Social media has never been more popular. People are spending more time than ever before on various platforms, with the average person spending two hours a day across different sites. You might think that doesn’t sound too bad, but to put it another way - that’s five years of your life spent on social media. And younger generations spend even more, with recent research suggesting they spend a staggering nine hours a day on social media platforms (yes, you read that right - they spend more time than the average working day on social platforms!).

So considering the statistics above, it makes sense that more and more researchers are using social media as part of their market research recruitment toolkit. After all, it’s a really powerful way to interact with your target audience, and thanks to promoted posts and Facebook ads, it’s also a great way to reach out to a large amount of people in a fast and cost-effective way. Not only that, but if you’re worried about seeing the same faces time and time again in your qualitative market research, it can also be a fantastic way to find fresh respondents as well. Read on to discover how…

As conducting qualitative market research with children and young people becomes more and more popular, it’s important that market researchers know how to engage with and empower children to generate the best possible results. Young people and children are still developing - and that means that the way they think, act and communicate is still developing too, which will bring about a completely different level of insights to market research with adults.

Most importantly, when recruiting children for qualitative market research, researchers need to make sure they follow the MRS Code of Conduct and ensure that the children’s health and wellbeing are put above everything else at all times. But that’s not all there is to think about. If you want to generate the best possible results when conducting qualitative market research with children, you need to engage with them and empower them so they feel comfortable and confident enough to open up. Here’s how… 

When kicking off a market research study, one of the first steps is always determining what kind of participants you want to recruit. Are you looking for a particular age group? Do they need to have specific interests or behaviours? For example, should they have purchased a certain product recently or shop at a specific store? And what about age group? By answering these types of questions you can decide on your recruitment criteria, which will ultimately have an impact on which recruitment technique you decide to use. And often when it comes to reaching niche audiences, social media is a great solution.

Ethnographic research essentially turns research inside out: instead of bringing the subject to the researcher, it involves researchers embedding themselves in the respondent's environment so they can observe their experiences first hand. It’s a great research methodology because it allows you to get right to the heart of customer behaviour and sometimes learn things about your consumers that they haven’t even consciously recognised about themselves.

Market research is changing. In today’s digital world, simple questions such as “do my customers like my product?” are no longer enough when it comes to qualitative market research. Clients today want more detailed insights than ever before - which means that market research needs to deliver informative insights so that they can make more educated decisions and stay ahead of the competition. In this digital world, it’s no longer just about perceptions, but also thought processes and stories that resonate with target audiences and drive change. But what exactly does all this mean for qualitative market research? 

If you want to get the most out of your market research project, one of the most important steps is briefing your qualitative fieldwork agency. From clearly communicating your goals and objectives to defining dates and key milestones, you need to make sure that you and your agency are on the same page right from the beginning. One thing you’ll need to decide on when initially briefing your agency is how and when you want updates and in what form. From email updates to catch up calls, a good fieldwork agency should always keep you in the loop with exactly what’s going on and when.

In this blog we take a look at what you should expect from your market research recruitment updates and why…

Carrying out a feasibility assessment is an essential part of any successful market research study. In fact, when starting your qualitative market research project one of the first things you need to ask yourself is whether or not your sample size is achievable so you can make sure your study is reliable and representative of your audience. 

The term Generation Z refers to those born in 1995 or later - making them the generation that are coming of age now. In fact, Gen Z are expected to account for 2.56 billion of the global population by 2020, making them the influencers of tomorrow. That means they are a really important demographic for qualitative market research because we need to understand their habits, behaviours and what makes them tick as their spending power and influence continues to rise. But it’s not just about us understanding them - there’s also some really important things we can learn from Gen Z too…

If you want to get the most out of your market research project, one of the most important steps is briefing your qualitative fieldwork agency. From clearly communicating your goals and objectives to defining dates and key milestones, you need to make sure that you and your fieldwork agency are on the same page right from the beginning. One thing you’ll need to decide on when initially briefing your agency is how and when you want updates and in what form. From email updates to catch up calls, a good fieldwork agency should always keep you in the loop with exactly what’s going on and when.

We all know how important it is to recruit the right people for your market research project. After all, quality participants mean quality results! But often in order to get participants that are the right fit for your project, you’ll most likely have pretty specific criteria to deal with.

It could be that you’re looking for female participants aged between 18-34 who live in a certain area and shop at a particular store, or even customers of a specific company who have purchased a particular product. In these situations, you could well be asked to use list recruitment to ensure you target the right respondents. Read on to find out more…