Primary Market Research Types

Type 

Description

Strengths
Weaknesses

Type 1: Qualitative Marketing Research Types -- pros & cons

Focus Groups

Groups of 6 to 12 people

Traditionally, in live group setting with moderator

Online groups conducted via internet

Phone conference w/ web or video 

Moderator must know how to engage in non-directive questioning. (If moderator is merely to pepper people with structured questions, do a quant survey instead.)

Group interaction can stimulate unplanned reactions.

New ideas spawned

Group-think can occur.

Individuals have little time to speak individually; participants may hide or be passive.

Often an artificial  "performance mentality" as clients view behind one-way mirror encouraging some participants to 'put on an act'.

Depth Interviews

Long, in-depth interviews using open-ended questioning.

Usually one-on-one, however dyads and triads may be used.

A non-directive approach often useful to explore how respondent thinks about category. 

Traditionally, in live group setting with moderator

Online groups conducted via internet

Phone conference w/ web or video 

Group interaction can stimulate unplanned reactions.

New ideas spawned

Group-think can occur.

Individuals have little time to speak individually; participants may hide or be passive.

Often an artificial  "performance mentality" as clients view behind one-way mirror.

Ethnography

Observational method; "watching" rather than "asking"

Participants interact with product or solutions in real life.

Participant take video of relevant situations under study, e.g. their pet, their car, etc.

Diary kept, & report behavior and attitudes to interviewer

Watching user behavior can reveal good insights about their attitudes.

Participants get highly involved in study.

Some researchers do not cal ethnography qualitative research; but rather its own breed of behavior observation.

Unforeseen relationships may be discovered

Somewhat forced environment as people may modify behavior

Online Forums and Communities

Time-extended interaction with respondents using either 3-day Forums, or 1-3 month research communities.

Participants log-on to site to receive new questions or topics from research moderator

Wide variety of tasks can be performed.

Longer communities can actually parallel creative campaign or product development by the client.

Gives both clients and participants time to think, consider, and incubate.

Not constrained by location, traffic, time zones, or schedules.  People log on at their convenience.

Generates a high volume of verbatim transcripts.
 

Some call these methods "focused groups on steroids"

 Disadvantage is that people don't interact face to face.  This can be minimized by web-cam sessions interspersed.

Type 2: Quantitative Research Types -- pros & cons

Phone Surveys

Random probability samples can be generated from firms such as Survey Sampling, Inc. (SSI)

Best for mostly close-end questioning, when dimensions and ranges of issues are known.

Success depends highly on filtering sample to those consumer or business users who find topic or category relevant.

10-12 minute average interview length is maximum target unless highly specialized population or incentives paid.

Optimum use is for top-of-mind awareness, branding and brand comparisons, and perception studies.

Refusal and non-contact rates are growing.

Generally, fast implementation.

Skilled interviewer can extract more information than a self-administered method (mail, online)

Critical to monitor response rate to ensure sample is representative of target sampling frame.

Personal Interviews

and

Central Location Interviews

Random probability sample -OR- convenience sample, depending upon design.  (Central location usually use a convenience sample, i.e. mall traffic)

Used where a face-to-face environment is desired.

In B2B research, personal interviews may be done by appointment where interviewer goes to respondent's office.

Some special consumer studies may be done in-home by appointment.

Often respondents are recruited to come to a central location, or recruited from mall traffic to a nearby office to conduct interview.

Used for complicated or sensitive issues, B2B environments, or where extensive physical or visual display requirements exist along with need for specialized interviewing skills (depth probing, time for evaluation and reaction.)

High cost. 

Can provide good hybrid method combining features of qualitative and quantitative research by asking quant-type questions first, followed by in-depth probing questions and projective techniques.

Skilled interviewer can extract more information than a self-administered method (mail, online)

Online survey

Can employ true random probability sampling

Complicated survey questionnaire formats can be used. For example, piping, rating, rankings, constant sum questions, etc.

Easy to display visual information previously available only in a face-to-face interview format. (advertising copy, concept statements, projective stimuli, etc.)

Allows deployment of complicated respondent tasks. (card sorts, conjoint ratings, etc.)

Low relative cost 

Generally, fast implementation.

Sampling control is critical.

Large pre-recruited panels allow quick access to willing respondents, although sampling validity must be carefully assessed.

Hybrid Survey Methods

Hybrid methods combine two or more techniques to optimize response or measurement validity. 

Examples:Mail or phone invitation to an online survey.

Online survey with phone follow-up to permit depth probing of key market research questions by expert interviewer.

Quantitative survey from which participants are selected based on their answers for a follow-up qualitative phase (focus group, depth)

Panel recruited from a one-time quantitative survey or other recruitment methods.

Higher cost  

More time required for implementation.

Enhances quality through higher response rates, and better response quality or validity.