by Karl Ackermann

Created on: April 26, 2010

Planning Qualitative Customer Research

Overview:

Marketing Research departments in larger corporations have been one of the casualties of the recession. Few of these organizations look to rebuild those functions in this early stage of a cautious recovery.  For smaller organizations, Marketing Research has always been a luxury; infrequently conducted and rarely tracked over time.

For marketers interested in bringing research in-house, there have been a number of very simplified online tools developed in the past ten years.  While these tools do not provide the expertise that comes with a seasoned professional researcher, they do allow companies to gather survey data and arrange it for presentation.

The existence of these online tools is less the case for qualitative research such as focus groups, in-depth interviews (IDI) or methodologies such as ethnographic studies.  This guide, is a step-by-step tutorial for planning focus groups, the most common form of qualitative research.  The principles can be applied to online or off line groups and, in some instances, to planning an online discussion board.

Planning Focus Groups:

*Understand the business objective

-Meet with the key stakeholders in the business to confirm that all parties agree on the questions/problems/issues that the research will address

-Develop a hypothesis on possible conclusions to determine if any/all can be acted on if confirmed by research

i.e., there is little point spending time or money on a problem that can’t be fixed

*Determine the most appropriate research methodology based on the issues and resources

*Involve support teams where needed, i.e., Graphics, Product Development, Finance

*Select moderator, geographic locations and focus group facilities, if needed

Screening Participants

*Determine which group/groups of people should be interviewed

-This may be based on the segment of a market with the greatest interest in a product or service

                                    or

-A random sample of the general population in order to determine which segment would have an interest in a product or service

*Focus group participants will typically be recruited by the focus group facility that is hosting the sessions or culled from a database if online

*A screener is developed to insure that

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