Qualitative Marketing Research

Great job getting your tumblr sites up and web analytics-friendly during these past 5 weeks!

In this lecture we’re going to learn how to conduct interviews and focus groups.  Next lab you’re going to conduct filmed interviews and focus groups.  The following lecture you’re going to learn how to edit filmed interviews and focus groups with iMovie, and to finish things off you’ll edit your filmed interviews and focus groups and post your videos to the web.

Introduction to marketing research

There is a classic Simpsons episode that shows what can go wrong if a company doesn’t conduct good marketing research.

But, some companies don’t do a lot of marketing research: Welcome to Macinstosh (start 1:04:25).

Wikipedia has a lot of great information about marketing research.

Ethics and the use of human subjects in marketing research

In the past, research involving the use of human subjects has been unethical.  Because of this, state institutions (like this university) have offices that regulate research involving the use of human subjects: SSU’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.  The Milgram Experiment (1, 2) and the Stanford Prison Experiment (1, 2, 3) are two classic examples of ethically questionable psychological research.

As marketers in the real world you should make sure that the research you conduct is legal and ethical.  Journalists like to uncover stories about ethically questionable marketing research practices. You don’t want yourself or your company to get in trouble.

If you feel uncomfortable with the marketing research we do in class this semester, let me know, let your classmates know, or you can let SSU’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs know.  Please respect your peers.

Qualitative marketing research

The marketing research methods we’ll be focusing on this semester are qualitative, quantitative, ethnographic, and experimental marketing research methods.

The qualitative marketing research methods you should be familiar with are interviews, focus groups, and projective techniques.

A fun example of depth interviews is On The Media’s Star Reporter podcast.  There is a helpful section in SocialResearchMethods.net on probing.

Douglas Rushkoff’s Coercion (Ch4) has a great example of a focus group.  I have a couple of old VCR tapes that show focus groups.  There’s probably a better example of a focus group on YouTube…

We’ll do an example of projective techniques in class.  At home you can take the official Rorschach Ink Blot test to see if you are crazy.

Next class I will take attendance.  Please come to class with your digital video device, interview and/or focus group scripts, and materials (magazines, pictures, products, etc.) you want to use for your interview and focus group assignment.