In the book, the market research toolbox, marketing research is defined as “techniques for
gathering information from and about customers to support a business decision”. To
develop a good marketing technique, qualitative and quantitative research are key in the
design of the research study.
Qualitative research is important to explore perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes for our
marketing research objective. Some tools that we can use as marketers involves customer
visits, interviews, focus group, survey research, and experimentation.
- Choose the right audience: After setting a goal, is so important to understand the
context of the audiences that we select for a tool as a focus group. We have to think about why that group will be part of the tool that we select in the qualitative research, for example, the participants of the focus group. - Plan questions that people can answer: If we are trying to understand attitudes and deep emotions, is so important to plan questions that people feel open to understanding, and answer.
- Select one type of question: The two basic types of questions are open-ended and close-ended. Open-ended, are related to a high probability of new learning, and closed-ended are referred to as yes/no answers.
- Focus on the details: If we make research, we have to be curious and strategic in the answers that the audience gives us. I always say in my communications coaching that everything communicates, that´s the same in marketing research, details could be powerful and insightful.
All in all, qualitative research is important to analyze behaviors, and is an interesting way to analyze words in an exploratory way.
