Many elements impact how market research is designed and conducted. These include evolving technological, social, scientific, economic, and cultural forces. In this webinar, Zoe will discuss the broader landscape changes that impact how we conduct market research and explore what it means for mainstream methodologies as well as emerging approaches. Topics will include: - Technological, cultural and business trends impacting market research;- Agile research as an emerging methodology;- The growth of mobile ethnographies and online focus groups.
This paper presents the results of a study done for the Axe brand and its TV series 'City Hunters' its aim was to understand if the brand was promoting its values among its target. This work shows that the Online Focus Group methodology is apt for developing innovative spaces, interaction, and it is especially useful for studies covering unconventional topics. In addition, it offers a high level of flexibility for segments difficult to recruit in face to face sessions.
At present only a handful of studies compare online and traditional qualitative techniques. Strategic Marketing Corporation (SMC) and Itracks International, Inc. (Itracks) conducted an original case study to compare face-to-face focus groups with both asynchronous (bulletin board) and synchronous (chat style) online groups. These groups, comprised of both patients and physicians, discussed the impact of consumer-targeted medical and health information on the physician-patient relationship. The findings from this case study match SMC's anecdotal experiences with face-to-face and online qualitative research and Itracks customer feedback about online studies, as well as the findings from the few other existing comparative studies.
This paper describes current developments in on-line focus group techniques and the applicability of such methodologies. The paper argues that while on-line focus groups have limitations in terms of their applications there are clear and common instances where Internet-based approaches are not just feasible but preferable when compared with traditional face-to-face approaches.