P Introduction To Marketing Research Exp Qual

MKTG 6051 – Marketing Research
Exploratory Design and

Qualitative Research
Tim Smith
Carlson School of Management
University of Minnesota
Objectives
• Define exploratory research and how it relates to qualitative data.

• Explain the need for qualitative research.
• Understand the importance of and differences between in-depth interviews,
focus groups, and projective techniques.
• Be familiar with observational and ethnographic approaches.
2 Exploratory and Qualitative Research | CSOM | | Dec 7, 2021 © Timothy M. Smith, 2005
Types of Research Designs

Uses Types
•Formulate problems more precisely •Literature search
•Develop Hypotheses •Experience survey
Exploratory •Establish priorities for research •Analysis of select cases
Research •Eliminate impractical ideas •Focus groups
•Clarify concepts •Interviews
•Projective tests
•Ethnographies
•Describe segment characteristics
Descriptive •Estimate proportion of people
Research who behave in a certain way •Longitudinal study
•Make specific predictions •True panel
•Omnibus panel
•Provide evidence regarding causal •Sample Survey
Causal relationships by means of:
Research •Concomitant variation
•Time order in which variables occur •Laboratory experiment
•Elimination other explanations •Field experiment
Qualitative Research Methods
• Depth interviews
• Focus groups
• Projective techniques
Depth interviews
• Definition
– One-on-one interviews, probe for hidden attitudes and motivations
• Types
– Nondirective
• Maximum freedom to respond
– Semi-structured
• Specific list of topics, some structure to interview
Focus Groups
On-line Focus Groups
• On-line focus groups, also referred to as cyber groups, e-groups, or virtual

groups, are gaining popularity as the research marketplace discovers the
advantages they offer (saving time and money spent traveling, bringing
together respondents and observers in far-flung locations).
• A professionally structured group discussion that provides in-depth insights
and an understanding of motivations and perceptions.
– Performed in a secure, online chat-room environment.
– A professional moderator guides the discussion.
• The on-line venue has been used for qualitative research since approximately
1994, when a few research companies began experimenting with discussion
groups.
• Evolved into a dimension of qualitative research, aided by customized
software, that creates virtual facilities with waiting rooms, client backrooms,
and focus group rooms.
Projective Techniques
• Definition
– Indirect methods of questioning enabling respondents to project beliefs and feelings
onto a third party, an inanimate object or a task situation
– Helps reveal hidden feelings and opinions
• Types
– Word association
– Sentence completion
– Third-person techniques and role playing
– Storytelling
Projective techniques: Word association
• Interviewer presents list of words, one at a time, and respondent says first
word that comes to mind
– List includes neutral items (e.g., sock, table, tree) and words of interest such as
brand names (e.g., Frost, Verve, Ultra) – name for a new vodka
Unstructured Disguised Questionnaires: Word Associations
• McDonald’s • San Francisco

• Sears • Mexico
• Enron • Japan
• AT&T
• Coca-Cola
• Microsoft • lawyers
• Nordstrom’s • accountants
• marketers
• consultants
• Hugh Grant
• Madonna
• Michael Jackson
• George Clooney
Projective techniques: Sentence completion
• Respondents complete partial sentences with the first word or phrase that
comes to mind
• Example
– People who drink beer are __________
– People who like dark beer are ______
– Imported beer is most liked by______
Projective techniques: Sentence completion
• Asked 179 smokers who believed cigarettes are a health hazard why they
continue to smoke:
– “Pleasure is more important than health”
– “Moderation is OK”
– “I like to smoke”
• But….Sentence completion test found

– People who never smoke are ______
• “Better off,” “happier,” “smarter”
– Teenagers who smoke are _________
• “foolish,” “crazy,” “uninformed,” “stupid,” “showing off,” “immature,” “wrong”
Projective techniques:
Third person techniques and role-playing
• Third-person techniques and role playing

– Asked about third person’s behavior or attitude
– E.g., neighbor’s view of faults of lawn mower
• Role play other person in setting
– E.g., children in mother role for cookie just seen in ad
Projective techniques: Storytelling
• Descendants of pshychologists’ Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), in turn a

descendant of Rorschach inkblot tests.
– Present series of pictures with consumers and products as center of attention, and
ask to say what is happening, and what the people might do next
– Elicit themes based on interpretations of picture; aim to get person to identify with
person in picture
– Sometimes asked to create a collage of photos, or even create/draw pictures
themselves.
Storytelling TAT/Pictures
TAT
Storytelling
Storytelling
• Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET)

– Think about product or brand and find 8-10 pictures (from magazines, catalogues,
photoalbums) to represent thoughts and feelings about it (1 week)
– Probing interview in Zaltman lab about pictures (2 hours)
– Digital collage of most meaningful 5-7 pictures
• E.g., Nestle crunch; Febreze
Projective techniques: Storytelling ZMET
Customers Drawing Pictures for a Study Sponsored by a Large

Florist Retail Chain
Interviewee #1:
Woman, 30-39 years old.
Describe yourself: Her drawing:
I am a quiet person, I keep
mostly to myself and keep out of
trouble that way.
When do you buy flowers?:
I love flowers because they
beautify the surroundings. They
give me a special calm feeling
of enjoyment. I give flowers to
let someone know you are
thinking about them.
Describe a dream involving flowers:
I would send flowers to the ladies at work with a note attached and they would
all start crying at one time.
How are flowers and funerals related?:
All the funerals I’ve been to have flowers. I guess when you die, you will be in
paradise and paradise is full of flowers.
Interviewee #2: Her drawing:

Woman, 20-29 years old.
Husband sends her flowers because:
I am sweet.
Three words associated to flowers?:
I love you.
Compared to other gifts, flowers are:
Warmest, most romantic, highest class,
sexiest, most fun.
Flowers remind me of:
Love!
Describe a dream involving flowers:
Someone gets married, they are happy and I
am pleased for them and I send flowers to
congratulate them. Everyone likes it and they
live happily ever after.
How are flowers and funerals related?:
I’m opposed to the idea of flowers at funeral.
Flowers at funeral are sad. The tradition of
sending flowers to a funeral may have come
about in order to cover the smell of the body.
Interviewee #3: His drawing:

Man, 40-49 years old.
Describes himself as:
…a loving and generous man. He
celebrates all occasions with lavish and
often costly gifts. He is enthusiastic
about giving flowers and says they
make him think about happiness and
warmth.
He also says:
The main reason to send flowers is to
apologize for having a fight. They lift
the spirits, women would be happy
about the flowers.
Describe a dream involving flowers: :
I had a dream that I send some flowers
and as the person bent down to smell
the flowers, a thorn cut her lips. Even
though she was bleeding she called to
thank me for sending her the lovely
roses.
*Sidney Levy shared these stories and pictures (Churchill and Iacobucci 2005).
Qualitative methods: Advantages and disadvantages
• Advantages
– Rich and vivid data
– Do not require specific hypotheses, questions or explanations
– New insights – can suggest hypotheses
– Illusion of natural communication
• Disadvantages
Interpretation - Silence
Selection
Interviewer/moderator influence/bias
Small sample sizes and non-representative samples
Qualitative methods: Advantages and disadvantages
• Focus groups v. Interviews

– Amount respondents can say
• more in focus groups
– Contamination
• Interviews not contaminated by other’s views
• Attitudes may reflect feelings about moderator
– Results can be absorbed directly by clients
• Vivid – sometimes a disadvantage
– Can see strength of opinion and the impact of peer pressure
• In focus groups
– Conservative
• Focus groups can be biased against really new ideas
– Economy
• focus groups can get expensive, e.g., $2000 – 4000
Observational Research Methods

• Direct observation
• E.g., shopping behaviors by Envirosell
• Also contrived observation, e.g., tests of interactions on airlines
Direct observation and Ethnography example: Once Famous
• Example of direct observation and ethnography
Inside “Once Famous” - Downtown Minneapolis,

(Marquette and 6th Street)

• Content analysis
– Observation and analysis of content of communications
• E.g., contents of and messages in ads, TV programs, newspaper articles to
examine types of themes, appeals
• Physical trace measures
• E.g., the wear on library books, wear on floor around museum exhibits,
squash baby food containers in Hispanic household garbage
• Behavior recording devices
• E.g., PeopleMeter by Nielsen, Arbitron; TiVo digital TV recorder, records what
commercials people skip; scanner data; eye-tracking monitor for ads
Eye-movement monitoring example

• Content analysis
– Observation and analysis of content of communications
• E.g., contents of and messages in ads, TV programs, newspaper articles to examine
types of themes, appeals
• Physical trace measures
• E.g., the wear on library books, wear on floor around museum exhibits, squash baby
food containers in Hispanic household garbage
• Behavior recording devices
• E.g., PeopleMeter by Nielsen, Arbitron; TiVo digital TV recorder, records what
commercials people skip; scanner data; eye-tracking monitor for ads
• Ethnographic studies
– Closely observe consumers’ behavior in everyday situations then ask consumers
to explain behavior
• E.g., observe applying skin lotion and ask why doing it in particular way (slapping on –
remedy for dry skin; caressing- for nice smell and soft skin); Intuit “Follow me home”
approach
Observation research methods: Advantages and
disadvantages
• Advantages
– Many are objective
– Versatile
– Wide variety of behaviors can be observed: physical actions (e.g. shopping or tv
viewing), verbal behavior (e.g., sales conversations), expressive behavior (e.g., tone
or voice, facial expressions), spatial relations and locations (e.g., traffic patterns),
temporal patterns (e.g., time spent shopping), physical objects (e.g., newspaper
recycling), verbal and pictorial records (e.g., ad content)
– Fast and timely (often, but some things are slower)
– Relatively inexpensive (but can be expensive)
• Disadvantages
– Cannot assess consumers’ cognitions (most imp!)
– E.g., attitudes, motivations, expectations, intentions
– Lack of generalizability
– Samples may be small and not representative
– Typically limited to overt behavior of short duration
– Can alter usual behavior if obvious/instrusive observation
– Some ethical concerns
– E.g., contrived observation “entrapment”
– Need well-trained observers

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MKTG 6051 – Marketing Research

Exploratory Design and

• Define exploratory research and how it relates to qualitative data.

Types of Research Designs

Qualitative Research Methods

On-line Focus Groups

• On-line focus groups, also referred to as cyber groups, e-groups, or virtual

Projective techniques: Word association

Unstructured Disguised Questionnaires: Word Associations

• McDonald’s • San Francisco

Projective techniques: Sentence completion

Projective techniques: Sentence completion

• But….Sentence completion test found

• Third-person techniques and role playing

Projective techniques: Storytelling

• Descendants of pshychologists’ Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), in turn a

• Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET)

Projective techniques: Storytelling ZMET

Customers Drawing Pictures for a Study Sponsored by a Large

Interviewee #2: Her drawing:

Interviewee #3: His drawing:

Qualitative methods: Advantages and disadvantages

Small sample sizes and non-representative samples

Qualitative methods: Advantages and disadvantages

• Focus groups v. Interviews

Observational Research Methods

Direct observation and Ethnography example: Once Famous

• Example of direct observation and ethnography

Inside “Once Famous” - Downtown Minneapolis,

Observational Research Methods

Eye-movement monitoring example

Observational Research Methods

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