You’ve decided on your objectives, identified your target audience and even recruited some pretty great respondents - it’s time to get cracking with your research! But wait: there’s actually one more step that can make all the difference between a good market research project and a great one. We’re talking about qualifying your participants - which is one of the most important market research techniques and an absolutely vital step in your qual MR.

When it comes to effectively engaging with your target audience and generating the results you need, choosing the right market research methodology can make or break your project. But with so many different market research methodologies available, all with their own individual benefits, it can be tricky to know where to start. There are lots of things that can have an impact on the type of methodology you choose, from what your research is trying to achieve, to your budget, sample size, target audience and even the timings and deadlines you are working towards. In this blog, we explain six of the most popular market research methods used by qualitative researchers to help make your decision a little bit easier.

You probably already know about the benefits of online qual research: it’s a fast and cost-effective way for researchers to easily uncover in-depth insights - and because respondents can take part remotely, it isn’t limited by geographical considerations, which results in higher response rates. However, in order to make sure your online qual is a success, it’s important to ensure your onboarding process is watertight. A smooth onboarding process will make sure your respondents are fully engaged and excited to take part, so you can reduce the risk of dropouts, make sure your research goes off without a hitch and unlock the in-depth insights you need. Here’s how:

The success of your qualitative market research project ultimately depends on the people recruited to take part. So when it comes to choosing a fieldwork agency, it’s important to make the right decisions and choose an agency that will ease the burden, help you find the very best participants and give you the good foundations you need to build your research on. Once you’ve chosen your market research recruitment agency, one of the first things they will do is provide you with a quote for their fieldwork costs - but what do those figures mean? And what does it all add up to? It can be helpful to know what is usually included in those fieldwork costs and what you should expect for the money you’re paying - so without further ado, read on to discover what you should expect to be included in your fieldwork costs and why…

When you kick off your qualitative market research study, there are a number of things to consider. From identifying your target audience and narrowing down your qualifying criteria through to choosing the right type of methodology, there’s a lot to think about - and one of the most important things to decide on is what level of agency support you are looking for.

From pricing to planning, you’ll need to carefully look at all the options available to you so you can make an informed decision about what type of market research recruitment agency is right for you. If you need help with your entire research project or if you want additional support for your in-house team throughout all stages of your research, then a full service market research agency might just be the best fit for your needs.

The market research world has undergone some serious advances over the past 20 years, with new technology in market research allowing for more efficient and meaningful data collection than ever before. The shift to online surveys in the 90s was the first of these changes to rock the industry, and since then they’ve been coming thick and fast, from smartphones and big data to social media and now artificial intelligence. But what do all of these changes mean? Well, basically, it means that companies can make faster, more informed decisions whilst still keeping customers at the heart of everything they do. Let’s take a look at the changes in a bit more detail…

There are a number of things to think about when conducting qualitative market research with children and young people. From adhering to the necessary rules and regulations to making sure the project is interesting enough that children will want to take part, qualitative market research recruitment with children can sometimes feel like a bit of a balancing act - and if you add sensitive subject matters into the mix, things become harder still. Whilst conducting market research with the consumers of tomorrow is necessary, there is understandably still some caution surrounding young people taking part in research on sensitive subjects.  

Mobile ethnography is a type of research methodology that allows researchers to observe respondents in their natural environment. It’s discreet, it’s fast and it’s adaptable: using their mobile phones, participants complete tasks at home or out in the real world as and when they are happening, making it a great qualitative tool that allows access to unbeatable insights without any external influences. From video diaries to pre-tasks for accompanied shops or even snapping in-the-moment photos, it gives researchers the chance to peek into participants’ lives more clearly than ever before. And because it fits around people’s busy lives, digital ethnography is a methodology that truly ticks all the boxes. If you’re thinking about using mobile ethnography as part of your next qualitative market research project, why not try these top tips so you can achieve maximum engagement and unlock in-depth insights…

Teenagers and young people can have a bit of a bad reputation in the research world. Researchers often don’t know how to reach out and engage with them, and thanks to their notoriously short attention span it’s no wonder that researchers can find it tricky to to target younger generations and sometimes struggle with low response rates too. However, Millennials and Generation Z are the influencers of tomorrow, so it’s really important we find a way to reach out to them - and luckily the rise of social media over the last decade has allowed researchers to do just that! Read on to discover our top four tips to help you recruit young people via social media for your qualitative market research…

Mobile ethnography is transforming qualitative market research by turning participants into researchers and allowing them to document tasks at home or out in the real world as and when they happen. From video diaries to shopalongs and UX testing to photo libraries, mobile ethnography gives researchers the power to see into participants’ lives more clearly than ever before, delivering in-depth insights without any external influence. However, mobile ethnography isn’t without it’s challenges - so if you’re keen to use mobile ethnography for your next qual MR project, here are five important lessons you won’t want to miss…