Whether in Paris, Lyon, France or abroad, various marketing issues can lead to the implementation of qualitative marketing studies:
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Observation of consumption patterns
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Research into new consumer concepts
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Search for a message to convey
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Optimization research for new products in the development phase
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Testing advertising messages or product prototypes
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Exploring the understanding of the customer-advertiser relationship
Les différents types d'études qualitatives
There are many qualitative research methods, the best known being focus groups, face-to-face interviews, and ethnographic methods such as direct or indirect observation, …
These various methods apply to all areas where qualitative studies can be requested and, particularly to marketing.
Réunions de consommateur / Focus group en études qualitatives
Group meetings or round tables, focus groups or consumer meetings are another method used in qualitative research. The interviewer brings together a number of consumers, generally between 6 and 10 people, in a room.
In the same way as for face-to-face interviews, an interviewer leads a group meeting using a facilitator’s guide that includes the questions that the participants will have to answer.
Group meetings are an opportunity for participants to interact with each other. They can thus make associations of ideas, bounce back and react to what the previous person said, and bring new elements for the qualitative study.
Group meetings promote new ideas, opinions are multiplied. They also provide access to a new tool in qualitative research: collective work, notably via creativity groups.
Les entretiens en face à face en études qualitatives
Face-to-face interviews result from the meeting of an interviewer and an interviewee.
During a face-to-face interview, the goal of the interviewer is to collect the feelings of a consumer vis-à-vis a problem. He’ll try to understand his behavior, gather his impressions and decipher his attitudes.
To conduct his interview, the interviewer uses his facilitation guide which includes pre-established questions that the consumer will have to answer.
The face-to-face interview is the best way to go into depth, to bounce back immediately on notions evoked by the consumer, and to gain access to more personal points of view from the consumer.
Les études qualitatives on line
One of the tools used in qualitative research is Online. There are two ways to conduct a qualitative study online:
The Internet forum led by an investigator
The Internet forum brings together 6 to 10 Internet users around a moderator in a virtual living room. The principle is the same as in a classic group meeting: the participants bounce back and react to the statements of others. They are led by a facilitator who asks questions for about 1.5 hours.
Online newspaper
Like a diary, participants fill out an online form every day and answer questions posed by the interviewer. This type of qualitative tool can be used over a week, two weeks or more. Online newspapers provide information from consumers over time. They provide a very representative image of consumers’ daily habits. It is thus possible to realize, for example, the differences in the use of a product depending on the day of the week. The number of participants is not limited. Online qualitative studies allow geographically dispersed targets to be grouped together and guarantee anonymity and therefore promote free expression. Consumers can therefore confide without fear of being judged.