This study showcases how combining methods to form a 360° approach can provide mind-blowing insights and lead the field of qualitative research into new directions. In this whitepaper, we share why we embarked on this research, what we did, how we went about it and what we have learned during this journey. We'll share some of the key insights from the study and shed light on some of the bumps and hurdles we encountered along the way.
A picture shows at a glance what it takes a dozen pages of a book to expound. Working with pictures within market research presents its own challenges and opportunities. Experience the power of images in our research art exhibition. The exhibition will explain how visual analysis of social media data lead to a digital segmentation that forms the base of a digital strategy on Pinterest. Moreover, it will demonstrate that pictures are also a great means to break down communication barriers between consumers and marketers.
This paper is founded on the market research carried out by the author in 1987 in the Market Research Centre - Zagreb, for the needs of a specific Yugoslav conglomerate which is involved in the production and processing of zinc, alloys and chemical products. The basic impetus for the research was an assumption that the existing corporate image was inconsistent.
In this article 'Natural Grouping', a new technique for image and positioning research is introduced. The more conventional approaches to image research - the free format, the explicit and the implicit techniques - are briefly discussed. The shortcomings of these approaches form the background for the development of the new technique. 'Natural Grouping' is able to measure simultaneously the images people have of a large set of stimuli, such as brands, using an interesting respondent task. This task consists of splitting successively 2 large sets of brands, packages, or representations thereof while recording the qualifications given by the respondent to the groups so formed.
The paper describes how retailers in the automotive business who are generally action oriented, overly concerned with prices charged and wanting to see real results in a short time frame can be made aware of their store image. Store image is here defined as the consumers' evaluation of all salient aspects of the store as individually perceived and weighted. An instrument used in 69 studies generating information for strategic decision making is described. An analysis of aggregated results is presented and interpreted as evidence that automotive retailers are in the business of services marketing. Where services marketing is defined as an interactive process in which the benefit is provided to the customer through that individuals interaction with the physical environment and personnel provided by the retailer. The view is taken that an automotive retailer should lay emphasis on the human interface of his operation and on providing customer oriented after-sales services in order to achieve a successful store image.
Since the introduction of the image concept to marketing a significant part of marketing research budgets is spent on image research. Stimulated by the necessity to adapt existing research techniques to research by telephone, NSS, in co-operation with AHOLD N.V., has developed a technique for image research - the KS technique - with a number of advantages over the usual scaling techniques. The technique, based upon earlier approaches to the measurement of images, finds its justification in psychological and measurement considerations. While especially suitable for telephone research, the technique can also very well be applied in the field. It is friendly to the respondents, saves a considerable amount of research money and yields more comprehensible results to management than most other techniques do.
This paper describes the experimental application to the identification of bank images of a technique previously used to differentiate between consumer goods such as lagers and perfumes where differences were subtle. The approach is based on the use of a battery of adjectives and adjectival phrases which the respondent uses to describe the "personality" of the institution. The initial step is the development of the battery of words and phrases. This is divided into two phases, the 'trigger' sessions, which are used to generate a comprehensive (and too long) list, and the 'charade* sessions which are used to reduce the list to manageable proportions by determining those words or phrases which are the best identifiers of the institutions. The analysis is also critical in order to distill the essential discriminators from the mass of data. A range of multi-variate techniques were used to discriminate between the banks and describe their personalities.
Sceptical opinions have been voiced about the use of telephone interviews, in spite of its advantages. In particular in countries with a low degree of telephone penetration the lower representativity of the sample and consequently, poorer survey results are expected to raise problems. Another question is whether the conditions of telephone interviews, too, produce differences with personal (face-to-face) interviews and whether all these factors play a role in image research. The survey described in this paper involves the measurement of features characterising supermarkets. A comparison was made between several identical surveys conducted in different countries. An analysis of results obtained shows that telephone surveys will produce the same results as personal surveys, provided that there are fairly marked differences in objects and that the number of relevant basic characteristics is limited.
The application of opinion research for controlling results of advertising and for decision making of planning and realising advertising campaigns in the insurance market is shown by a case study.