7. Qualitative research and attitude research

Question 1

Why is it rarely much use asking people what they have bought a particular product or prefer one brand to another?

Answer 1

• Because they may not know, even if they do
• they may not be willing to say
• motives can be socially embarrassing
• people like to appear reasonable; to themselves and others
• direct questions are apt to elicit plausible but misleading answers

Question 2

What is qualitative research?

Answer 2

• essentially diagnostic - find a problem & explain it
• looks for a deeper understanding of motivations for buying
• not concrete but it gives us an impression
• concerned with probing, rather than mere counting
• observant & reflective
• able to give insights to guide marketing actions

Question 3

Qualitative Research techniques

Answer 3

• Depth interviews - exploring a particular topic,
• group discussion/ focus groups -
• conflict groups - groups who have opposing viewpoints - get strong opinions and with this good insight
• mid-depth interview - shortened down like for an advert
• projective technique
• -nb - techniques used should always be relevant to specific problems
• observation - someone may say one thing but if you’ve seen them do differently you know about the individual &

Question 4

Projective techniques

Answer 4

When asked how often does one drink, the answer may be every night, however, they may not want to say this so put occasionally. So instead we may ask how much do your friends drink per week.

• borrows techniques from clinical psychology
• gives respondents an opportunity to express their attitudes without feeling guilty or embarrassed.
• penetrates barriers of awareness and self-defence
• breaches barriers of irrationality
• barriers of inadmissibility/ self-incrimination broken down
• barriers of politeness
• release mechanism for thoughts/ feelings - reveal unconscious attitudes & beliefs

Question 5

Main types of Projective Techniques

Answer 5

1. Association Procedures
   - word association: I say fish you say chips
   - Rorschach ink blot test - gives personality test. Irregular thoughts can show creativity
2. Completion procedures:
   - sentence/ story completion ‘what I like about Bournemouth is…’
   - cartoons/ pictures -
   - Rosenweig’s Picture Frustration Test e.g. Q. Why is there a man standing outside the cinema ripping his hair out? A1. Because the film was rubbish A2. Popcorn was rubbish A3. just had an argument with gf…. you are projecting your own feeling of frustration
3. Transformation Procedures: psycho drawing - draw something before hand and draw something afterwards e.g. man before and after going to the cinema
4. Construction Procedures: role-play go through the procedure of buying a car can show what a person expects when they come to it

Question 6

What methods of researching consumers products

Answer 6

• Gap Analysis: try to identify new areas or niches
• depth interviews: an insight towards the feelings towards one particular topic/ problem
• Action Studies (case studies); Recording exactly what people do, rather than what they think they do.
• Brainstorming: Let’s think about this, be encouraging to allow for creativity
• Synectics: the way we approach problems can solve our problems,
• Lateral thinking: different viewpoints to problems. going through problems, then, trying to solve them. Inventor helped Ford sell more cars because problems associated with driving was that they couldn’t park and there was a lot of traffic. He suggested buying car parks that only ford users could use.

Question 7

Embracing new technologies

Answer 7

-The use of wiki helps us to understand

Question 8

Attitude Research

Answer 8

-A variety of techniques available but none fully satisfactory
-validity & reliability are key factors
-principle techniques
nominal - simple classification (number order)
ordinal - ranking (very keen, keen, not keen)
interval (equal units of measurement) 1-10 how keen 1 not keen
ratio (fixed origin or zero points, used for marketing analysis) %

Question 9

Principal scaling methods

Answer 9

Thurstone’s equal-appearing intervals ( a differential scale)
Likert Summated Ratings (a verbal rating scale)

Question 10

Principal scaling methods continued

Answer 10

-Guttman’s Scales (scalogram analysis)
YES yes no NO

-Semantic Differential

Stapel Scale
+3 +2 +1 0 -1 -2 -3

Diagrammatic scales - thermometer scales or smiley faces