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In Qualitative Research, Size Does Matter!

DWG Admin on April 14, 2016

In qualitative research, variety is the spice of life. Moderators are particularly sensitive to the number of participants in their groups. Some firmly believe that twelve is the right number. Others are more comfortable with eight. The reasons for these preferences include:

CONTROLLING THE GROUP. Each moderator has their own style and way of handling group interaction. Every group has their chatterboxes, the shy ones, the negative ones, and the ones who try to take over the group for their own purposes. Each moderator knows best what works for them in maintaining a productive environment in the focus group room.
MINIMIZING “GROUP-SPEAK”. Focus groups are frequently criticized for the phenomenon known as group-speak. Basically, group-speak happens when there is a strong participant, and the other participants simply go along with what that person is saying, rather than expressing their own opinion. A good moderator overcomes group-speak by building rapport quickly, continually monitoring the room, expertly reading body language and encouraging dissident opinions. Another way to minimize group-speak is to reduce the number of participants. It’s easier to hide in a crowd!
HEARING ALL THE VOICES. Your moderator’s goal is to hear honest and frank opinions from every group member to strengthen the insights that result. The number of participants in the group is a key part of this equation for the moderator and – again! – every moderator knows what works best for them. Forcing a moderator to include more participants than they are comfortable with so you “get your money’s worth” is only going to result in less or poorer quality information.

Often, focus groups are not the only answer to a qualitative question, although they are very popular. You need to consider your research objectives, and at the heart of it, the type of discussion and behavior you want to understand. In qualitative research, there
are other alternatives to the traditional focus group that you should keep in mind:

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS (IDIs): In person one-on-one interviews conducted at a focus group facility give you the chance to focus on the individual, avoiding the distractions of the other focus group members. After all, if it is just the moderator and the respondent, there is nowhere to hide! In-depth interviews are excellent for very sensitive or personal topics, as well as topics that typically involve individual assessment and decision making. Additionally, in-depth interviews are often used in business-to-business research where respondents may not be easily scheduled into a group, or there may be concerns about speaking openly in front of their competitors.
DYADS AND TRIADS: Two or three people are recruited to participate in discussions at a focus group facility. Dyads and Triads are often used where the decision making process for a particular product or service is shared, such as in the case of spouses or parent-child decision making. Dyads and Triads avoid most of the weaknesses of focus groups while showcasing the interaction between the parties evaluating the topic or making the decision.
MINI-GROUPS: Typically defined as groups with four to six participants, minigroups fill the gap between triads and full focus groups. Mini-groups are often used when the qualified participant is very rare or unique, and recruiting costs become prohibitive. Additionally, participants in mini-groups may feel more secure about offering different or dissenting opinions because there are fewer participants.

Your focus group facility should have a variety of settings to accommodate groups of all sizes in comfort and in an environment that promotes vigorous and creative discussion. The key question in deciding what size group to use is, “What are you trying to learn?” Consider your research objectives, think about how your target audience behaves, and then listen to your moderator, who will have the experience and expertise to guide the research design to meet your project needs.

Asking Better Questions for Better Market Research

DWG Admin on April 7, 2016

You know the expression “Garbage In, Garbage Out?” Well, that applies to marketing research as well. One of the key pieces in any research project is the questionnaire. Whether it is in the form of a survey, a moderator’s guide or a one-on-one interview, the questions you ask are a critical success factor for developing insights and delivering meaningful, actionable results. So, if you aren’t asking the right questions, you won’t be able to meet the research objectives effectively.

David F. Harris, author of the book The Complete Guide to Writing Questionnaires: How to get Better Information for Better Decisions, has led multiple workshops at L&E where he shared his concerns about questionnaire quality and offered tips to attendees to improve their research quality.

1. KEEP IT SHORT: Longer surveys lead to incompletes, higher incentives, and lower response rates. And yet, marketing researchers routinely design surveys that take 20, 30, or even 45 minutes to complete. Focus on what’s needed to make the decision and limit your questions to gathering only that information.

2. KEEP IT SIMPLE: Surveys that are too complex are almost as bad as surveys that are too long. Avoid questions that are too wordy, response lists with too many choices, and matrix questions with too many entries. All of these make the survey more difficult to complete, and result in questionable data.

3. ASK QUESTIONS THAT YOUR RESPONDENTS CAN ANSWER: It is critical that the questions asked are within the expertise of the respondent. For example, don’t try to ask someone why they bought a product if they were not the decision maker. Either adjust your questions to what the respondent knows or change your sampling.

4. DO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH TO HEAR THE VOC: Qualitative research is invaluable in determining the correct questions to ask of a population. Not only do you learn what language they are comfortable using, but you can explore what is important about a particular experience, as well the metrics that they use to evaluate the experience. Businesses often resist conducting qualitative to prepare for quantitative due to the added expense and time, but it is far better to invest in qualitative research than to conduct a quantitative project with bad results.

5. AVOID LEADING QUESTIONS: Several years ago, a Pew Research survey asked people whether they would: “favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein’s rule,” 68% were in favor and 25% were opposed to military action. However, when the question was asked “favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein’s rule even if it meant that U.S. forces might suffer thousands of casualties,” the results changed: only 43% said they favored military action while 48% said they opposed it. By adding the possibility of U.S. casualties, the authors influenced the outcome of the results.

6. AVOID DOUBLE NEGATIVES: You wouldn’t never do this, right? You would? You would what? See the problem? Double negatives are confusing. Just don’t do it!

7. OPEN OR CLOSED? IT DEPENDS: Closed questions (those where the scale is spelled out) are usually easier for respondents to answer, but if you don’t have the right response categories – and all of them – you might miss important data. Moreover, don’t make the mistake of assuming everyone will write in their responses in the “other” response – they just don’t. So, if you don’t know what they respondents might say, go with open-end questions.

8. SHOULD YOU FORCE A CHOICE? THE ROLE OF NO OPINION: Forcing a choice means just that – developing a question and response that forces the respondent to have an opinion. Here’s an example: Are you for or against gun control? Yes or No? Gun control is a very complex issue, and all respondents might not be prepared to answer yes or no. In some cases, it is better to include a “no opinion” or “don’t know” response because it allows for more accurate data.

9. NUMERIC ANSWERS – TO LIST OR NOT TO LIST: It is always easier for respondents to select an answer from a list, but you have to be sure you can develop a list with the correct responses in the correct base. If you are not sure, just collect the numeric data.

10. MAINTAIN LOGICAL ORDER: There are two issues addressed by maintaining logical question order. Again, it makes it easier for respondents to complete the survey. Second, it helps you collect more accurate data. If you want to ask about headaches in the last 30 days as well as the most recent headache experienced, ask all of your questions related to headaches in the past thirty days and then the questions about the most recent headache. Bouncing back and forth between the two time periods may confuse your respondents!

11. ASK ONE QUESTION AT A TIME: How would you answer this question:

› Is orange juice nutritious and delicious? Yes or No

What do you answer if you think it is nutritious, but you don’t like the taste of orange juice? Ask the questions separately: Is orange juice nutritious? Is orange juice delicious?

12. USE FORMATTING TO IMPROVE READABILITY: Italics, bold, underlines – anything you can do to make the survey easier to understand will make it a better experience for respondents and help them give you more accurate responses.

13. WHEN ASKING BEHAVIOR FREQUENCY, SPELL IT OUT: How would you answer this question:

› How frequently do you shop for groceries: Very Frequently, Frequently, Infrequently, or Very Infrequently?

Betty goes grocery shopping once per week, and that seems to be less than her friends, so she responds “very infrequently.” Joe, on the other hand, also goes shopping once per week, but he lives alone and feels that he should be able to go less frequently, so he responds “very frequently”. Same frequency, different response. Be sure respondents are going to be able to respond with accurate metrics.

14. USE BALANCED SCALES: One of the most frequently used scales is “Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor.” This scale might work very well in grading students, but it doesn’t work as well for marketing research because it is not balanced: there are three positive responses, one so-so response, and one negative response. This scale biases the responses to the positive. A better scale would be “Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, Very Poor” which delivers balanced response options.

15. PRETEST THE QUESTIONNAIRE: Before you field the survey with the total sample, conduct a pretest with qualified respondents. Have them take the survey and then ask them how they answered, how they felt as they answered, and how they might improve the survey. Even if you are an expert on the topic, this is the only way to begin to make sure the questions work.

Developing strong questions is both an art and a science. There is a lot of academic research on question development that you can refer to, including Pew Research, the University of Chicago – National Opinion Research Center (NORC), the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), and many others. In addition to becoming a student of questions yourself, following these suggestions will go a long way to improving your questions – and the resulting answers.

Want to learn more about how to ask better questions? Sign up for our upcoming webinar on May 13, 2016 with David Harris, How to Write Better Screeners to Get the Right Respondents.

You can also view videos of David’s past workshops by visiting our webinars page of our website.

Webinar Recording | Mobile Research in 2016: An Update

DWG Admin on March 18, 2016

Research participants have spoken: They are demanding that research is mobile friendly. However, too few researchers are listening. There is a growing gap between what participants are demanding and what researchers are offering, just as there is a growing gap between what is possible and what researchers are doing. This webinar provides a 2016 update of mobile market research and provides key actionable recommendations for what researchers should be doing. The webinar covers both quantitative and qualitative research.

About Ray Poynter

Ray has spent the last thirty-five years at the intersection of innovation, technology, and market research. Ray is the Managing Director of The Future Place and is the author of The Handbook of Mobile Market Research, The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research, and editor of ESOMAR’s book Answers to Contemporary Market Research Questions. Ray is in popular demand as a conference speaker, workshop leader, writer and consultant, appearing regularly in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific.

Start with the End in Mind: Make Sure your Research Leads to the Right Decisions

DWG Admin on February 18, 2016

“There is nothing like looking if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

All marketers struggle with scarce resources to address business challenges. Perhaps in no other marketing area are resources quite so limited as in market research. Management does not want to invest in high-quality research. Respondents don’t want to participate, and if they do participate, it is challenging to get them to give valuable information. Sometimes it seems as if insight is as rare as hen’s teeth.

Therefore, it is critical that market research be planned specifically to lead to decision-making. Recently, L&E Research hosted a workshop in our Raleigh facility led by David Harris, author of The Complete Guide to Writing Questionnaires: How to Get Better Information for Better Decisions. (Click here to view the video of David’s talk.)

According to David, research is rarely organized to support decisions, and he wrote his book to propose a solution. His market research framework lays out a process for making the most of the scarce resources available to market researchers. Without cutting corners, David’s framework helps marketers focus their thinking to generate research projects that successfully lead to decisions and actions based on those decisions.

David’s Framework starts with three steps:

Plan research to support decision making
Conduct qualitative research
Plan the questionnaire

Note that the third step is to plan the questionnaire, not write it!

Planning for decision making before you even start to write the questionnaire is challenging, because marketers are born question-writers. However, it ensures that the research that you end up doing is specifically designed to support the decisions that need to be made.

Most decisions are made with a limited set of information, often as few as three to seven facts. And yet, research typically goes far beyond the information needed for the decision. In order to focus research for decision making, David recommends you write a research plan that identifies three things:

The decisions the research will support
The information needed to make those decisions
The design of the study that will collect that information

Answering these questions ensures that you use the best methodology (i.e., the most cost effective methodology that still delivers the information needed) to get the right and most accurate data. A bonus of this kind of research planning is that the questionnaires are shorter, enhancing participation rates among respondents.

Once you have focused on the information to seek, qualitative research can help you know what questions to ask, how to ask them, and who to ask. David advises, “In order to understand a topic, you need the insights that only qualitative research can provide.” Qualitative research allows you to hear the words and phrases respondents use when they speak about the topic, how they understand the metrics you need to collect, as well as what criteria they use in evaluating the topic.

Finally, you are ready to write the questionnaire plan. David recommends a matrix that identifies, for each decision:

What information is needed
How to ask the question
How the data will be analyzed

All of these factors, of course, influence the specific questions to be included in the research instrument, but note that you are still distinguishing between the information you need for the decision and the questions themselves. Maintain the discipline not to write any questions until the questionnaire plan is complete.

Without this considerate and thoughtful approach, you run the risk of completing research that goes astray, and is less than optimal in addressing the business challenge. Using David’s framework, you will find not only “something, if you look” (per Tolkien) but certainly the “something you were after.” Moreover, that “something”, will enable you to make successful decisions for your business.

Want to learn more about David’s market research framework? We’ve created a handy infographic that summarizes the first series of steps in planning your research and your questionnaire.

GRIT Commentary: Killing the Error of Omission

DWG Admin on December 3, 2015

We are wrong and we know it. Marketing research has always been plagued by error and assumptions; random sampling almost never is, all kinds of bias – observer, response, fatigue, scale. The list of issues goes on and on. Just as importantly, marketing research has been wrong by omission; that is to say that we could only ask questions – and evaluate the answers. At the end of the day, it is a calculated and reasonable “wrong”.

But we are getting better… and that shows no sign of slowing. Some of the improvements over the past several years are about the process (better sampling, improved questions); many others are about killing the error of omission – and to L&E, this is the exciting part.

New sources of data about consumers allow for vectors of knowledge that did not exist even 3 or 4 years ago. Behaviors can be established from any number of sources: mobile tracking, receipt scanning, in-store video – the list goes on and on. Social Media allows a sneak peek into peoples’ lives that lets us see how they wish to be perceived – and not just through their words, but also the images they associate with their life. Emotions and the emotional triggers can be identified through non-conscious methods from facial coding, to neuro methods and wearables.

As costs continue to fall from competitive pressure and technological advances (I just saw a Virtual Reality viewer for $20), it will be easier to put more of these pieces together to get a clearer picture of the “whole truth” – which has long been the goal in our industry. Let’s take a look at two examples.

Eye tracking technology lets us identify the area of a document or image that is getting attention. Facial coding technology allows us to understand the emotion a person is feeling at a particular point in time. Independently, each of those technologies answers an important question. Together they answer the question of the specific driver of that emotion. One particular client takes it a step further and integrates in-depth interviews based on laddering to understand the “why” of the emotional triggers. In this example, there is little error of omission, as multiple approaches within a single respondent engagement have answered the what, the how, and the why.

Behavioral research has generally been based on observation (expensive) or diaries (questionable). The mobile phone and, in particular, mobile panels change all this. Now, behavioral research can be conducted in connection with shopper journey, use tests, day in the life, etc., with reasonable completeness and accuracy. Scanner technology (the same kind used in Expensify) allows people to scan their store receipts instead of using a diary for their purchases. Each of these methods provides valuable information about a person’s life. The combination of these two methods provides a more holistic perspective of a person’s consumption life – as it lays out multiple places, multiple experiences, and multiple purchases – in the context of all their purchases (not just a category). The error of omission is still there, but smaller and easier to forgive.

Understanding everything that motivates a person is hard. Psychologists can spend years trying to understand someone and still not be comfortable that they have it right. But we can get better at understanding – as we should – for our businesses, for our clients, and for consumers.

Market research is now particularly well positioned to do this using a holistic approach that combines qualitative, quantitative, behavioral, non-conscious and observational data; shifting the conversation from “we could be wrong for all of these reasons” to “we think we’re right for all of the data points we have to use”. That’s a big (and exciting) difference – and the GRIT data tells us it’s now a reality.

L&E Workshop Video | Serve Your Customers Better with User Experience Research

DWG Admin on October 24, 2015

With the explosion of user experience (or UX) in the business world, more companies are trying to incorporate UX research methods to better serve their customers. However, one test size does not fit all. Without employing the right series of research methods, companies can end up with an incomplete or misleading picture of their users. On October 23, 2015, L&E hosted a workshop with Amanda Stockwell, VP of User Experience for 352 inc. at our Columbus (Ohio) facility. Amanda discussed how to ensure your team is asking the right questions to better understand your users and their needs and to uncover white space opportunities.

This session covered:

How UX work differs from traditional marketing research
An overview of the types of user experience research
What types of questions can be answered with different research methods
The best time to employ different types of research

About Amanda Stockwell

Amanda is the Vice President of User Experience at 352 inc., a full-service user experience, design, development, and marketing agency. At 352, she leads a team that provides user research, usability testing, and UX strategy services to clients in a variety of verticals. Amanda’s expertise and knowledge of in-person and remote research techniques has helped companies new to user experience assimilate user-centered design into their existing processes. She has a human factors background and an engineering degree from Tufts University.

Integrated Marketing: Getting Maximum Impact from your Marketing Tactics

DWG Admin on October 7, 2015

By: Steve Henke, President & Founder of Harpeth Marketing

Imagine you work for a small-to-mid-size firm with a small – but active – marketing program. You have a solid website, you blog weekly, send out a monthly email blast, post to social media daily (LinkedIn and Twitter) and even produce a webinar once each quarter. Pretty good stuff!

But here’s the thing… if all of those tactics are not working together, you might not be achieving the kind of results you could be. For example…

Blogging every week is a good thing… but if no one reads them, they have no real value. Are you using your email and social media to drive readers to your blog?
Do your tweets link back to your website… or are you just spouting off random comments? Rule of thumb… 1 in 5 tweets link back to your website / 4 in 5 link to others’ content.
Do you have links on your website and emails that connect visitors to your social media sites? Yes, use the little icons.
When webinar participants register to attend, does their contact information automatically flow into your CRM… which then feeds future email blasts?

Everything working together is called Integrated Marketing. Take a look at what this integrated marketing eco-system might look like:

Now imagine what this little eco-system might look like when you add to it salespeople, networking, exhibiting at conferences, advertising, etc. Regardless of the complexity, it must be integrated. Everything must work in unison.

One final comment… every time a sales prospect is “touched” by one of your tactics, it registers in his or her conscience. And each additional touch adds to the ones before… helping you continually move upward, toward top-of-mind awareness with your prospects. But, if your tactics don’t have a consistent look and feel, then this ‘additive effect’ is lost. So, your website should look & feel like your print ads… should look & feel like your capabilities presentation… should look & feel like your trade show booth… should look & feel like your sales brochure… and so on.

Bottom line: As you build your marketing & sales program, remember to give some thought to how everything will work together. With integrated marketing, 1 + 1 really does = 3!

To learn more about how to get the most out of your marketing & sales tactics, download our FREE eBook, The Top 10 Tips for the Top 10 Marketing Tactics: 100 Killer Marketing & Sales Ideas at http://www.harpethmarketing.com/ebook/.

Webinar | Doing it Right: Tips & Tricks for the Top Marketing Tactics

DWG Admin on October 1, 2015

All market researchers are doing some level of marketing in an effort to grow their firms. It’s imperative. But are you doing it right? Are you maximizing the impact of what you’re doing? How do you go from ‘OK’ results to ‘awesome’?

On September 30, 2015 L&E hosted a webinar, Doing it Right: Tips & Tricks for the Top Marketing Tactics, with guest speaker Steve Henke, Founder of Harpeth Marketing.

In this fast-paced session, attendees received dozens of proven tips for getting the most from their:

Email marketing
Website & SEO
Content marketing
Advertising
LinkedIn marketing

In addition, all webinar attendees received a complimentary copy of the eBook, The Top 10 Tips for the Top 10 Marketing Tactics: 100 Killer Marketing & Sales Ideas from Seven Different Experts.

About Steve Henke

Steve Henke, founder of Harpeth Marketing, draws on a 30-year career in marketing, sales and corporate management.

He started as a technical sales representative for the DuPont Company, his first position after graduating from college. Over time, he moved into progressively more responsible positions in marketing, marketing & sales management and various executive positions.

In 1997, Steve was hired as head of marketing for Aegis Marketing Group, a business development company serving hospitals across the country. While there, he was promoted to EVP and COO. In those senior executive roles, he was responsible for managing marketing & sales and integrating them with the day-to-day operations of the company.

In 2001, he founded Marketing Mentor, a marketing consultancy serving businesses in the mid-South, one of which was 20|20 Research.

In 2005, he was brought in as President of 20|20 and led efforts that tripled annual revenues over the next six years. 20|20 was also named one of the 10 most innovative firms in the industry in the 2011 GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report.

He founded Harpeth Marketing in the Spring of 2012.

Workshop Video | Writing Shorter Questionnaires: Save Money AND Get Better Data

DWG Admin on July 22, 2015

Everyone knows how important it is to keep questionnaires short, especially with so many respondents now taking surveys on mobile devices. If the questionnaire is too long, respondents drop out or start making up answers to get to the end. Well-written, shorter questionnaires mean better data at a lesser cost.

On August 21, 2015, L&E hosted a workshop at our Raleigh office with guest speaker, David Harris, author of, The Complete Guide to Writing Questionnaires: How to Get Better Information for Better Decisions. David provided a framework for writing shorter questionnaires that are easier for respondents, yet still get the information needed for decision-making. Using this framework, David has consistently reduced the cost of his clients’ surveys by an average of 20 percent.

Watch the workshop video today to learn how you can put his framework into practice to start writing shorter questionnaires that save money AND get better data!

About David F. Harris

David F. Harris conducts training and consulting on questionnaire design and research planning. With over 20 years of experience, he has learned how to get better information for decision-making while saving money at the same time. He is author of, The Complete Guide to Writing Questionnaires: How to Get Better Information for Better Decisions. He received his B.A. from Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, and his M.A. in Quantitative Psychology from the L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

L&E Workshop – Observing Consumer Behavior: Past, Present, and Future

DWG Admin on June 22, 2015

The study of consumer behavior has existed for more than 50 years. How consumers think, what drives them to purchase one product over another, which consumers are the target demographic – these (and more) are topics you need to consider when creating and marketing products. Consumer researchers have long used principles of psychology to study consumer behavior, but understanding the psychology of the consumer mind is not enough. Carrying out quality research on consumer behavior requires that you also understand:

What method(s) should you use?
What demographic should you target?
When should you put different methodologies into practice?
How can you use current technology to improve consumer research?

In this workshop, guest speaker Abbe Macbeth, PhD of Noldus Information Technology, will discuss the past, present, and future of observing (and influencing!) consumer behavior. From the tried-and-true methods, to the latest automated technology on the market, learn about the various techniques to observe, assess, and influence consumer behavior.

Workshop Video

The workshop was held July 17, 2015 at L&E Research Cincinnati. The video of the workshop is now available on our Webinars page!

About Abbe Macbeth, PhD

Abbe Macbeth, PhD is a Regional Sales Manager for Noldus Information Technology. Taking her expertise in Behavioral Neuroscience into scientific sales in 2010, Abbe set multiple company records for sales within the first two years. Quickly moving into a managerial role, she is now responsible for overseeing four sales regions and Noldus Consulting Services, US. Abbe is passionate about behavioral research in all forms, and delights in helping others find the perfect solution to meet their needs. Abbe holds a Bachlor’s degree in Cognitive Science, a Master’s degree in Psychology, and a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from City University of New York.

About Noldus

Noldus Information Technology develops and delivers innovative software and hardware solutions and services for the measurement and analysis of behavior and the design of interactive systems. Founded by Lucas Noldus in 1989, Noldus Information Technology has emerged as the leading expert in observational behavior over the last 25 years, in both laboratory and natural settings.