
the topic
- The more a subject talks about a topic, the more he or
she is able to reveal underlying attitudes, motives,
emotions and behaviours.
In-depth Interviewing Characteristic
Different Probing Methods
1. Silent Probe
– involves nothing more than waiting for someone to
continue their thought
- Respondent will ask for guidance on whether they are
“giving you what you want”
- Hard to do as it involves skill in recognising if people
have more to say or are thinking
- If a respondent holds back because of a threatening
question, interviewer can fill the void or let the silence
continue until the respondent starts to talk
In-depth Interviewing Characteristic
Different Probing Methods
2. Echo Probe
– involves repeating the last thing someone has
said and asking them to continue
- Useful when the respondent is describing a
process or an event
- Respondent will continue with the narrative as
it shows the interviewer understands what is
going on
In-depth Interviewing Characteristic
Different Probing Methods
3. The Tell-Me-More Probe
– Involves saying “can you tell me more,
pls”
- Need to use sparingly as it can be
tiresome if used too often in a single
session
- Useful for nonspecific probes as it is to
get people to talk more
In-depth Interviewing
Characteristic

Probing Questions using the Marriott example:

I: What hotel services have you used during your stay?
S: I have used the business centre, the gym, the restaurant
and the pool.
I: With regard to the gym, what were some of the actual
services that you requested?
S: I asked for extra fresh towels and some advice from the
gym instructor.
…………….
Tips : Questioning Techniques
Questions should be open-ended rather than closed-ended. For
example, instead of asking “Do you know about the clinic’s
services?” ask “Please describe the clinic’s services.”

Ask factual question before opinion questions. For example, ask,

“What activities were conducted?” before asking, “What did you
think of the activities?”
Use probes as needed.
These include:
Would you give me an example?
Can you elaborate on that idea?
Would you explain that further?
I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying.
Is there anything else?
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Advantages and Disadvantages:
Advantages Disadvantages

1. Flexibility to collect 1. Lack of generalisability.

data on activities and Inability to distinguish
behaviour patterns, small differences
and attitudes, 2. Lack of reliability and
motivations and validity
feelings 3. Potential for biases to
2. Large amount of emerge
detailed data (text ) 4. Potential interviewer
possible errors.
3. The possibility to 5. Costs and time (may not
always be a disadvantage)
probe the respondent
further
Steps in Conducting an In-Depth Interview
Understand initial questions/problems

Create a set of research questions

Decide on the best environment for conducting the interview

Select and screen the respondents

Respondent greeted, given interviewing guidelines, and put at ease

Conduct the in-depth interview

Analyze respondent’s narrative responses

Write summary report of results

Tips on Analyzing Interview Responses
Read through the interview responses and look for patterns or
themes among the partcipants.

If you get a variety of themes, see if you can group them in any
meaningful way, such as by type of participant.

You may, for example, find that younger participants tend to

think and feel differently from older ones or that men and women
respond differently.

You can also identify the responses that seem to have been given
with enthusiasm, as opposed to those that the participants
answered in only a few words. 19
Projective Techniques
Indirect method of questioning that enables a
subject to project beliefs and feelings onto a
third party, into the task situation or an
inanimate object.

 A fairly ambiguous stimulus is presented and the

respondents will indirectly reveal their own inner feelings by:
 Reacting to the stimulus
 Describing the stimulus

 Can be used with in-depth interviews or focus-group

discussions
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Projective Techniques
1. Word association
2. Sentence completion
3. Picture tests
4. Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT)
5. Cartoon or balloon tests
6. Role playing interviews
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1. Word Association
A projective technique in which the subject is
presented with a list of words or short phrases and
asked to respond with the first thing that comes to
mind OR is presented with a list of words to subject
and is asked the first word that comes to mind

Eg: What comes to your mind when I say

McDonalds?

Eg: Burger King ------- Cool, Family, New, Burgers

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2. Sentence Completion
Q. Please complete the following sentences.

People who smoke are ………………….

A woman who smokes is ………………………….

A man who smokes is ………………

Smoking is …….………………
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3. Picture Tests
Subjects are given a picture and instructed to describe their
reactions by writing a short narrative story about the picture.
• Useful to test the impact of pictures for use on product
packaging, print ads, and brochures.

4. Role-Playing Interviews
A subject is asked to act out someone else’s behaviour in a
specified setting.
• The subject assumes the identity of a third person.

5. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Subjects are presented with a series of pictures and asked to
provide a description of or a story about the pictures.
• Typically there is continuity in the pictures, and they are 4-24
ambiguous.
6. Cartoon or Balloon Tests
A qualitative data collection method in which the subject
is given a cartoon drawing and suggest the dialogue in
which the character may engage

Q. Please complete the dialogue between two parties

Ethnography
A form of qualitative data
collection that records
behaviour in natural settings
to understand how social
and cultural influences affect
individuals’ behaviour and
experiences
A qualitative data collection
method that sees consumers
in their natural setting
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Ethnography
Increasingly being used to understand consumer
choices, lengthy studies
Ethnographic research occurs in the consumer’s
natural purchase, usage or consumption setting
and involves combining observation with
interviews to record the dynamics of human
behaviour and the influence of culture
Eg: Understanding the decision process to buy a
new car
Eg: Understanding the utilisation of personal
productivity
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 Ethnography
Ethnographic research is only carried out by the
ethnographic researcher.
The study might occur over a long period of time
which sees the researcher accompany and
interact with the participant in the research in
day to day activities. The researcher can also use
a video camera to record everything down in
that period of study.
The interviews, activities and behaviour of the
participant will then be captured.
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Mobile Ethnography
Growing as social media becomes more in use
Consumers provide pictures and videos
concerning the research topic in real time
- Provides the ability for researchers to analyse
the consumers in context

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