RMD 2022 - Session 4 - Interview and Observation

Research for Marketing Decisions
Interview
The in-depth interview
 Usually lengthy, from 1 to 3 hours
 Yields a large amount of data
 Very useful to get detailed data on specific phenomena
 Also called as the DI – Depth Interview in business
parlance
 Real life example :
 What is the process consumers go through while purchasing a flat?
 Who are the key influencers?
 What are the feelings and emotions involved?
2 Research for Marketing Decisions Term 3

The Standardized Interview
 Formally structured schedule of questions
 Respondents asked to answer each question
 Present the same stimulus to each respondent – answers
comparable
 Researcher assumes questions sufficiently comprehensive
to elicit all information on study topic
 Assumption that meaning of questions unchanged across
respondents
 Broad similarities with survey questions…

The Standardized Interview
 A typical standardized interview
 Dealer interview
 What is your annual turnover?
 What is your average monthly inventory?
 What are the product lines you stock?
 How many times does the company salesperson visit you?
 ………

The Unstandardized Interview
 Does not utilize question schedules
 Assumes interviewers do not know all questions in
advance
 Respondents assumed to possess different vocabularies
 Develop, adapt and generate questions and follow up
probes according to situation
 Used to augment field observations
 Useful when researcher unfamiliar with respondents’
lifestyles, religious or ethnic cultures, customs etc.

The Semi-standardized Interview
 Located between the two extremes of standardized and
unstandardized
 Uses predetermined questions, but respondents allowed to
digress
 Researcher expected to probe on answers
 Researcher approaches problem from respondent’s perspective

The Expert Interview
 A special case, usually of a semi-standardized interview
 Interviewees are of less interest as people; researcher
interested in them as experts in certain domains
 Integrated into the study not as individuals but as
representing a group, i.e., experts
 E.g., a study on Indian advertising among consumers, will also
incorporate creative people, brand managers etc.

The Interview Process
Understand Problem
Identify Target
Respondents
Develop DG
Conduct Interview
Analysis and Findings

The Discussion Guide
 Sometimes also referred to as a questionnaire, esp. in
more structured interviews
 What are the functions of the DG?
 Ensure that the researcher covers all the terrain in roughly the
same order for all respondents
 Scheduling of prompts in interview to elicit information
 Prompts necessary to ‘manufacture distance’
 Interviewer might not be able to remember issues to be
discussed in the course of the interview
 DG establishes channels for direction and scope of discourse
 Allows researcher to devote full attention to what respondent
says

The Discussion Guide
 Use of DG does not preempt open-ended nature of the
interview
 Within broader framework, opportunity for unstructured
responses remains
 Extemporaneous investigation essential to genuine
understanding
 DG should help in ordering and enhancing interviewer
efficiency, not destroy the flexibility provided by the in-
depth interview!

The DG: Initial Steps
 Determine the nature of investigation, objective of
research
 List out a broad outline that addresses issues relevant to
the study
 E.g., interview with iOS user
 Demographic details
 Respondent’s attitudes towards technology
 Phone usage habits
 Experience with iOS
 Experience with Android
 Brand imagery, iOS vs Android

The DG: Initial Steps
 Generate separate list of questions for each of the categories
 Demographics
 Age
 Occupation
 Education
 Attitudes towards technology
 Perceived functions of technology
 Pros and cons
 Present scenarios
 Phone usage habits
 Frequency of usage
 Tasks for which used
 General opinions about the technology
 Influencers for usage
 ….

The DG: Types of Questions
 Grand Tour questions
 Questions to start the relevant part of the interview
 Puts the ball in respondent’s court, enables him/her to become
involved in a lengthy narration
 Can provide points for probing, determine direction of
subsequent parts of interview
 Makes respondent feel valued
 Why do you travel?
 What is your experience with operating systems?

 Essential questions
 Geared towards eliciting specific information
 How would you describe your ideal travel destination?
 How will you compare iOS to Android?
 Extra questions
 Roughly equivalent to essential questions
 Included in order to check the reliability of responses

 Throw-Away questions
 Found at the beginning of the interview
 Used to develop rapport with respondents
 Can be used to “cool off” respondent when interviewer asks
sensitive questions by mistake
 Might be demographic details
 Might not be part of the core data needed, but nevertheless
important to draw complete story from respondent
 Tell me about your family…
 What do you do when you have free time?

 Probing questions
 Provide interviewers with a way to draw out more complete
stories from respondents
 Probes can be incorporated throughout the interview
 Why did you say the Scorpio is value for money?

The DG: Question Wording
 Questions must be worded carefully to provide necessary
data
 Motivate respondents to answer completely and honestly
 Uncomfortable questions can make respondent clam up
 Did your employer treat you badly?
 Tell me about your equation with your employer…

The DG: Question Wording
 Interviewer’s language must be understandable to
subjects
 What is the future of mobility according to you? [not correct]
 What do you think will be the means of transport in future? [correct]
 Be aware of jargon used by different sets of people
 Corporate language: Keep me in the loop…
 I do not have the bandwidth…
 Teen speak: I was just, you know…super buzzed…
 Doctors: Acute Myocardial Infarction

The DG: Problems in Question
Formulation
 Affectively worded questions
 Arouse some emotional response, usually negative
 I had to bunk the class…
 The word ‘Why’ can produce a negative response
 ‘How come’ might be a better option
 Reducing affect of questions can improve responses
 Do you miss classes?
 How often do you miss classes?

Formulation
 Double-Barreled questions
 Asks respondent to answer simultaneously to two issues in a
single question
 How many times in a week do you watch TV or OTT?
 Confuses respondent who might nevertheless answer
 Impossible to understand or analyze response
 Split double-barreled questions into two

Formulation
 Complex questions
 Verbal communication involves more than only listening
 Respondent can also be thinking about how to respond to
interviewer’s question
 Long, heavy questions might not be heard entirely
 What are some recent ads you saw and why did you like them?

Formulation
 Question sequencing
 Typically start with non-threatening, easy questions
 Demographics, hobbies etc.
 More complex questions asked later, post establishing rapport
 Ordering of questions matters
 Tell me what you think of action movies…
 What is your opinion about movies?
 The first question will influence the second – order should be
reversed here!

Pretesting the DG
 Involves two steps
 DG should be examined by those familiar with the study
subject – peers, technical experts, target consumers
 Use instrument in a real study with a few practice interviews

The DG: An Overview
Method Output
Simple questioning Immediate

Spontaneous spontaneous
response
Asking/ reminding Justification,
Public
Reasoned
Communicable
Conventional explanations
Aware
Detailed Elaborations
Pressing Preconscious /
Introspections
Sympathetic Concealed Personal Admissions
probing Personal
Symbols,
Private
Communicable
Play / Drama Intuitive Imagination,

analogies
Non
Projective Repressed attitudes,

Aware
Non
approaches Unconscious motives

Selecting Respondents
 Respondents do not form a ‘sample’
 Conventional sampling rules not to be applied in selecting
respondents
 However, contrast and variability created in respondent
pool to ensure diverse opinions
 Age, gender etc.

 Respondents should be perfect strangers to interviewer
 Predictability involved with friends and acquaintances can
corrupt findings
 Quality of responses and information-richness preferred
to large numbers
 Even 8 to 10 respondents can provide closure to the problem

 Do not have special knowledge or ignorance of subject,
except in expert interviews
 E.g. brand managers should not be interviewed when trying to
assess advertising concepts
 Standard injunction in surveys against interviewing
MR/marketing/related field people

The Interview Procedure
 The obtrusive/unobtrusive balance
 Objective of interview to see issue from respondent’s
perspective
 Interviewer leading the respondent can lead to the analysis
being just the interviewer’s view of the problem
 Do not “play back” to respondent
 You seem to hate your workplace so much!
 I hear anger in your voice…

 Avoid obtrusive listening [example of obtrusive listening below]
 I:What did you miss most during the lockdown?
 R: Catching up with friends…getting together…
 I:The socializing and fun?
 R: The togetherness and that sort of thing…being able to talk to your
friends, talk more intimately…over phone and Zoom the talk is more or
less on a lower level…
 I: Surface level?
 R: Surface level…I guess you could call it that…

 Manufacturing distance
 Respondents cannot fully explain cultural categories and beliefs
 Beliefs become assumptions, actions become habits over time
 E.g., removing price tags from gifts, taking turns in a conversation,
returning greetings
 Questioning taken-for-granted assumptions can uncover social
norms and belief systems
 E.g., norms of reciprocity, fairness,‘decommodifying’ gifts etc.

 People can resist and need to be convinced to take part
in interviews
 Why me and not someone else?
 You were chosen by chance according to a random procedure
 I don’t know much about the subject!
 It’s not what you know about; I’m just interested in your opinions
 Lack of time
 Conduct interview during late evening hours
 Split the interview and do it during lunch breaks
 It is important to be flexible

 Knowing the audience
 Understand the cultural context in which respondents are
situated
 Dress and appearance of interviewer should match cultural
context
 Understand taboos
 E.g., problems with interviewing female consumers in Asian cultures,
privacy-consciousness in the West
 Keep language and questions inoffensive
 E.g., referring to older people by name can be offensive in India
 Forthright questions can be awkward or offensive for those living in
‘high-context’ cultures

 Establishing respondent rapport
 Respondents should be assured that there would not be any
loss of face due to interview disclosure
 Body postures and gestures to support respondent
 Appearing dim and agreeable preferable to giving signs of being
critical or ‘smart’!
 Make opening questions simple
 Biographical questions
 Idle chit-chat
 Respondent lowers defenses

 Listen for
 Impression management
 Topic avoidance
 Deliberate distortion
 Minor misunderstanding or incomprehension
 ‘Playing dumb’ might elicit information
 Helps prevent assumptions by the interviewer
 Makes respondent engage in lengthy elaborations which can
provide unexpected insights

 Probing
 Post grand tour testimony, floating prompts can be used
 How come?
 Prompts respondent to come back to the response and elaborate
 Can also repeat the term used by the respondent with an
interrogative tone
 R: So me and my friends, we decided to go out and get wrecked
 I:Wrecked?
 R:Yeah, you know, really blasted
 When repeating doesn’t work, use more explicit questioning
 What do you mean ‘blasted’, exactly?
 But do not be obtrusive
 Do you mean ‘intoxicated?’

 Probing
 Watch for key terms (such as ‘wrecked’,‘blasted’)
 Use these to prompt for more responses
 Planned prompts can be used when information is not
emerging spontaneously
 Contrast questions, what is the difference between ‘x’ and ‘y’?
 Use categories supplied by/familiar to respondent
 I:What is the difference between a shopping mall and your local store?
 R:Well, at a shopping mall you are not so free…
 I:What do you mean by ‘not free’?

 Probing
 Planned prompting:“auto-driving”
 Highly obtrusive, but quite useful
 Respondent asked to comment on picture, photograph or
some such stimulus
 Use photographs of homes in a study of interior design

In-Depth Interview: Pros and Cons
 Advantages
 Provides access to data concerning personal and sensitive
topics
 Can exercise greater control over respondent selection; more
depth, context and flexibility
 Provides respondents with opportunity to reflect on actions
and decisions
 Allows respondents anonymity and the freedom to express
their views
 Greater rapport and trust, much richer and complex data
 Easier expression of non conformity

In-Depth Interview: Pros and Cons
 Disadvantages
 Lack of interaction with other consumers
 Can be time-consuming and expensive
 Not observable by clients

Interviewing: Critical Points
 Never begin an interview cold
 Spend some time in chatting, making small talk
 Use respondent’s job, living space etc. as matter for small talk
 Puts respondent at ease, builds rapport
 Remember your purpose
 You need to obtain information within the allotted time
 Have a copy of the DG always at hand
 Ideally, memorize questions in the DG
 Present a natural front
 Do not act as if you are asking memorized questions!
 Be relaxed, affirmative and natural

 Demonstrate aware hearing
 Offer appropriate non-verbal responses
 Do not act cold and distant
 Think about appearance
 Dress appropriately for the setting and audience
 Formal/semi-formal attire safe
 Interview in a comfortable place
 Subject should be comfortable
 Should not fear being overheard or seen
 Heat, cold, noise, lighting etc.

 Don’t be satisfied with monosyllabic answers
 Yes/No answers will not be analyzable
 Probe:What else? How?
 Be comfortable with silence – yields more information
 Be respectful
 Assure respondents that what they say is important
 Respondents should feel they are part of the study

 Practice
 Best way to learn interviewing is to actually carry out
interviews…
 Be cordial and appreciative
 Thank the respondent
 Answer questions of respondent about the research
 Do not ‘poison the well’

What is Ethnography?
 Etymology
 Greek word ethnos
 People, nation, class
 Greek word graphikos
 Of or pertaining to writing/drawing
 Ethnography broadly aims at providing an account of
people
 Aims to understand another way of life from the ‘native’
point of view

Ethnography
 Places researchers in the midst of whatever they study
 Researchers can examine various phenomena as
perceived by participants, and present these observations
as accounts
 Ethnography is the study of people in naturally occurring settings or
‘fields’ by means of methods which capture their social meanings and
ordinary activities, involving the researcher participating directly in the
setting, if not also the activities, in order to collect data in a systematic
manner but without meaning being imposed on them externally

Ethnography
 Involves extensive fieldwork of various types
 Participant observation
 Formal and informal interviewing
 Document collection
 Filming, recording

Ethnography
 Key characteristics
 Non-interference in the setting; researcher does not attempt
to change actions and behaviors of those studied
 Usually involves medium to long-term study, to understand
setting through repeated exposure
 Involves gaining access to the insider’s perspective

Ethnography
 Advantages
 Natural setting, consumer behavior not contrived to suit
researcher
 Scope for providing rich data
 Observations and interviews can complement each other in
setting
 Disadvantages
 Involves extensive and time-consuming fieldwork
 Translates into high researcher involvement and higher costs

Why observe?
 Customers used to current conditions
 Problems with existing product do not occur to consumers
 “Working around” inconveniences
 Traditional methods good at shortlisting using known criteria
for known products
 Questions need not yield answers in many cases
 E.g., car ergonomics, features in a software program

Why observe?
 Product doesn’t exist in market
 Consumers do not know product, so can’t provide inputs
 E.g., radio as entertainment medium
 Surveys cannot capture consumer environment
 Constrained dialogue with consumers

Learning from observation
 Usability testing
 Ergonomics
 Package design
 Triggers of use
 What makes consumers use product?
 Product might have unintended uses
 Mobile phones and “missed” calls
 Breakfast cereals as snacks – smaller packaging

Learning from observation
 Product interaction with user environment
 Usability labs cannot easily replicate actual use environments
 Product can be tailored to fit use environment
 E.g., designing payment systems for Indian retail stores
 Dust-resistant, able to handle voltage fluctuations, water resistant
 Intangible product attributes
 Kimberley-Clark – understanding of diapers as clothing

Types of Observation
 Participant observation
 Involves researcher playing the role of an insider in the setting
studied
 E.g., the role of a buyer in a retail environment
 Provides access to ‘inside’ information,‘backstage’ areas
 Consumers cannot verbalize/might hide information from an
‘outsider’, e.g., the suppression of socially proscribed behavior
 Participant observation of researcher in the Harley Davidson case
 Researcher should however avoid danger of ‘going native’
 Results in taking for granted assumptions and behavior

 Nonparticipant observation
 Researcher observes and records naturalistic behavior but
does not become a part of the setting
 Useful when the introduction of a novice participant can
disrupt behavior
 E.g., studying adventure sports enthusiasts

 Nonparticipant observation
 Useful when it is not necessary or feasible to be a participant
 Observing children playing with toys
 Participant observation not feasible in many settings
 E.g., observing the use of complex machinery

 Mechanical observation
 Devices used to obtain complementary data
 Photographs, audio/video tapes, filming consumption events
 Important advantages of recorded data
 Remains stable
 Analyzable later
 Can be shown to outsiders
 Does not miss out on details
 E.g. photographs of modified cars
 Photographs and exhibits which provide important supporting data in the
Harley case

Gaining Entry
 Gather as much information as possible about consumers
to be studied
 Library and other secondary sources useful
 Knowledge about consumers facilitates entry and rapport post
entry
 Convince gatekeepers
 May be formal or informal watchdogs who protect the setting,
people or institution to be studied
 E.g., core riders in the HD case
 Gatekeeper disapproval can seriously hinder the project

Gaining Entry
 Access guides and informants
 Locate consumers in the setting you can rely on
 A guide consumer can provide larger access to the setting
 E.g., knowing a dedicated Harley rider can provide greater access to
the subculture
 Possibility of a particular guide being disliked by the group, so
need to rely on multiple guides
 Guides help in snowballing, can vouch for the legitimacy of
researcher
 Ideally, as project progresses, guides become redundant

Reactivity
 Becoming ‘invisible’
 Presence of researcher influences behavior
 The Hawthorne Effect – reacting to being observed
 Generally short-lived effect, consumers soon disengage
 Becoming ‘invisible’ entails being present in the setting and able
to observe without being noticed

Reactivity
 Becoming ‘invisible’
 Developing relationships
 Informants start liking the researcher, and he/she becomes one of
them
 Misrepresenting real research interests
 Expressing false areas of interests; reduces reactivity in real interest
areas
 Masking identity as researcher
 Covertly studying informants can avoid reactivity altogether
 However, misrepresentation can be unethical, and is not
recommended!

Reactivity
 Dangers of ‘invisibility’
 Problems with misidentification
 Legal problems
 Invasion of privacy issues
 Learning more than you want to know
 Gaining access to damaging information vis-à-vis ethical obligation to
informants

Data Collection
 The Physical Setting
 Take in details of the setting studied
 Draw maps, describe places used by consumers, rooms used by them
etc.
 Especially useful in areas such as shopping malls, households etc.
 Helps researcher become familiar with the location
 Can serve as contact points for potential informants

Data Collection
 Relationships with informants
 Consumers might want explanations for presence of
researcher
 Provide broad intent of study, but details unnecessary
 Carry photo id, authorization letter etc.

Data Collection
 Tracking, observing, eavesdropping
 Follow consumers as they go about their daily routines
 Henry Mintzberg’s study on the manager’s job
 Paco Underhill’s study of shoppers
 Eavesdropping becomes inevitable, sometimes necessary
 Locate subgroups and stars
 Some consumers form groups
 Suggests social networking, influence groups
 Some consumers might be opinion leaders or ‘stars’
 Rapport with ‘stars’ might facilitate data collection

Recording Data
 Use multiple sources
 Informant narratives/interviews
 Field notes
 Photographs
 Artifacts
 E.g., Harley Davidson case
 Multiple sources of data enable
 Richness of data
 Understanding phenomenon from different vantage points
 Triangulation

Recording Data
 Write thick descriptions
 Multisensory description of events in the setting
 Describes people, also inanimate objects, ambience
 Snippets of conversation, interactions between people
 E.g.,Thick description of consumer behavior at a shopping mall
 Attire, profile, number of consumers
 Detailed behavior of consumers
 Lighting, music, layout of the mall
 Consumers’ moods, reactions to the surroundings
 Retailers, how they react to consumers
 Products displayed, layouts, purchases
 …..

Recording Data
 Record critical incidents
 A specific incident
 Characterizes/defines the setting
 Recorded in descriptive terms
 Involves multiple actors in the setting
 Provides deep insights into the setting
 E.g., Handling of an irate customer at a bank
 Re-directing customers to a competitor in a local market

Recording Data
 Field notes
 Critical to providing analyzable data
 Jotted down while among consumers, also while meeting
consumers by chance
 Various ways of recording field notes
 Can be recorded on electronic devices
 Jotted down on cards and later reconstructed

Recording Data
 Field notes
 Write up full notes immediately post exit
 Erosion of memory begins immediately
 Long wait to write full notes can completely corrupt data
 Write up notes before sharing with others
 Conversation on incidents can impose artificial elements

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Research for Marketing Decisions

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Analysis and Findings

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Simple questioning Immediate

Play / Drama Intuitive Imagination,

Projective Repressed attitudes,

approaches Unconscious motives

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