Get your research right and you’re halfway to a successful marketing campaign. In the first of two articles, director of marketing consultancy Treehouse, Alison Ive, looks at what qualitative research is and how it can help marketers understand  how their target audience feels. In part two, she considers the pros and cons of various qualitative research methods.

What is qualitative research?

Unlike quantitative research, which seeks to discover how many people feel or act in a particular way, the qualitative kind is concerned with the reasons behind these views. In short, quantitative research is objective; it’s about numbers and hard data, and aims to get a statistically robust response.

Qualitative research is subjective: it’s about the how and why of decision-making, and the aim is to gain a deeper understanding of opinions and behaviours. It does this mostly through discussion, observation and exploratory open-ended questions, with a small number of respondents.

Choosing your sample

Just as the best direct mail campaign is useless unless it hits the right target audience, so research is pointless unless you’re asking questions of the right people. You need to ensure you have the optimum sample, one that’s sufficiently mixed to cover off different variables but not so mixed that groups are too disparate.

If the sample is quite diverse, try to get at least one point of homogeneity. For instance, if one focus group has to cover a wide age spectrum, ensure they have something in common (a hobby, parenthood etc) so that a discussion can still flow in spite of age differences. The recruiter should use screener questions to ensure you’re getting the right respondents.

Tip Consider the screener questions carefully and don’t rush this stage of the process. Sense-check them with colleagues to ensure nothing is missing. In thinking about specific screener questions don’t forget the obvious ones!

The role of the qualitative research consultant

An expert in the art of facilitation, a good qualitative researcher will find the best way to illicit true feelings and opinions from your customers in relation to your market, brand, product and creative.

He or she is experienced in the project management of research projects and will be able to recommend the best way to achieve your sample mix and recommend the right method for your needs.

An independent consultant is more likely to be trusted by respondents and elicit honest opinions, so they can provide an accurate, honest debrief, outlining their observations. This might not necessarily be what the company wants to hear.

Tip Read and analyse the research where possible to build your understanding of good and bad research and ensure the researcher has a thorough understanding of how you will apply it.

Where qualitative research can help

Direct mail
Qualitative research is valuable in the planning stage of a direct mail campaign as it can reveal more about the target audience’s needs or wants, and therefore what the offer or incentives could be. It can suggest which people to target and which cold lists or segments to include, inform or refine the proposition and gauge reaction to the tone of voice, or detail of the execution.

Proposition development
Hearing what the target audience has to say about your product category and market can help inspire and identify the most compelling proposition. You can use these insights to develop new propositions or modify existing ones for your particular audience. For example, the Government may want to know whether teenage girls are most put off smoking by health risks or by the impact on their appearance, to decide which area to emphasise in a new health campaign.

Product/concept generation
An in-depth understanding of consumer needs helps marketers know what products to develop, or refine. For example, qualitative research revealed that parental anxieties about child security in busy public places were paramount in the development stages of a new family membership product for a museum. And as a result, the museum addressed this issue in developing the product.

Pre-testing
Before launching an advertising campaign or other creative execution, qualitative research can help gauge people’s reaction, and elicits what works best and why. This allows marketers to work with the client to refine the creative prior to launch, and is helpful in checking the tone of voice, and what creative to choose.

Customer satisfaction
What do your customers really think of your product or service? The prescribed answers on a quantitative survey might miss a pertinent problem. Conversely, you might unearth something that is highly valued that the company hadn’t appreciated as significant.

Tip Go into research with some candidate ideas/propositions to test to explore reactions, but also be prepared to listen out for something new.

In part two, we look at different qualitative research methods and see which is best used where.

Read how to use quantitative research in a direct marketing campaign.