Qualitative

Research
Methods
3 - Qualitative Research Techniques
Qualitative Research Methods

Direct Indirect

Personal Group Observation Projective

Interview Interview Techniques Techniques

 Ethnographic
Research
Ethnographic Research

Researchers spend a large amount of time observing a particular group of

consumers by sharing their way of life (participating observation).

Ethnographic research tries to understand the routine lives, the behaviors and
thoughts of consumers.

Relatively expensive, but can provide in-depth information not attainable through other
qualitative techniques.

Particularly useful to study behavioral processes such as learning to use a

new product.
Ethnographic Research - Example

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Ex
Electrolux ‘Screen Fridge’
Electrolux provided a group of Swedish consumers with “screen fridges”, which
downloaded recipes from the internet, store shopping lists and have a built-in camera to
record messages. By putting the fridges in people’s homes Electrolux could see how the
technology was actually used.
Eye tracking example
3 - Qualitative Research Techniques

Qualitative Research Methods

Direct Indirect

Personal Group Observation Projective

Interview Interview Techniques Techniques

 Association
Techniques
Characteristics of Projective Techniques

 are, construction and expressive techniquesunstructured and indirect forms of questioning

– respondents are asked to interpret the behaviour of others rather than to describe their
own behavior

 participants´ attitudes are uncovered by analysing their responses to scenarios that are
unstructured, vague and ambiguous,

 ambiguous scenarios encourage participants to project their

underlying motivations, needs, beliefs and feelings regarding
an issue of concern

 help participants to verbalize subconscious, low-salience,

low-involvment attitudes

 can be classified as association, completion

Projective Techniques – Association Techniques

Word association test

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I will name several brands and want you to tell me what comes first
into your mind…..
Association Techniques - Visualization

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Projective Techniques – Expressive Techniques

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Product personification

 Imagine American Express as a human being. How would you describe this person?

Typical user

In your opinion, how does the typical GPR Visa card holder look like?
An old case study: Nescafé

“It’s 1949. Nescafe launches a new

product: an instant coffee. The product’s
advantage is clear: the instant coffee
dissolves in hot water within just three
minutes. Indeed, pre-tests show pleased
potential consumers.

At the time of introducing the product into

US market, sales results are disappointing.

Nestlé begins a research: “Why don’t you

buy an instant coffee? I don’t like the
taste”.

Nescafé wanted to go further and made a

casual focus, on two groups of housewives.

http://adwomeninenglish.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-nescafe-convinced-women.html
An old case study: Nescafé

Each group was given a shopping list. The

lists were identical expect for one detail:
one contained Nescafé instant coffee and
the other one, a grind coffee.

Each group was asked to describe the type

of woman who has written the shopping
list. The group whose list contained
Nescafé, described the woman as lazy,
unorganised, careless, spendthrift, bad
wife and mother.

http://adwomeninenglish.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-nescafe-convinced-women.html
An old case study: Nescafé

Nescafé found out what the real reason was—

why consumers didn’t buy Nescafe’s new
product: women felt that if they reduce time that
they use to dedicate for preparing coffee every
day, their families might consider them lazy
housewives.

In 50´s, Nescafe’s advantages have been seen as

something negative.

http://adwomeninenglish.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-nescafe-convinced-women.html
Projective Techniques – Pros and Cons

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PROS CONS

 May elicit responses that subjects
would not give if subject of the
study was revealed
 Are particularly helpfull if the
topics to be adressed are
personal, sensitive or subject to
strong social norms
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 Many of the disadvantages of
qualitative techniques apply to
projective often even to a greater
extent: require experienced
interviewers, tend to be
expensive, interpretation is
difficult and subject to bias,.

 Can help uncover motivations,

beliefs and attitudes that are
operating at the subconscious
level
Comparison of Qualitative Research Methods
Ethnographic Association
Depth Interview Focus Group
Research Techniques

Degree of Structure Medium Relatively high Relatively Low Relatively Low

None when used

Probing of Respondents High Low in a covert Medium
manner

None when used

Moderator Bias Relatively high Relatively high in a covert Low to high
manner
Uncovering
Subconscious Medium to high Low High High
Information

Discovering Innovative
Medium High Medium Low
Information

Obtaining Sensitive
Medium Low High High
Information
Core Messages

 Qualitative research can generate a depth of understanding that cannot be attained

through quantitative approaches.

 Good qualitative research takes time and costs money – quick and dirty qualitative
research is a waste of money.

 Overcome the temptation to quantify the results (x% of the participants would buy
product y) of qualitative research such as focus groups.

 Use qualitative research to explore a topic where only little is known, or as a follow-
up in order to generate a deeper understanding of quantitative research results.
Online Qualitative Research

E-interviewing

Online Journaling

Online Focus Groups

Online Virtual Environments

Netnography

Social Networking Monitoring

Online virtual environments
Online virtual environment
Netnography

Blend of the words “Internet” and “Ethnography”

“ a written account resulting from fieldwork studying the cultures and

communities that emerge from on-line, computer mediated, or
Internet-based communications, where both the field work and the
textual account are methodologically informed by the traditions and
techniques of cultural anthropology.” (Kozinets,1998)

Steps
Qualitative Transfer of
Community Community data consumer
Definition of
identification observation analyses and insight in
the Research
and and Data Identification Product
Question
Selection collection of Consumer Service
insight features
Social network monitoring
Socialbakers example of social networking monitoring
Find out how many people talk about your brand on social
networks with SocialBakers
Examples of Key Metrics offered through Webmonitoring
Services such as SocialBakers
Humans are changing

The Old model of branding revolves around TV

Humans are changing
Social media ≠ short-term advertising
Social media ≠ not for everything
Google
Social media explained with donoughts

1. I’m eating a #donut

2. I like donuts
3. This is where I eat donuts
4. Here is a vintage photo of my donut
5. See how I eat a donut
6. My skills include donut eating
7. Here is a nice donut recipe
8. Here a 6 sec video of me eating a donut
Social network monitoring
PROS
 Reputation monitoring
 Identification of Lead Users
and most important platforms
 Listen to customer open
conversations in order to
identify brand strengths and
weaknesses
 Monitor competitors’ activities
CONS
 Difficulty in deciding whether the
members belong to the target
group
 Software inability to capture
sentiments, language nuances as
jokes, sarcasm, the cyber
language, and even spelling
mistakes
 Researcher’s passive position due
to inability to interact with the
individuals