Tag Archives: qualitative

Top 10: Market research tips for small businesses and start-ups

24 Jul

Ahead of Ci Research’s Colin Auton appearing on the Guardian.co.uk expert panel – “How to get started with market research” – we have posted a “top 10” on the ways in which market research and consumer insight can benefit small business and start-ups.

If you fancy logging on to hear some wise words from Colin, the link to the Q&A is below – discussion is live from 1pm to 3pm on Tuesday 24th July 2012.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/small-business-network/2012/jul/20/get-started-in-market-research

10. Consultation with customers helps build stronger relationships. Your customers value being asked their opinion, and the need for brands to forge stronger relationships with their customers is more relevant than ever before.

9. Understand that you have one chance to get it right. Customers are less forgiving than ever before – getting to the heart of what drives trust and loyalty is critical

8. Test before invest. Use market research to test new product ideas, concepts and propositions before committing too much resource to their development

7. Collaborate with consumers to develop new concepts and propositions. Get the prospect customer to help you with the design process.

6. Differentiation wins. Use market research to find and monitor the unique territory which your brand / product occupies in the market place

5. Monitor satisfaction levels –and be hungry for feedback on your products and services – use market research for “warts and all” feedback and learn from mistakes

4. Understand what really drives satisfaction, trust, loyalty and advocacy. Understand not just what customers SAY is important, but find those more elusive buttons to press that will deliver beyond what customers THINK they need

3. Use technology. Online and mobile methods mean that means that quantitative and qualitative market research is as affordable as ever before

2. Use positive research findings for PR and influence. Use survey findings to prove to potential investors or retail / wholesale partners there is demand for your product / service

1. Proactive monitoring, environmental scanning and trend-spotting. Use market research to learn from competitors successes and failures – and observe what is happening in adjacent markets

Our final assertion would be D.I.T. (do it thoroughly) and not D.I.Y.

It is important that the big ‘front end’ decisions are given the necessary time, and not taken on the back of questionable samples and questionable interview techniques. Professional research is an investment and will make a significant difference. Although several “DIY” survey tools exist, our advice would be to always entrust a quality agency to provide the design, delivery and interpretation. Not only for independence and objectivity, or for the specialist skills involved, but for the years of experience of having conducted many such projects before.

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Top 10 tips for dealing with quiet and dominant respondents in focus groups

8 Dec

Every focus group is different. Not only in terms of subject matter and techniques, but also in terms of the most important ingredient – the respondents.

Any moderator will be able to regale their own tales of interesting, colourful and memorable discussion group participants. Bringing together a mix of personalities, characters and opinions is often a recipe for unforgettable encounters.

Focus groups are all about engineering and managing the discussion and debate (and, sometimes, conflict) in order to develop meaningful understanding and insight around the subject matter and the research objectives. Managing the dynamics between the group members is, therefore, critical to delivering balanced viewpoints. Keeping control is essential – and this means hearing from all respondents in equal measure.

In this particular blog post, I have dissected the top 10 tips into two – we have 5 tips for dealing with the quiet and nervous respondent, and a further 5 tips for dealing with the noisier, potentially dominating respondent.

Encouraging the quiet respondent

1. Spot them early (check their defensive body language – they more likely to be sat furthest away from the moderator), and ensure that everyone is given the chance to speak early in the session;

2. Refer to some of the quieter respondents by their first name, and give them verbal and non-verbal encouragement;

3. Ask nice and easy questions from the start – don’t start off with complicated and difficult questions that will scare the nervous participants;

4. Break into smaller groups for tasks – less confident respondents may be more willing to speak up in smaller groups;

5. Refer back to earlier comments from the quieter respondents to prove to them that you’re listening.

Managing the dominant respondent

6. Spot them early (anyone who seems over-confident – they are more likely to be sat nearest the moderator – directly to the left or right);

7. On occasions and where necessary, take advantage of the seating position of the dominant respondent by leaning forwards and giving a ‘cold shoulder’;

8. Deal with interruptions – a hand in the air, palm outwards, is often sufficient to stop an interruption in its tracks;

9. Tell the dominant respondent directly if they are interrupting or talking too much. Initially you can make light of it, but if they know the rules and keep flouting them then you have reason to have a stern word!

10. As a very last resort, kick them out. A dominant and domineering respondent can be damaging, and it is essential that the group isn’t compromised.

Of course, we would always have checks in place so that the group is spot on in terms of recruitment profile, that people are ‘warmed up’ and made to feel welcome upon arrival, and that they know the rules and expectations prior to the session starting. Feel free to try these techniques and let us know how they work out for you. And please feel free to share any tips of your own in the comments area below.

Richard Walker is a director at Ci Research, and has 16 years qualitative research experience. He is still actively involved in qualitative research – designing discussion guides, developing new techniques, moderating groups, devouring transcripts and presenting insights.

He has also been a key figure in developing Ci Research’s new suite of online qualitative techniques, including online groups, online communities and social media engagement tools.

For more information on moderator tips, feel free to contact Richard on +44(0)1625 628070 or richard.walker@ci-research.com

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TOP 10 – Projective techniques

15 Dec

Projective techniques are useful on a number of levels, and are useful for providing something ‘different’ to moderated discussion and for delving deeper into the sub-conscious. Projective techniques are also useful when exploring subject areas that consumers might not necessarily find it easy to elucidate an opinion (e.g. brand perceptions). The key to success from the moderator perspective is to remember why the projective technique is being used! Knowing that a brand is similar in personality to Simon Cowell is one thing, but understanding the relevance of those personally traits and how they come to light is where insights can be formed.

Here are our thoughts on the Top 10 projective techniques (and how best to use them!).

 10 – Bring an item…
This doubles up as both a pre-task as well as a projective technique. At the point of recruitment, respondents are asked to bring to the group an item that they associate with, or makes them think of the brand in question. They are given creative licence! Ci Research used this technique recently when researching a range of kids multivitamins. Not only did it act as a great warm up to the group – setting the precedent for a creative session – but it also revealed a whole host of emotional attachments to the brand.

9 – Planets (and guided fantasy)
The ‘Planets’ projective technique involves quiet-time on the part of the respondents. They are asked to close their eyes whilst the moderator guides them on an imaginary journey through space. From leaving earth in their space capsule, all the way to returning again at the end of the expedition, they are asked to think deeply about the experiences and emotions associated with a visit to ‘Planet Brand X’. For example, What does it look like?, What are the people like?, What are the buildings like?, How do you feel?, What do you see?, What do you hear?, What do you smell?, Where do you go?, Who do you talk to? What do they say?, How do you feel about spending 6 months here?, How do you feel when you’re asked to  leave?. During the course of this ‘guided fantasy’ they can visit other brand/planets and compare and contrast the environment, how welcoming it feels, how much they enjoyed the visit, etc. At the end of the projective the group make their notes and debrief to the moderator / each other. We find this delivers much deeper insight and more colourful descriptions of the customer relationship and/or experience.

8 – Psycho-drawings
Psycho-drawings are most commonly pre-prepared sheets of paper, with stick men and women and an empty speech or thought bubble. They are useful for capturing individual views on subjects, and particularly the ‘how would this make you feel?’ type of customer insight. This is a handy technique for respondents that might be initially reticent about verbalising their own emotions in front of a group of strangers, as it also allows us to use a third-party perspective e.g. “this is how I feel most customers would react to this service experience”.

7 – The Treemen
The Treemen is another great example of using stimulus material to encourage respondents to disclose their feelings and emotions. Respondents can be shown pre-prepared drawings showing various characters living and interacting within a tree environment. Respondents can select the characters within the drawing that best represent how they (or someone else) might have been feeling in a given scenario. The insights are generated not by noting the individual tree character selected, but by questioning the respondent to understand specifically why that character was selected over others.

6 – Courtroom drama
The ‘courtroom drama’ projective technique is often used by Ci Research when using focus groups to conduct concept testing and creative development projects. Most often used towards the end of groups, respondents break into teams and are asked to use the preceding discussion and their own opinions to form a ‘case for’ or ‘case against’ the client preceding with one or more concepts or service improvements. Various interesting twists can be added. For example, taking respondents and asking them to ‘defend the indefensible’ by arguing the case for concepts that they were initially critical of. Teams can be constructed to balance the views of respondents that are more opinionated and vociferous in their views.

Continue reading →

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TOP 10: Moderator Tips

16 Nov

This week’s top 10 tips are courtesy of Richard Walker.

Richard has been moderating groups for almost 15 years, and has lost count of the number of groups and workshops moderated over the years – probably more than 300 and possibly fewer than 1000! Here’s his advice on how to be a quality moderator:

10. Keep it interesting / Keep them interested.

The majority of group participants will arrive at a focus group thinking they would rather be doing something else. From the moment they arrive, the onus is on the moderator and support team to ensure the experience is one they enjoy and would advocate! Don’t just leave the hostess to manage the ‘meet and greet’. Get out there yourself and make people feel welcome. And throughout subsequent discussions, the moderator has to prove they are listening to the participants. Revert back to points made earlier in the discussion as evidence to the group that you’re soaking up what they’re telling you!

9. Make it relevant

The way people communicate, interact and share opinion is significantly different to when the focus group boomed in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. The content and the format of the focus groups has to reflect the changes in how we communicate. We suggest using more online channels to deliver pre-group tasks and instructions, or post-group bulletin boards for continued debate. The role of the moderator is to facilitate, and this should involve making available as many tools as possible for participant’s use during the sessions (e.g. online access).

Continue reading →

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