Marketing Research: Ninth Edition

Marketing Research
Ninth Edition
Chapter 6
Qualitative Research
Techniques
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Learning Objectives
In this chapter you will learn
6.1 The differences between quantitative and qualitative research
techniques
6.2 The pros and cons of using observation as a means of gathering
data
6.3 What focus groups are and how they are conducted and analyzed
6.4 What ethnographic research is and its strengths and weaknesses
6.5 Other qualitative methods used by marketing researchers, including
in-depth interviews, protocol analysis, projective techniques, and
neuromarketing
6.6 How to analyze qualitative data
Categories of Research (1 of 3)
• Quantitative research: research involving the use of
structured questions in which response options have been
predetermined and a large number of respondents
involved
– Data, numerical
• Qualitative research: research involving collecting,

analyzing, and interpreting data by observing what people
do and say - experience
– Thick data is a term used to emphasize the
importance of gaining qualitative insights of
phenomena to complement the quantitative knowledge
provided by big data.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research
Qualitative Research Quantitative Research
To gain a qualitative understanding To quantify (measure) the data and

Objective of the underlying reasons and generalize the results from the sample to
motivations – understanding the population of interest – make the
decision (the reason why)
Sample Small number of non-representative
cases Large number of representative cases
Data Collection Unstructured

Structured
Data Analysis Non-statistical
Statistical
Outcome Develop an initial understanding
Recommend a final course of action
Population Sample
(universe) (selected/ achieved)
10,000 N=300
• Mixed method research: integration of both quantitative
and qualitative research methods in order to gain the
advantages of both
• Three types of mixed methods research include:
– qualitative before quantitative – final coclusion (most
common one)
– quantitative before qualitative
– qualitative and quantitative concurrently (rarely use)
Observation Techniques (1 of 9)
• Observation methods: techniques in which phenomena
of interest involving people, objects, and/or activities are
systematically observed and documented.
• Areas of observation method application
– Customer shopping & usage habits (i.e – how
consumer uses, the amount, the reason, etc.)
– Evaluation of Service Performance – well-delivered or
poor-delivered (in service sector)
– Mystery shopping – useful in the retail market (whether
they perform well or not, the consultant, etc.)
• Types of observation:
– Direct versus indirect (through devices, viewing rooms)
– Overt versus covert
– Structured (in order, which we need to observe) versus unstructured (
– In situ versus invented (create the environment in which we want to
stimulate the right condition in order to understand the customer better)
• Mystery shopping: What is it? Which techniques?
– Direct
– Covert/ Disguised
– Structured (most of the cases)
– In situ
• Direct observation: observing behavior as it occurs
• Indirect observation: observing the effects or results of
the behavior rather than the behavior itself
– Archives: secondary sources, such as historical
records, that can be applied to the present problem
– Physical traces: tangible evidence of some past event
• Covert/ Disguised observation: subject is unaware that he
or she is being observed, mystery shopping, as an
example
• Overt/ Non-disguised observation: respondent is aware
of observation, Nielsen’s People Meters to monitor media
to which a consumer is exposed, as an example
• Structured – researcher identifies beforehand which
behaviors are to be observed and recorded. Often there
is a checklist.
• Unstructured – all behavior is observed and the
observer determines what is to be recorded (with no
predetermined restrictions).
• In situ observation: the researcher observes the behavior
exactly as it happens
• Invented observation: the researcher creates a simulated
situation
Appropriate conditions for use of observation:
• Short time interval …event must begin and end in a
reasonably short time. You cannot “observe” a process of
purchasing that lasts months.
• Public behavior …cannot observe private behaviors.
• Faulty recall conditions …behaviors are so “automatic” that
consumer cannot recall them.
Advantages of observational data
• Insight into actual, not reported, behaviors
• No chance for recall error
• Better accuracy
• Less costly
Limitations of observational data
• Small number of subjects
• Subjective interpretations
• Inability to pry beneath the behavior observed
• Motivations, attitudes, and other internal conditions are
unobserved
Focus Groups – different from in-
depth interview
• Focus groups are small groups of people brought together
and guided by a moderator through an unstructured,
spontaneous discussion for the purpose of gaining
information relevant to the research problem.
• Information from focus groups can be used to generate
ideas, to learn the respondents’ “vocabulary” when relating
to a product, or to gain some insight into basic consumer
needs and attitudes.
• Rarely conduct among the experts
• When to use FGDs? What are the differences of FGDs with
IDIs?
– Target respondents/ interviewee: IDIs (Professionals/
experts/ KOL/ Lead users) vs. FGDs (Normal customers )
Types of Focus Groups
• Traditional focus group: Select 6 to 12 persons and
meet in a dedicated room with one-way mirror for client
viewing.
– Standard FGDs: 6 respondents/ group
– Mini FGDs: 4 respondents/ group – when the segment
is very niched and hard to find the respondents
• Number of FGDs/ study: depends on target respondents
– 2 FGD/ target respondent (segment) (1 location)
– Total FGDs could be from 4-6-8 in number.
How a Focus Group Works
• Moderator: responsible for creating the correct
atmosphere in the group and guiding discussion
• Focus group report: summarizes the information
provided by the focus group participants relative to the
research questions
Newer Focus Groups
• Online focus group: the respondents and/or clients
communicate and/or observe by use of the Internet.
Clients can observe the virtual chat.
Online Focus Groups (1 of 2)
Advantages:
• No physical setup is necessary
• Transcripts are captured on file in real time
• Participants can be in widely separated geographical areas
• Participants are comfortable in their home or office
environments
• The moderator can exchange private messages with
individual participants
Online Focus Groups (2 of 2)
Disadvantages:
• Observation of participants’ body language is not possible
• Participants cannot physically inspect products or taste
food items
• Participants can lose interest or become distracted
Advantages of Focus Groups
• Can generate fresh ideas
• Allow clients to observe their participants
• May be directed at understanding a wide variety of issues
• Allow fairly easy access to special respondent groups
Disadvantages of Focus Groups
• Representativeness of participants
• Dependence on the moderator
• Interpretation sometimes difficult
When Should Focus Groups Be Used?
• Focus groups should be used when the research objective
is to describe rather than predict.
– How do consumers describe a better package?
– How would they describe their satisfaction with our
service?
– How could they describe their ideas for an ad
campaign?
When Should Focus Groups Not Be
Used?
• Focus groups should not be used when the research
questions require a prediction or when a major decision
affecting the company’s livelihood rests on the research
results.
Some Objectives of Focus Groups
• To generate ideas
• To understand consumer vocabulary
• To reveal consumer goods, motives, perceptions, and
attitudes about products or services
• To understand findings from quantitative studies
Operational Aspects of Traditional
Focus Groups (1 of 2)
• How many people should be in a focus group?
• Who should be in the focus group?
• How many focus groups should be conducted?
• How should focus group participants be recruited and
selected?
Operational Aspects of Traditional
Focus Groups (2 of 2)
• Where should a focus group meet?
• When should the moderator become involved in the
research project?
• How are focus group results reported and used?
• What other benefits do focus groups offer?
Characteristics of Focus Groups
Group Size 6-8
Group Composition Homogeneous*, respondents,

prescreened
Physical Setting Relaxed, informal atmosphere
Time Duration 1-2.5 hours, commonly 2 hours
Recording Use of audiocassettes and videotapes
Moderator Observational, interpersonal, and

communication skills of the moderator
(*demographic – age & gender, education qualification, income, lifestyle etc. of respondents)
30
Research Application
 Market exploration (One-way mirror)
 Lifestyle exploration
 Consumer insights exploration
 Advertising test (story board or
finished TVC)
(Focus Group
 Concept Test Discussion)
 Packaging test
 Product Test
 Pricing Test
(Viewing
 Other Ad hoc studies room)
Ethnographic Research
• Ethnographic research is a term borrowed from
anthropology to describe a detailed, descriptive study of a
group and its behavior, characteristics, culture, and so on.
• Used mostly when marketers need to know further about:

– Perceived brand position/ communication
– Market segment
– Customers’ lifestyle
– Applied in cosmetics, fashion
Examples
• Shopalongs are a types of research in which a
researcher accompanies a shopper (with permission) on
a shopping trip and observes and records the shopper’s
activities
• Mobile ethnography is a type of marketing research in
which respondents document their own experiences
through their mobile phones
• Netnography is the name for the ethnographic study of
online activities.
Marketing Research Online Communities
• Marketing research online communities (MROCs) are
groups of people that are brought together online to
interact, provide ideas and opinions, and complete tasks.
Table 6.1 Comparisons of Traditional Focus Groups,
Online Focus Groups, and Marketing Research
Online Communities (MROCs)
Other Qualitative Techniques (1 of 3)
• In-depth interview (IDI) is a set of probing questions
posed one-on-one to a subject by a trained interviewer
so as to gain an idea of what the subject thinks about
something or why he or she behaves a certain way.
– Standard number of depth interviews: 4-6-8
– 2 or 4 indepth interviews per target
– N=8, 12, 16
– Length of depth interview: 1 hour
• Laddering (techniques) attempts to discover how

product attributes are associated with consumer values.
Depth Interview Techniques: Laddering
In laddering, the line of questioning proceeds from
product characteristics to user characteristics. This
technique allows the researcher to tap into the
consumer's network of meanings.
Wide body aircrafts (product characteristic) => functional benefits
I can get more work done
I accomplish more
I feel good about myself (user characteristic) => emotional benefits

Advertising theme: You will feel good about yourself when flying
our airline. “You're The Boss.”
Laddering example
Laddering example
Standard Questions to ask An example on Crop Protection Product
• What is important for you? • Control of the targeted pest

a a
• margin of error in peaches is small -- you miss one spray

• Why is this important for you? and you can lose the entire crop….
b b
• What performance level do you expect? • you want to get as close as possible to 100% control
c c
• If I had to choose between better control and same

• What benefits does it offer you ? spraying interval and longer interval and same control I
d d would choose better control
• would give us better fruit, would reduce the % of

• Why are those benefits important for you? e unmarketable fruit
e
• with current products I will have to use higher rates or
• How does it impact you? spray more often if I want to save all crop; with a product
f f which would have a better control I will achieve the same
effect with less effort
• Considering that specific feature/service in • a full range product would be ideal to have one chemical
g the future, ideally what should it be for you? g which will kill all pests and will have a longer lasting effect
• Protocol analysis involves placing a person in a decision-
making situation and asking him or her to verbalize
everything he or she considers when making a decision.
• Projective techniques involve situations in which
participants are placed in (projected into) simulated
activities in the hopes that they will divulge things about
themselves that they might not reveal under direct
questioning
Five Common Projective Techniques
• Word-association test
• Sentence completion test
• Picture test
• Cartoon or balloon test
• Role-playing
Table 6.2 Projective Techniques That
Can Be Used with Focus Groups62
Technique Name Description Application
Sort Me Up Respondents are given products (or cards with Reveals competitive sets of products and
product names) and asked to sort them into brands
groups and provide a descriptive name for Offers segmentation implications
each group Shows how consumers perceive products
and brands
Sort Me Straight For each attribute, respondents rank cards Identifies how the target brand performs on
with brand names from most to least specific attributes with respect to competing
brands
Picture This, Picture Respondents are given several pictures that Reveals images and emotions that are
That represent a wide range of emotions and asked associated with specific
to select pictures that represent specific brand/category/situations
brand/category/situations
Color My World Respondents are given several color swatches Offers insight into positive and negative
(paint chips) and asked to select color(s) that imagery and associations for specific
represent specific brand/category/situations brand/category/ Situations
Dot, Dot, Dot Respondents are given 10 dot-shaped stickers Provides a relative ranking for each of the
or tokens and asked to allocate them across alternatives; follow-up probing reveals why
flavors, brands, advertisements, etc. certain alternatives are favored
Word Association
In word association, respondents are presented with a list of words,
one at a time and asked to respond to each with the first word that
comes to mind. The words of interest, called test words, are
interspersed throughout the list which also contains some neutral, or
filler words to disguise the purpose of the study. Responses are
analyzed by calculating:
(1) the frequency with which any word is given as a response;

(2) the amount of time that elapses before a response is given; and
(3) the number of respondents who do not respond at all to a test
word within a reasonable period of time.
Word Association
EXAMPLE
STIMULUS MRS. M MRS. C

washday everyday ironing
fresh and sweet clean
pure air soiled
scrub don't; husband does clean
filth this neighborhood dirt
bubbles bath soap and water
family squabbles children
towels dirty wash
Sentence Completion Techniques
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 person who shops at Vincom is ______________________
A person who purchase branded name products would be

__________________________________
Adam Levine is most liked by _________________________
When I think of shopping in a department store, I ________
A variation of sentence completion is paragraph completion, in which the respondent

completes a paragraph beginning with the stimulus phrase.
Completion 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.
Construction Techniques
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.
A Cartoon Test
Vincom
Let’s see if we can

pick up some
house wares at
Vincom
Neuromarketing
• Neuromarketing is the study of an individual’s involuntary
responses to marketing stimuli, including eye movement,
heart rate, skin conductance, breathing, and brain activity.
Example of Neuromarketing
• Neuroimaging, or viewing brain activity, may aid
marketing researchers to better understand consumers’
unconscious emotions.
• Eye tracking is a technique for measuring eye positions
and eye movement.
• Facial coding is a system that is used to measure
universal expressions of emotions, such as happiness,
sadness, fear, and surprise, by their appearance on faces.
Thematic Analysis
• Thematic analysis involves examining qualitative data to uncover
themes or patterns which relate to the objectives of the research.
• A theme is a pattern that is found across data when conducting
qualitative analysis that relates to the objectives of the research.
• A substantiating example is an example from qualitative data that
provides evidence for a theme.
• A verbatim is a quote from a research participant that is used as a
substantiating example of findings from qualitative research.
• A word cloud is a visual display of words and phrases in a text, with
the size of the words and phrases representing the frequency of their
occurrence in the text.
Figure 6.1 Word Cloud
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Marketing Research

• Qualitative research: research involving collecting,

To gain a qualitative understanding To quantify (measure) the data and

Data Collection Unstructured

Group Composition Homogeneous*, respondents,

Physical Setting Relaxed, informal atmosphere

Time Duration 1-2.5 hours, commonly 2 hours

Recording Use of audiocassettes and videotapes

Moderator Observational, interpersonal, and

 Market exploration (One-way mirror)

• Used mostly when marketers need to know further about:

• Laddering (techniques) attempts to discover how

product characteristics to user characteristics. This

technique allows the researcher to tap into the

consumer's network of meanings.

Wide body aircrafts (product characteristic) => functional benefits

I can get more work done

I feel good about myself (user characteristic) => emotional benefits

• What is important for you? • Control of the targeted pest

• margin of error in peaches is small -- you miss one spray

• If I had to choose between better control and same

• would give us better fruit, would reduce the % of

(1) the frequency with which any word is given as a response;

STIMULUS MRS. M MRS. C

A person who shops at Vincom is ______________________

A person who purchase branded name products would be

Adam Levine is most liked by _________________________

When I think of shopping in a department store, I ________

A variation of sentence completion is paragraph completion, in which the respondent

With a picture response, the respondents are asked to

Let’s see if we can

This work is protected by United States copyright laws and is

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