Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative Research

• Qualitative research is employed in exploratory research.
• Quantitative research may follow to quantify findings.
• Qualitative research is valuable for decision-making when generating ideas such as customer responses to storyboards.
• It is useful when initial feedback towards a new product is highly favorable or unfavorable.
• Qualitative research is suitable for topics difficult to tap using quantitative methods to identify, not measure, motivations.
• Qualitative research can be a follow-up to quantitative research.

Overview of Research Designs

• Exploratory research seeks insights to understand a problem better.
• Apple might use exploratory if iPhone sales unexpectedly drop.
• Descriptive research gathers information to answer research questions.
• Descriptive research helps identify trends and determine solutions.
• Descriptive research also confirms exploratory research results.
• Causal research tests cause-and-effect relationships between precise marketing variables.
• This helps test hypotheses and requires clearly defined research questions and variables.
• All three research designs may be used depending on the marketing research objective.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research Methods

• Qualitative research aims to identify new ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Preliminary understanding relationships and understanding hidden psychological, social processes are goals of qualitative research.
• Quantitative research aims to validate facts, estimates, and relationships.
• Qualitative research is exploratory and quantitative is descriptive and causal.
• Qualitative questions are open and probing, quantitative are structured.
• Qualitative research has a relatively short execution time, quantitative longer.
• Qualitative research uses small samples representing only the individuals sampled.
• Quantitative research uses large samples that can represent the population.
• Qualitative analysis involves content analysis and interpretation.
• Quantitative analysis uses statistical methods for descriptive and causal predictions.
• Qualitative researcher skills include interpersonal communication and interpretation of text/visuals.
• Quantitative researcher skills include statistical analysis and interpreting numbers.
• Qualitative generalizability is limited while quantitative is generally very good for inferring relationships.

Qualitative Research Methods

• Qualitative data includes text, images, audio, or other digitally recorded data that occurs online or is collected by researchers.
• Qualitative data can be analyzed qualitatively or quantitatively.
• Most consider qualitative research less reliable than quantitative research but beneficial for deeper probing.
• It is often used to gain initial insights into research problems.
• It is also used to explore areas too superficial for quantitative research, like subconscious consumer motivations.
• Qualitative researchers gather detailed data from small samples in short periods.
• Data analysis includes content and software analysis.
• Small sample sizes limit the ability to generalize findings to a broader population.

Quantitative Research Methods

• Quantitative research uses formal questions and predetermined answers in questionnaires given to large groups.
• Research problems are specific, and information needs are agreed upon by both parties.
• Quantitative research is primarily used in descriptive and causal designs, sometimes in exploratory ones.
• Quantitative analysis can be applied to qualitative data.
• Main goals are to obtain information to predict market factors, behaviors, gain insights and validate/test hypotheses.
• Quantitative methods are statistically projectable to the target population.

Advantages of Qualitative Research

• Except for ethnography, data collection can be quick and low-cost, from sources like conversations, internet behaviour.
• Qualitative research offers richness of data and accuracy in recording behaviours.
• It provides preliminary insights for building models and scale measurements, with expertise providing insights from experts in social and behavioral science.

Disadvantages of Qualitative Research

• Qualitative Lack generalizability to the broader population, and has difficulty estimating the magnitude of phenomena.
• Qualitative research has low reliability, is dependent on finding qualified investigators, interviewers, and observers.
• Qualitative research has reliance on subjective skills of its researchers.

Qualitative Data Collection Methods - In-Depth Interviews (IDI)

• IDIs use trained interviewers asking semi-structured questions face-to-face.
• Advantages include detailed information, no social pressure, and high participation.

Steps for IDI

• Understand initial questions/problems.
• Create research questions.
• Select the best environment.
• Select and screen respondents.
• Greet the group and give guidelines.
• Conduct the interview.
• Analyze responses.
• Write summary.

Focus groups

• The method brings together small groups for an interactive discussion.
• In online groups, responses can be produced quickly with a transcript.
• Software may moderate dominate participants, so the researcher must still faciliate discussion.
• Low incidence populations are easier to reach online for this reason, and they have higher convenience.
• Responses tend to be more honest because they are honest due to less social pressure.
• Three phases in focus groups are Planning, Conducting, Analysing/reporting.

Phase 1: Focus Group Study

• Recruit people who represent the target population of interest.
• Develop a recruiting approach that specifies participant qualifications.
• A group size of 10-12 candidates is best.
• Focus groups are best held in a facility.

Phase 2: Conducting Focus Group Discussions

• Moderators question, stimulate, and control discussion by using a guide for topics and questions.
• Allow a brief social session and ground rule explanation before asking the first question.
• Inexperienced moderators lack enough questions
• Moderators listen and remain neutral.
• Moderators try to match the view of the participants.
• Present a final overview and ask for more comments, while thanking participants and giving incentives.

Phase 3: Analysing and Reporting Results

• Debriefing analysis is important for comparing notes quickly with researchers.
• Debriefing is important for face-to-face and online focus groups.
• Content analysis reviews transcripts for individual responses in categories.
• Further analysis reveals greater patterns and themes than those considered during the debrief.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Focus Groups

• Focus groups stimulate ideas and feelings.
• Focus groups foster comprehension.
• Focus groups allow for client participation and bring together participants.
• Social influence process are more observable in focus groups.
• Findings lack generalizability.
• The reliability of focus groups is more limited.
• The interpretation is based on the trustworthiness, care, and insight.
• Group dynamic contaminates results, and has "groupthink"

Observation Methods

• Observation is used for collecting primary data on behaviors and phenomenon regardless of research design.
• It can collect qualitative/quantitative data for analysis.
• Researchers rely on their abilities, not questionnaires .
• Data includes physical actions, expressive and verbal communication.
• Data includes temporal behaviors patterns, and relationship locations of the behavior.
• Data includes objects present with the behavior.

Observation Research

• It invloves observing and recording behavior, events, or other phenomenon systematically.
• It requires observable behavior, and a good recording method.
• Trained observers are used to measure through recorders or automated devices.
• Nonparticipant methods do not obtain attitudes, preferences, emotions, etc.
• Ethnography includes personal involvement with a sample group, therefore includes participation.
• True ethnographics are rarer for cost.

Unique Characteristics of Observational Methods

• Directness of the observation, and awareness of observation by observed.
• There is a degree of structure and also what is being observed with instruments.

Types of observational methods

• Human researchers understand data and offer excellent interpretation.
• In many other situations tools are more correct for analyzing data.
• Devices (cameras) lower costs and reduce flexiblility.
• Technology makes observation useful, which scans data useful and panels such as the internet which uses search engines.

Benefits and Limitations of Observation

• It is the collection of actual behaviours.
• It reduces recall errors and participation problems, as well as lower costs.
• Difficult to generalize findings
• Difficult to combine with other factors, as well as set up recordings.

Social Media Monitoring

• Observational based approach on the analysis of brand's products.
• Consumers share comments.
• No interactions between researchers bias.
• Easier accessibility to participant populations.
• Weaknesses are an unknown target market.

Listening Platform, Sentiment Analysis

• Analytical approach to collect data on decisions.
• Monitors band handle complaints etc.
• It improves AI analysis with positives and negatives.
• There are two tools called mention and photovoice.

Group Work

• Marketing research and project are 25% of final result.
• Form now in groups of 3-5, or may be randomly assigned.
• Choose one brand to stick with.
• February 22 11:59 PM is deadline to find group.

Value for causal design and designs

• Chapter 4 explains qualitative
• Chapter 5 explains primary data through samples of many
• With descriptive and causation.

Descriptive Research

• Based on identifying the nature, then the questions, then the objectives.
• A Descriptive design is based on market evaluation.
• Based on evaluation and marketing
• Is objective to identify correlations in groups.

Descriptive Research Surveys

• There are tools such as questions or just measuring objectively.
• The survey has many groups to process answers objectively.

Quantitative

• Has large sample which leads to better data.
• Accurate measurements.
• Easy for administrators.
• Easy for data.

Disadvantages

• Accurate questions is difficult.
• In depth data difficult is hard to get.
• Response is a problem.

Survey Research

• Errors are responses.
• It has two methods for memory, and for reducing errors.

Types of Person Administered Surveys

• It is based on the structured home interviews.
• It has a person who stops the people to get asked based on their experience.

Computer Assisted and Mobile

• There is only recording of persons data.
• It is rapid and it has mobile percentage.

Self Administered Surveys

• It is based a time, it could be a server with all the data.
• It is based on alternatives for postal.
• It allows for low cost analysis.
• Has limited flexibility, and also potential errors.

Online methods

• This method Is online surveys.
• It can be inexpensive.

Online disadvantages

- Low reprenation, with high unbiasness.

Example vehicles

• The attitudes, performance all effect.

Causal Designs

• There is a cause by data with cause and effect.
• It requires collecting data, with experience from multiple events.
• It does not indicate with high causality.

Nature of experimentation

• More discrete and observable.
• Experiments focus on determine the effects.
• Controls evaluate variables.

Experiment and Research

• Validity is what is true with research.
• External validity includes the group being tested.
• Expermental models are one hot studies.

Lab vs Field experiments

• Lab experiments creates validity
• Field experiments manipulate variables, but is costly.

Typical Research Process and Studies

• Conduct data for a test and also evaluate model.
• Collect data to determine theories.

A typical experiment

• Do this week, do it yourself.
• Create your own online structure.

Collect data

• Hypothesis is that the customer experiece increases value.
• Proposed causes are the data variable.
• Depends variables evaluate the outcome