Pimp My QualAQR-QRCA Global Qualitative Conference (Barcelona 2008)

Andy Barker, Head of QualitativeYouGov plc, London

To challenge the qual community to keep a watchful

eye on its ethics and to keep our feet firmly on the ground whilst

our heads are firmly in the clouds

Aim of Paper

Time precludes discussion of other direction in written paper

• Some in research for this paper suggested that qual’s “pimping” has led to Emperor’s New Clothes innovation

• See written paper for fuller discussion of this

Innovation, Action, Change

A Classic Model – Match Making

Qualitative Insight

Consumers’ unmet needs

Company’s commercial

needs

Innovation, Action, Change

The Alternative Model – “Pimping”

Qualitative Exploitation

Consumers’ vulnerability

Company’s commercial

needs

“Our relationship with truth is fundamental but cracked, refracting confusingly like fragmented glass. It is the core of our careers, the endgame of every move we make and we pursue it with strategies painstakingly constructed of lies and concealment and every variation on deception...This is my job and you don’t go into it – or you don’t last – without some natural affinity for its priorities and demands. What I am telling you is two things: I crave truth. And I lie.”

Familiar?

Searching for truth

Nocturnal

Hang out with iffy types

Tactically sympathetic

Strategically empatheticUse white lies, half truths

and benign deceits

Good with one-linersSmart – sometimes smart

arsed

Some Questions?

• Do you never lie to respondents?

• Does your research achieve “good”?

• Would you never “exploit” respondents?

• Would you never persuade respondents to do things they don’t want to do?

• Is your research socially responsible?

Some Answers?

• If you answered “no” to them all, you are very honest, self aware – and possibly in trouble

• If you righteously answered “yes” to them all, you are a Saint (or a liar)

• And if you didn’t understand the questions, you are not a very good qual thinker

• But if any of those questions made you at least uncomfortable, you are an authentic, human quallie. Welcome

Some Questions?

• Do you never lie to respondents?

This is something I

have made up to try and get a response

This is something that

other people have said about

the brand

The price will go up, but you won’t

answer properly if you

know that

I don’t know about the

client’s plans – I am just a researcher

This is their big new

strategy – but we don’t want

people to realise

There are no definite plans to do this, it’s just an idea at

this stage

Some Questions?

• Does your research achieve “good”?

To test and refine the concepts to maximise propensity to purchase

To explore the category with a view to identifying gaps which can be exploited by brand or product innovation

To understand the triggers which will drive people to the brand

e.g. typical objectives

To ensure that the concepts are carbon neutral and only promote healthy eating

To explore the category with a view to identifying ways in which we can make a real difference to society

To understand how to get people to buy less stuff they don’t really need

...obviously never, ever ...

Some Questions?

• Would you never “exploit” respondents?

• NLP• Group dynamics• Projective & enabling techniques

• All exploit technologies, techniques, psychology … with the end of gaining deeper insight than “questioning” alone

Some Questions?

• Would you never persuade respondents to do things they don’t want to do?

Aware, Will Share

Aware, Won’t Share

Unaware, Will Share

Unaware, Won’t Share

Some Questions?

• Is your research socially responsible?

• More packaging• More products• More miles• More emotional need• More brand & commodity fetishism• More identity expressed through

consumption

So?

• Does qual research provide an authentic voice for consumers in the marketing process …or is it a highly developed form of exploitation?

“Push and pull factors have resulted in an industry which one might argue has lost – or even sold – its soul. Observational methodologies, client-consumer connections, innovation workshops and use of creative consumers, at very least stretch our accepted and traditional ethical framework. Does this matter? Do we need to rein in the newer practices of qualitative research or should we shift our ethical paradigm to be relevant to C21st business & consumer culture.”

Pressures on Ethics – Pimp Factors

• Methodological innovation/reinvention– Beyond traditional boundaries

– Pragmatism – if the cap fits

• Rise and rise of Para-Qual

• Corporate responsibility– Clients

– Agencies

• Power to the people– Democratisation of interactive capitalism

– Savvy consumers/respondents

Drivers for this paper

• Interesting experience at a Critical Marketing seminar

• Conducted some training of fresh new graduates

• Met some people whose MRS memberships had lapsed

• Media and corporate (client) interest in ethical behaviour and social responsibility

• Came across a company who was conducting “good” qual

• Informal observation that I and my smart, liberal colleagues use their smart liberalism to sell people things they don’t always need !

Edgy examples that provoked Critical Response

• Trained youth agents • Low income consumer projects

The unethical ethics of distance

• A downside of our impartiality is that consumers can be treated as “disposable”; in some research this conflicts with their expectations of direct results

I bared my soul and all I got

was this lousy T-shirt

Club membership and playing by the rules

• We all probably play by the membership rules of our professional organisations – but what happens if you are not a member?

• Well, nothing – I know many practitioners who are not• So there is a possibility of (benign) ethics creep

Passivity, responsibility and active good

• Qual research ethics are essentially passive – get permission and don’t hurt anyone!

• Increasing climate of corporate social responsibility – where does qual fit ?

• Came across a company conducting actively GOOD qual research

• What would happen if we were to actively consider the moral framework and consequences of our conclusions and recommendations ?

Specific methods that push ethical envelope

• Ethnography More intrusive, personal, catchpeople unawares?

• Client-consumer interaction Unmediated by “guardians ofthe code”?

• Idea generation Questions of copyright andmoral ownership?

• Deliberative methods Leading people up the wronggarden path?

• Communities and panels A different form of engagement

requiring different rules?

• Virtual worlds A whole new world of positiveand negative possibility?

I asked some people about all this

• Qual researcher preoccupations– Getting the job done

– Getting permission (first)

– Retaining professional ethical control/restricting access

• Client priorities– Assumption of ethics on part of agencies

– Otherwise its all about the business

• Academic issues– More philosophical ethical issues

– Also validity and reliability of methods

The Consumer Perspective

• The Consumer Perspective

– A little cynical about how research is used– Often feel gently forced down a certain route, if not response– Qual “open-endedness” has higher status (allows my perspective)

but they notice funnelling– Core ethical issues are

• Intrusiveness & privacy

• Anonymity & confidentiality

• How intimate “data” are used

• Idea ownership

– Balanced with general pragmatism about giving permission and accepting consequences

The Consumer Perspective - Quotes

Most of the time it feels like they ask me what I want

and do the opposite I don’t like the idea of being videod in my house – that’s

very intrusive

I worry that they are going to burgle me later on !

It feels like they will be advertising in your home - on wallpaper on your fridge

I think the person who think sup an idea should share

the rewards Just because a person has volunteered the idea,

companies can’t claim it as their ownSounds like Guantanamo

style

The Critical (Marxist) Perspective

• All of this discussion and research ethics generally masks the macro situation which is that this is all about naked capitalism, dressed up – or rather dressed down

• Qual research is an exploitative instrument of capitalism on dress down Friday

But surely this misses the phenomenology of qual

• Consumers appear to be unharmed by qual• They even enjoy it• It is a very modern form of engagement• It provides them with :

– Building blocks of cultural capital– A way of being heard in the “media-brand-sphere”– It is one of many “games” they play– It is just another transaction in our mediatised chat culture– It provides an opportunity to playfully engage in our contemporary

identity economy

• And research tells us that it’s not really such a big deal to them !

Maybe passive ethics misses point of “new capitalism”

• Perhaps we occupy a confused space in between two models - perhaps we need to renegotiate our position in the emergent prosumption marketplace

– Move from passively ethical to actively moral?

– Immerse entirely in the game (Ad funded qual?)

• Consumers would rather we started representing them fully and accurately, without being too intrusive

– Really listening

– Not influencing, funnelling, directing

– Respecting, engaging and representing them as people

In Conclusion

• Frank Zappa once said that jazz is not dead it just smells funny

• This is a very apt description for the ethical status of qual – we should act now to stop the potential stink later

• So qualitative research is obviously not wrong ... but maybe it should be more right

• Discuss...