Ten years ago, The Pert Group didn’t have a qualitative research team. It didn’t have online bulletin boards, focus groups, ethnography, in-depth interviews or mobile technology. From no offerings to millions in the business, the past decade has been pivotal in the development of our program. A recent interview with our Qualitative Director, Heather Mitchell had me thinking about the role Qualitative Research plays for our clients – and how it has been evolving over time.
Why Qualitative Research?
Qualitative research plays a critical role, especially with clients who are exploring a new area or dealing with internal myths where they really need to hear the consumer perspective. Qualitative research helps share the customer’s story. That way, the areas targeted in quantitative work are accurate – the exploratory work has been done.
Methods Matter
When you’re looking for research answers, one of the first questions is deceptively simple: What’s the best methodology? Focus groups or online bulletin boards? Focus groups are great for products that need to be touched or tasted. Multi-day online Discovery Boards effectively reach a geographically diverse population all at once and their iterative nature makes them ideal for testing creative concepts. With multi-media uploading capabilities, online Discovery Boards also take a client out of the corporate office and add dimension to the customer’s story.
With new research methods being implemented all the time, you might be surprised to hear that the tried-and-true methods of research are still the foundation. Focus groups, in-person or online and in-depth interviews, in-person or over the phone, remain the qualitative bedrock. Clients should never feel pressured to pick one methodology over another though – it’s not a question of qualitative vs. quantitative. It’s finding the best way to answer the business and research questions that have been raised.
Whichever method you go with, the final results should be actionable. After all, The Pert Group isn’t in the business to sell methodologies. We’re here to provide answers. Interested in learning more about what qualitative research can bring to your discovery process? Let me know and I can share our position paper on qualitative research with you!