Qualitative Research

What is qualitative research &

why to use it ?
• Provides insights and understanding of the problem settings
• Aims to achieve an in-depth understanding of a situation
• Not always possible to use fully structured/formal methods
to obtain information from respondents
• Usually involves non probability sampling
 Qualitative research
procedures

Direct Indirect

Focus Depth Projective

groups Interviews techniques

Association Completion Construction Expressive

Techniques Techniques Techniques Techniques
1. Focus Group Interviews
• Conducted by a trained moderator in a non structured
and natural manner with a small group of respondents
• The moderator leads the discussion
• Participants meet at a central location at a designated
time
Essentially valuable in
• Obtaining general background about a topic/issue
• Generating research questions to be explored via
quantitative methodologies
• Interpreting previously obtained quantitative results
• Stimulating new ideas for products/programs
• Highlighting areas of opportunity for specific managers to
pursue
• Diagnosing problems that managers need to address
• Generating impressions and perceptions of brands and
product ideas
2. Depth Interviews
• Primary data collection technique for qualitative research
• Depends mainly on the skills of interviewer
• Commonly unstructured and semi structured interviews are
followed
• Individual depth interviews : interaction between
individual interviewer and a single participant
• Group interviews : a single interviewer with more than one
research participant
The number of groups is determined by
1. Scope of the issue being studied
2. Number of distinct market segments of interest
3. Number of new ideas or insights desired
4. Level of detail of information
5. Level of geographic distinctions in attitudes/behaviour
6. Homogeneity of the groups
Advantages Disadvantages

1. Can uncover greater • Most of the disadvantages

depth of insights of focus groups
2. Attribute responses • Difficult to find skilled
directly to respondent interviewers
3. Result in free exchange • Lack of structure
of information • Data obtained are difficult
to analyze and interpret
Projective Techniques
• An unstructured, indirect form of questioning that
encourages respondents to project their underlying
motivations, beliefs, attitudes or feelings regarding the
issue of concern
• Respondents are asked to interpret the behaviour of
others rather than describe their own behaviour
• The more ambiguous the situation, the more
respondents project their emotions, needs, motives etc
 Projective
techniques

VISUAL EXPRESSIVE

VERBAL
Association techniques
• An individual is presented with a stimulus and asked to
respond with the first thing that comes to mind
• Best known technique is word association
• Respondents are presented with a list of words, one at a
time, and asked to respond to each with the first word that
comes to mind
• The words of interest, called test words are scattered
• The respondents are to respond to each word and these
are recorded
Completion techniques
• The respondent is asked to complete an incomplete stimulus
situation
• Common techniques are sentence completion and story
completion
• Respondents are given incomplete sentences and asked to
complete
• Eg:
1. A person who shops at reliance is __________
2. When I think of shopping in Lulu mall, I _________
• Respondents are given part of a story – to direct attention to a
particular topic. They are to give conclusion
Construction techniques
• Closely related to completion techniques
• Require the respondent to construct a response in the
form of a story, dialogue or description
• Researcher provides less initial structure to the
respondent than in the completion techniques
• Two main techniques are Picture response and
cartoons
Expressive techniques
• Respondents are presented with a verbal/visual situation
and asked to relate the feelings & attitudes of other
people to the situation
• They express not their own feelings but those of others
• Two main techniques are role playing & third person
technique
 Advantages Disadvantages

1. May elicit responses

that they would be 1) Require highly trained
unwilling/unable to give interviewers
if purpose of the study 2) Skilled interpreters
was known 3) Interpretation bias
2. Useful when underlying 4) May not be
motivation, beliefs representative of the
,attitudes are operating population
at subconscious level
Qualitative Quantitative

• Focus is to understand • Describe explain &

and interpret predict

• Non probability sampling • Probability sampling

• Involves longitudinal • Involves either a cross-

approach sectional or longitudinal

• Small sample size • Large sample size

• Human analysis • Computerized analysis

following computer
coding