Qualitative Marketing Research

Understanding Consumer Behaviour

Dominika Maison

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429883385
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing Research
• Index: Business

This is a perfect guide to understanding the core principles of qualitative marketing research. It presents qualitative marketing research in the broader context of marketing and managerial decisions, consumer psychology and contemporary knowledge about unconscious and automatic processes. Different types of qualitative marketing research methods are examined, from the classic focus group interview (FGI) and individual in-depth interview (IDI), to more cutting-edge methods such as ethnography or bulletin boards, which enable marketing researchers to discover and understand real consumer motivations, needs, values, and attitudes.

With numerous international case studies, including PepsiCo, Unilever, Danone, Nestle, Aviva and Citibank, the book is uniquely practical in its approach. It is vital reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of marketing research, consumer behaviour and consumer psychology.

1 Why we need qualitative research methods

The role of research in marketing

Data-based marketing decisions

Marketing department staff, their heads of departments, and brand managers are constantly called upon to make a wide variety of decisions aimed – in short – at the growth in sales of the manufactured products. This apparently simple case is actually extremely complicated mainly because there is a plethora of factors that can affect the rise or decline in sales. The sale of a product is affected by factors related to the product like the packaging, name, promotion, communication, advertising, price and, of course, the quality of the product, as well as many other external factors like the exposition of the product in the store or the activities of the competition. This is why marketing staff are in constant search of support for their decisions in consumer knowledge and this is exactly what marketing research is intended to facilitate.

Marketing research started to become more important when the market became saturated with products with very similar parameters (Alase, 2017; Bailey, 2014; Jeffrey, 2010). This required an assessment of the market needs and consumer preferences so as to aptly adjust production and marketing communication to these expectations and gain a significant market advantage. However, the proper harnessing of information obtained from market research is not so simple a task as it may seem and a lot depends on grasping its specific role in making marketing decisions. First, it’s important to bear in mind that consumer research should never be the only source of information but one of many different sources. When a marketing employee makes a decision concerning a change in packaging, for instance, he or she has to take into account not just the outcomes of marketing research (which may reveal a preference for one packaging option), but lots of other information like the packaging of the competition, in order to know whether or not the packaging will stand out. Apart from that, the production possibilities, costs, and distribution are also important for the new packaging – despite being attractive and standing out – to not impede transport.

Another limitation of marketing research is the possibility of its findings having a direct effect on the marketing decisions made. This is, unfortunately, impossible in the case of most studies and every client commissioning research should bear this in mind. There are two reasons why it is wrong to expect that research findings (both qualitative and quantitative) will clearly indicate the line of action. First, it is wrong (usually in the case of qualitative research) to expect that the marketer will find out exactly what he/she should do from the respondents. The respondent may talk about his/her impressions, feelings, experiences, behaviours, and decisions but how this information can be translated into marketing actions is the judgement call of the marketing department. Respondents simply do not have such competences even if they very much wanted to, although the marketing department may well get to hear some “good advice” from respondents in the course of the qualitative marketing research. This advice can come in the form of the respondent sharing how advertising could be improved or what changes could be introduced to a product for it to be more successful. It is unfortunate, however, that this advice is rarely of great marketing use as the respondent does not take the underlying marketing mechanisms into account in his/her suggestions and simply stops at his/her own individual preferences. Thus, the suggestions could factor in the use of their favourite colour or a specific style of humour that they can relate to in the advertising, or simply picking a product because it’s their favourite taste (however strange and unpopular it may be). In the meantime, all of this may be contradictory to the planned marketing, communication, or product strategy and giving in to such suggestions could compromise the studied products instead of actually helping them.

Box 1.1

It would be a mistake to expect the marketing department to capture marketing recommendations directly formulated by respondents during an interview. In a qualitative study, a respondent speaks about their impressions, feelings, beliefs, experiences, and behaviour. A researcher interprets their statements and translates them into recommendations. Whereas, the final decision concerning the marketing actions is made by the marketer in the company, and this decision is not only based on the information coming from the consumer research but also on other information from the market, from the company’s internal data, and the experience and “business intuition” of the marketer.

There is yet another reason for the exercise of caution when taking marketing decisions, namely, the very complexity of consumer attitudes and behaviour, so as not to be guided by what was said directly during the study (see Chapter 2). Imagine a new, market-tested product receives very negative opinions from respondents, however, the final decision as to its launch in the market could turn out to be right, despite seeming to be in contradiction to the research findings. If we have a completely unique, innovative, and unconventional product, the negative reaction of respondents may stem from them failing to understand its benefits or from the fear of things new rather than the lack of actual potential of this product.

Box 1.2

The objective of marketing research is collecting data from the consumer along with their interpretation and conclusions. The marketing department, however, is tasked with the analysis of the degree of success or failure of various marketing moves in light of the information gleaned from consumers and taking the final decisions concerning specific actions.

One must never forget that marketing research is only one of the sources of information required to make marketing decisions and is certainly not the exclusive source (Smith & Fletcher, 2004). It cannot be ignored, of course, but it also cannot be the sole basis for decisions as it can only be enabling in nature. What’s more – and this has to be strongly emphasised – is that even marketing department members have a limited impact on the future marketing success of a product. The factors that do remain under their control (albeit partial) include elements of the marketing mix: the product, promotion, price, and location, as well as knowledge of the consumer (although also limited) as the potential recipient of the product. However, there are many other factors that are beyond the marketer’s control but have an enormous impact on whether or not the product will be successful on the market. These include: the competitive and technological environment, cultural and social factors, the political, legal, and economic environment, as well as the internal resources of the firm.

Box 1.3

The best marketing decisions extend beyond the information supplied in the research. They refer to many sources of information and are based on the extensive experience of the marketer, his/her marketing sense, and intuition.

At this point, it is worth noting that despite its many limitations, marketing research is a very important component of the product management process. As global experience demonstrates, properly conducted investigations do increase the chances of product marketing success, which is why they should not be given up but conducted with full awareness of their limitations and the specific role they have in marketing decision making.

Qualitative vs. quantitative: choosing the right methodology

Marketing research can be approached from many different perspectives which is why it can be categorised in a wide variety of ways. From the perspective presented herein, the marketing research methodology dividing research into qualitative and quantitative is the most important angle (Bhati, Hoyt, & Huffman, 2014). Of course, this breakdown is a big simplification which is frequently being retracted as it does not always fully reflect the specificities of the research; nevertheless, it remains valid because of the marketing questions which are to be answered within the research. The answers to some marketing questions may only be found on the grounds of quantitative research, while others are based only on qualitative data (Ponterotto, 2006; Smith, 2004). Sometimes qualitative and quantitative research methods have to be combined in order to obtain a comprehensive answer to the posited questions.

Box 1.4

It cannot be said that one of the methods – qualitative or quantitative – is better or worse. Each of them serves different purposes thanks to which they marvellously complement each other. Each of these methods allows different kinds of information to be collected and, if the method is used for its intended purpose, is a very good and even indispensable tool.

In order to harness the findings of qualitative research in marketing decisions properly, it is first important to understand what qualitative research consists of, what it is characterised by, as well as what limitations and potential it possesses (Draper, 2004; Madill & Gough, 2008). However, this is not at all simple as throughout the entire learning process at school we are taught to count and draw conclusions from figures, almost everyone has a feel of what a percentage of something means, and we are constantly exposed to media reports of poll and survey findings. The picture is not so rosy as far as comprehension and drawing conclusions from qualitative data goes. These were the very skills that were missing from most people’s education. Thus, the specific characteristics of qualitative research can most simply be shown by comparing them to quantitative methods, which people are more familiar with, and which are intuitively clearer than qualitative research.

The differences between quantitative (survey and experimental) and qualitative (individual and group interview) methods concern many different areas, starting from the research tools employed and ending on the manner of interpretation and results-based inferences that are made (see the comparison of approaches in Table 1.1). The main difference between quantitative and qualitative methods concerns the divergent scope of problems that constitute the subject of the research as well as the different sets of research questions (Burt & Oaksford, 1999; Creswell, Klassen, Plano, Clark, & Smith, 2011). Quantitative research focuses on the quantitative description of reality: how many persons saw a given advertising campaign, what are the differences between the users of product A and B, how many proponents of relevant views in a specific age group there are, what are the prevailing behaviours in a given population, and so on. In qualitative research, however, the investigator focuses on a qualitative description of reality, paying attention to a whole spectrum of phenomena and not their actual frequency (Levitt, Bamberg, Creswell, Frost, Josselson, & Suárez-Orozco, 2018). In a qualitative study on whisky drinking habits, the researcher concentrates on the situations that lead to reaching for a glass of whisky and not other spirits, and what it is that is so special in them. The subject of quantitative research, however, would be the question of which of these situations dominates and in what type of persons (e.g., in view of demographic characteristics). Research questions in quantitative study are often decisive in nature (e.g., do young consumers dine in restaurants like McDonald’s or KFC more often). In qualitative research, however, the questions that are posed are more probing and exploratory in nature (Wertz, 2014), for instance: “What associations are evoked by KFC and what by McDonald’s?”, “What do young people like and dislike in each of these places?”, and so on. (cf. Chapter 7).

Another difference concerns the respondent selection method harnessing either quantitative or qualitative methodology (Finfgeld-Connett, 2014; Golafshani, 2003; Morgan, 2007). In quantitative methods, the study participants are screened to constitute the best possible reflection of the population as representative (Churchill, 1995). This selection is done on a random or quota basis. An essential condition for random selection is having a database of all the elements in the population (called a sampling frame), from which the target population is drawn. An essential condition for quota sampling is having access to information on the population structure in terms of the selected variables (usually basic demographic characteristics) and constructing a sample so that it could reflect the structure of the population in terms of these variables. Sampling in qualitative research is completely different. This is a purposive selection based on the specific features of the respondents which is required to understand the studied problem and that characterises the population constituting the research subject (e.g., young mothers using disposable nappies for their children, men drinking at least four bottles of beer per week, or regular newspaper readers – cf. Chapter 5). If, for instance, the research problem concerns the launch of a new brand of top-of-the-range instant coffee to the market, the respondents should meet the following essential purposive criteria: drinking instant coffee and buying top-of-the-range instant coffee (purchasing brands identified as competitive to the studied brand). The sample can also be characterised with various additional purposive criteria (e.g., demographic) which increases the predisposition of the respondents to obtain the information specified by the research objectives (Mariamposki, 2001; Templeton, 1994). There is no need and, what’s more, it is not recommended that the demographic characteristics of the participants of qualitative research are representative of the population e.g., the proportion of men and women or younger and older consumers in the research corresponds to the relevant proportions in the population (Knodel, 1993).

Yet another difference between quantitative and qualitative research concerns the sample size (Morgan, 2007; Onwuegbuzie, 2012). Quantitative study samples tend to be larger depending on the research problem and the sampling methods deployed: ranging from several hundred to several thousand persons. A large sample is necessary in quantitative research in order to minimise sampling error and to allow the results to be analys...