Qualitative Market Research – Understanding the Views of Customers

Market research is used by every business, whether large or small, to obtain knowledge and understanding on a particular subject matter. The research covers data collection and analysis about a specific target market, environment or competitor. Market research is done and implemented because the markets in the world are becoming more competitive; therefore, each organization must ensure its ability to cope with these changes.

Qualitative market research is a technique used to delve into the insights of customers and their behaviors. This can be independently done or be combined with quantitative research. It gives focus on the understanding of things – how and why are they what they are. Take for example a researcher that courteously stops a consumer and asks why he purchased a particular product. The researcher also asks how the consumer arrived at the decision of buying that product. Here you will notice that the questions used in qualitative market research are not preset and fixed; a discussion guide is rather used to go into the many concerns in-depth. The discussion between the interviewer and respondent is the tool used to collect relevant information for the research topic.

Generally, two main methods are used for qualitative market research. The first one is depth interviews and the other is focus groups.

The main form of research that focuses on qualitative data is depth interview. In this technique, an interviewer spends an amount of time with an interviewee or respondent to delineate the customer's conditions, concerns and individual opinions. Almost every business organization prefers depth interviews to be held in person. This entails an additional benefit because the researcher gets to visit the respondent's workplace and have a feel of the environment and culture of the particular business. Multi-national companies cannot make use of face-to-face research and response so they utilize telephone and online interviews.

Feedback is taken from the presentation of findings that were brought together from several interviews. In some cases, it is highly important to know the differences between consumers as much as it is important to know the similarities of the views they share.

A good substitute for depth interviews is focus group discussions. Focus groups are the foundation and basis of consumer research. A group of 6-8 individuals is formed to participate in a discussion. These people are the top targeted respondents of an organization. The group is led by a leader or moderator who has the role of asking the necessary questions and soliciting answers to encourage a discussion among the group. The focus group helps the researcher draw out creative ideas from the opinions of respondents. The members of the focus group can give useful information on the needs, wants and desires of customers. They are also a great tool in determining the areas of a product that need improvement. However, no matter how much help focus groups bring, they are still quite hard to organize and arrange because they are expensive and the executive teams of organizations are always busy.

Article Source: http://www.free-article-info.com/ArticleDashboard

Amanda Tschoepe is the Director of Customer Experience for Focus Pointe Global. She has more than 10 years experience as a customer service expert, focusing on performing surveys, and has spent the past 3 years applying that experience to respondent issues and concerns out of Focus Pointe Global.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated