Qualitative Marketing Research

Name: Qualitative Marketing Research
Author: Bob Badowski

Learn when qualitative research is the best method to answer your marketing questions.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 6 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

(soft music) Welcome to qualitative marketing research. These lessons will show you how qualitative research can both benefit and harm companies. You'll also learn about several different kinds of qualitative marketing research and the tools to decide which will be best for the research you're conducting. Qualitative research is an important methodology that marketing researchers use to determine customers' wants, needs, and behaviors. There are some important strengths that come with qualitative research. It's adaptable; it taps into customer psychology; and it's highly targeted. When performing certain types of qualitative research, questions can be adapted to find out what customers are genuinely thinking. For example, if you're conducting an interview with a customer, you might ask them a particular question and notice something in their body language that leads you to follow up with more probing questions. By delving deeper, you can get more comprehensive information from subjects rather than simply asking surface-level questions. Qualitative research is tied closely with the psychology of customers and customer behavior. Knowing why a customer is doing something is sometimes more important than knowing what they're doing or how much they're spending. If you could get to the root cause of why a customer behaves in a certain way, you can adjust your business strategy accordingly. For example, if a customer frequented a restaurant but no longer does, what is the reason they don't patronize that business anymore? If you were just using quantitative data, you would know that they are no longer spending money at the restaurant but not the reason. Qualitative research explores the why. Did they have an unpleasant experience? Did they have poor service? Or did they move away? Without knowing the why of customer behavior, it becomes difficult to try to solve specific problems. Qualitative research tends to be better targeted towards specific customers who are relevant to your business. Having in-depth conversations and really finding out what those customers want helps to define your target market. Once targeting is understood, a customer profile can be developed based on trends that were derived from qualitative data. However, there are some limitations. Poor interviewers can influence or even miss following up on valuable information. High cost could limit the research, and the data analysis required to make sense of the research is labor intensive. Qualitative research is only as good as the interviewers conducting the interview. It's a difficult type of research to conduct because it can be challenging to not influence the subject's responses. It's best if interviewers are fair, impartial, and not leading the subjects. Qualitative data is most useful if the responses are honest representations of the subjects. If subjects feel like they need to answer a certain way or interviewers influence them, then that data tends to be biased or skewed. Qualitative research tends to be more expensive to conduct than quantitative research. This is because it takes time to interview each subject and, in turn, cost more than a quantitative study. This cost is often offset by the amount of data that can be extracted. Not all qualitative research needs to be done face-to-face but to really delve into a particular problem, it's suggested these situations be explored in a face-to-face setting. The analysis of qualitative information is much more labor intensive and time consuming than quantitative information. Each response must be examined to look for developing themes among the answers. Sometimes this is easy because themes appear quickly but themes are often difficult to come by since customers' thoughts and feelings about a product or service could vary widely. If no themes are trends are found, it may lead to frustration.

Beginner Provider : Bob Badowski 6 Lessons · 16m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

Qualitative marketing research helps to determine the thoughts and feelings of your customers and the meanings they associate with your products or services. While there are some difficulties that can come with getting more personal with the customer, this can sometimes be the best approach to answer a business question.

In KnowledgeCity’s Qualitative Marketing Research course, you will learn when qualitative marketing research might be the best approach for your company’s vision. Through this, you’ll explore the strengths and limitations of qualitative research with background research being one of your driving forces. You’ll also learn the best ways to conduct certain qualitative approaches, particularly interviews and focus groups, while also diving deep into other methodologies. From these lessons, you’ll be given the tools to make informed decisions that can benefit your company and ensure you learn the appropriate information about your customers.

What You'll Learn

Determine when qualitative marketing research is the best approach for your company's vision
Define the strengths and limitations of qualitative research
Conduct qualitative approaches such as interviews and focus groups
Analyze the value of different qualitative research systems and methodologies
Identify the subjects for qualitative marketing research methodologies
Use background research to drive informed decisions about your customers

Key Takeaways

Qualitative marketing research helps determine the thoughts, feelings, and meanings customers associate with your products or services.
Getting more personal with the customer can come with difficulties, but it can sometimes be the best approach to answer a business question.
Background research serves as one of the driving forces behind effective qualitative research.
Interviews and focus groups are key qualitative approaches the course teaches you to conduct, alongside other methodologies.
The course provides tools to make informed decisions that benefit your company and ensure you learn the appropriate information about your customers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn when qualitative marketing research might be the best approach for your company's vision, explore the strengths and limitations of qualitative research, and learn the best ways to conduct approaches such as interviews and focus groups while diving deep into other methodologies.

What topics does this course cover?

The course covers the strengths and limitations of qualitative research, interviews, focus groups, background research, and other qualitative methods, and concludes with a Test Your Knowledge lesson.

What skills will I gain from this course?

You will gain the tools to make informed decisions that can benefit your company and ensure you learn the appropriate information about your customers, including defining the limits of qualitative research and determining the best methodologies to conduct it.

When should I use qualitative marketing research?

Qualitative marketing research can sometimes be the best approach to answer a business question when you want to determine the thoughts and feelings of your customers and the meanings they associate with your products or services; the course helps you learn when this approach is best for your company's vision.