Qualitative Researc1

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QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

MEANING:

It is any research conducted using an observational technique or

unstructured questioning. It is often viewed as a Soft-approach. It is

conducted:

when structured research is not possible,

when true response may not be available [embarrassing

touchy questions]

to explain quantitative research results.

The purpose of qualitative research is to create a robust, detailed description

of behavioral patterns, consumer trends, market needs, and human

motivations. If quantitative research seeks to confirm an existing hypothesis,

qualitative research seeks to collect information that may support the

creation of a hypothesis or invalidate an existing theory. Toward that end,

researchers focus on a smaller number of people and spend more time with

them, eliciting their thoughts and opinions rather than statistical data or yes-

or-no answers. The researchers observations, subjective interpretations,

interpersonal skills and interview techniques thus figure critically in theprocess, and in the quality and relevance of data collected.

DEFINITION:

Qualitative Researchinvolves finding out what people think, and how

they feel - or at any rate, what they say they think and how they say they

feel. This kind of information is subjective. It involves feelings and

impressions, rather than numbers

Bellenger, Bernhardt and Goldstucker, Qualitative Research in

Marketing, American Marketing Association


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ADVANTAGES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Qualitative approaches help us to-

Better understand phenomenon and gain new perspectives Collect and explore in-depth information that cant be conveyed

quantitatively

Provide rich descriptions of complex phenomena

Explore sensitive topics

Explore the issues of difficult to access groups / subcultures

Explore culturally defined experiences

Track unique / unexpected events

Illuminate experience and interpretation by actors

Gives voice to those rarely heard

DISADVANTAGES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Fewer people studied usually. Less easily generalised as a result.

Difficult to aggregate data and make systematic comparisons.

Dependent upon researchers personal attributes and skills (also true

with quantitative, but not as easy to evaluate their skills in conducting

research with qualitative). Participation in setting can always change the social situation

(although not participating can always change the social situation as

well).

It can be very subjective as the researcher often includes personal

experience and insight as part of the relevant data thus making

complete objectivity an impossibility.

It has a very low reliability in that it is extremely difficult to replicate

a piece of qualitative research due to the fact that it does not have a

structured design or a standardised procedure.


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OBSERVATION TECHNIQUES

Classification of Observation

Direct vs indirect:Direct>> observing behavior as it occurs

Indirect >> observing the effects of behavior

Disguised vs nondisguised

Nondisguised>>Direct

Disguised >> Indirect

Structured vs unstructured

Structured>>predetermine what to observe

Unstructured>>monitor all behavior

Human vs MechanicalHuman>>observation done by human beings

Mechanical>>observation by machine

Classi

F o c u s G D e p t h I n tD i r e c t

( N o n d i s g

A s s o c

T e c h n i

C o m p l

T e c h n i

C o n s t r

T e c h n i

E x p r e s

T e c h n i

P r o j e c t

T e c h n i q

I n d i r e c

( D i s g u i s

Q u a l i t a t i v e

P r o c e d u


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ADVANTAGES

Greater data accuracy than direct questioning, in natural settings people

behave naturally,

Problems of refusal, not at home, false response, non-cooperation etc. are

absent,

No recall error,

In some situations, only way

Number of customers visiting a store

Studying childrens behavior

LIMITATIONS

Time consuming,

Too many things to observe,May not be representative,

Difficulty in determining root cause of the behavior.

FOCUS GROUP

An interview conducted by a trained moderator in a non-structured and

natural manner with a small group of respondents.

Group size 8-12

Group composition Homogenous, respondents prescreened

Physical setting Relaxed, informal setting

Time duration 1 - 3 hours

Recording Use of audio and video cassettes

Moderator Observational, interpersonal, good

communication skills needed.


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OBJECTIVES:

Generate new product or service ideas

Understand consumer vocabulary

Useful for ad campaigns

Reveal consumer needs, motives, perceptions and attitudes,

Generating future research objectives

Facilitate understanding of the quantitative studies

THE FOCUS GROUP MODERATOR

The person who conducts the focus group session.

Success of focus groups depend on him/her,

He/she must strive for generating a stimulating natural

discussion without losing sight of the focus,

Must take initiative, but should not dominate the discussion

unduly,

Should have feeling of urgency,

Should participate in the research from the beginning,

Must add value beyond just conducting the session.

Traits of a Go

Focus GrouModerator

A Good Focus Gro


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MAJOR ADVANTAGES:

Synergism, Snowballing, Stimulation, Security, Spontaneity, Speed and

Cost savings.

MAJOR DISADVANTAGES:

Lack of representativeness, Misuse, Misjudge, Moderation problem, and

Difficulty of analysis

SEVEN ADVANTAGES OF FOCUS GROUP


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FIVE DISADVANTAGES OF FOCUS GROUP

1. Synergism .interests discussproduce a richer

4. Security . Bfocus group particip

enables themto feelexpress their ideas/f


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OTHER QUALITATIVE TECHNIQUES

1. Lack of representrepresentative offocus group discube the only basis


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Depth Interview: An unstructured interview that seeks opinions of

respondents on a one-to-one basis. Useful for sensitive issues, politics

etc.

Protocol Analysis: Involves placing a person in a decision making

situation and asking him/her to state everything he/she considers in

making a decision. Useful in 1. Purchasing involving a long time

frame (car, house) and 2. Where the decision process is too short

(greeting card).

Projective technique: Involve situations in which participants are placed

in simulated activities hoping that they will divulge information about

themselves that are unlikely to be revealed under direct questing.

PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES

These are indirect interviewing methods which enable sampled

respondents to project their views, beliefs and feelings onto a third-

party or into some task situation.

The researcher sets up a situation for the respondents asking them to

express their own views, or to complete/ interpret some ambiguous

stimulus presented to them.

Various types. More common ones are:

Free Word Association

Sentence Completion

Unfinished scenario/story completion

Cartoon completion test

FREE WORD ASSOCIATION

In this technique, a list of carefully selected stimulus words or phrases

related to the topic of research are read out, one at a time, to a

respondent. The respondent is asked to respond with the first word or


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phrase that comes to his/her mind. The list of words should contain a

mixture of test words and neutral words.

In the example shown here, the researchers seems to be interested in

studying high-tech banking (words with *).

However, analyzing and interpreting test results are rather difficult.

SENTENCE COMPLETION

This technique is an extension of the free-word association test. In this

technique, the respondent is presented with some sentences containingincomplete stimuli and is asked to complete them. Like the free-word

association method, interpreting and analysing data obtained from this

technique is also difficult.

Stimulus

Automatic teller mach__________________


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UNFINISHED SCENARIO COMPLETION

This technique is similar to the sentence completion test. However, in thistechnique, the respondent is presented with a specific scenario

containing incomplete stimuli [see example below] and is asked to

complete the scenario. Interpreting and analysing data obtained from

this technique is also difficult.

CARTOON COMPLETION TEST

In the cartoon technique, the respondent is shown a comic-strip like cartoon

with two characters in a conversation. While the speech of one

character is shown in his/her balloon,the other balloon is empty.The

respondent is asked to assume the role of the other person and fill the

empty baloon with a speech.

Since Mr. Alber


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Data analysis

Interpretive techniques

The most common analysis of qualitative data is observer impression. That

is, expert or bystander observers examine the data, interpret it via forming an

impression and report their impression in a structured and sometimes

quantitative form.

Coding

Coding is an interpretive technique that both organizes the data and provides

a means to introduce the interpretations of it into certain quantitativemethods. Most coding requires the analyst to read the data and demarcate

segments within it. Each segment is labeled with a code usually a word

or short phrase that suggests how the associated data segments inform the

research objectives. When coding is complete, the analyst prepares reports

via a mix of: summarizing the prevalence of codes, discussing similarities

and differences in related codes across distinct original sources/contexts, or

comparing the relationship between one or more codes.

Some qualitative data that is highly structured (e.g., open-end responses

from surveys or tightly defined interview questions) is typically coded

without additional segmenting of the content. In these cases, codes are often

applied as a layer on top of the data. Quantitative analysis of these codes is

typically the capstone analytical step for this type of qualitative data.

Contemporary qualitative data analyses are sometimes supported by

computer programs. These programs do not supplant the interpretive nature

of coding but rather are aimed at enhancing the analysts efficiency at data

storage/retrieval and at applying the codes to the data. Many programs offer

efficiencies in editing and revising coding, which allow for work sharing,peer review, and recursive examination of data.

A frequent criticism of coding method is that it seeks to transform

qualitative data into quantitative data, thereby draining the data of its variety,

richness, and individual character. Analysts respond to this criticism by

thoroughly expositing their definitions of codes and linking those codes


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soundly to the underlying data, therein bringing back some of the richness

that might be absent from a mere list of codes.

Recursive abstraction

Some qualitative datasets are analyzed without coding. A common methodhere is recursive abstraction, where datasets are summarized, those

summaries are then further summarized, and so on. The end result is a more

compact summary that would have been difficult to accurately discern

without the preceding steps of distillation.

A frequent criticism of recursive abstraction is that the final conclusions are

several times removed from the underlying data. While it is true that poor

initial summaries will certainly yield an inaccurate final report, qualitative

analysts can respond to this criticism. They do so, like those using codingmethod, by documenting the reasoning behind each summary step, citing

examples from the data where statements were included and where

statements were excluded from the intermediate summary.

Mechanical techniques

Some techniques rely on leveraging computers to scan and sort large sets of

qualitative data. At their most basic level, mechanical techniques rely on

counting words, phrases, or coincidences of tokens within the data. Often

referred to as content analysis, the output from these techniques is amenableto many advanced statistical analyses.

Mechanical techniques are particularly well-suited for a few scenarios. One

such scenario is for datasets that are simply too large for a human to

effectively analyze, or where analysis of them would be cost prohibitive

relative to the value of information they contain. Another scenario is when

the chief value of a dataset is the extent to which it contains red flags (e.g.,

searching for reports of certain adverse events within a lengthy journal

dataset from patients in a clinical trial) or green flags (e.g., searching for

mentions of your brand in positive reviews of marketplace products).

A frequent criticism of mechanical techniques is the absence of a human

interpreter. And while masters of these methods are able to write

sophisticated software to mimic some human decisions, the bulk of the

analysis is nonhuman. Analysts respond by proving the value of their

methods relative to either a) hiring and training a human team to analyze the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_analysishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_analysis


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WHEN TO USE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?

You're in new territory and little is known.

When considering products or new markets, qualitative research can

deliver an early landscape profile of consumer or business buyer

attitudes and behavior.

Customer perceptions or attitudes may be hidden from easy view.

When the product category may represent unspoken meaning to

buyers, qualitative market research may provide needed tools.

Generate ideas for products, advertising, or brand positioning.

The nuances of buyer attitudes and beliefs can often provide stimulusfor fresh new ideas, and feed a formal idea generation process.

Screening ideas and concepts.

Qualitative market research can be a useful first step, prior to

quantitative research, to screen new advertising, product, or

positioning concepts. This allows time for refining concepts prior to

quantitative market research.

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