Qualitative Research

Getting beyond “top of mind” and understanding what “they’re truly thinking” is an essential element of understanding your customer. We have extensive experience conducting a variety of effective qualitative methods, including the following:

Moderator-led Focus Groups: Focus groups are a very effective means of “listening to your market.” They provide valuable insight for new product ideas and prototypes, identifying problems, exploring processes in consumer’s lives, and developing concepts for testing in a survey. Experienced, senior research analysts conduct all of our focus groups and we pride ourselves with quick analysis and customer feedback while the information is fresh on everyone’s mind.
Online Focus Groups: Online focus groups can be an excellent vehicle to get immediate and cost-effective feedback on very targeted subjects. Because of the ability to actually show concepts and test reaction online you can gain group feedback from a variety of diverse respondents in a very efficient manner. We also feel that the online focus group dissipates power relations that sometimes skew traditional focus group dynamics. Recovering more than 30 pages of quality responses is not unusual based on a single three-day focus group.
One-on-One Interviews: Individual depth interviews are a powerful tool for getting in-depth information about marketing issues. The advantage over focus groups is that you get much more information from respondents. We have found them especially useful, for example, in studies exploring why Sunday newspapers fit or don’t fit in people’s lives, what works or doesn’t in sections of a newspaper, magazine, or website, and checking reactions to prototypes. Because of the depth of information collected, these studies require especially careful analysis.
Executive Interviews: Another application of depth interviews is with executives with companies that the media client does business. These could be advertisers or former advertisers to get them to talk about their experience running ads, what they like and don’t like, and their plans for the future. Such interviews can identify and diagnose problems; they can also be a basis for planning.