Qualitative Marketing Research - Newer Methods

Newer Methods

• Observational & Ethnographic Research

One of the more fundamental uses of qualitative research is understanding fundamental consumer behaviour through Observational research. The roots for this come from Anthropological studies where trained researchers went to observe tribes / cultures / societies - for periods as long as a couple of years.

Nowadays, this kind of research is being supplemented by more cutting edge fields like neuro-science where the observation is accompanied by measuring brain activity. This is under the assumption that very often our brain reacts without us even knowing it and asking questions or pure observation by themselves are not enough to really pinpoint what goes on.

Another application is longitudinal studies, a correlational research study that involves repeated observations of the same items over long periods of time.

• Psychological Research

Qualitative marketing research comes in a lot of different guises but qualitative psychological research has crystallised as one the most effective ways of gathering insight into the behaviours, attitudes and decision-making processes of consumers and customers. Most qualitative research companies in the world will claim that they employ psychologists and base their findings on psychological theories. The psychology backed methodologies applied in qualitative marketing research are continuously changing and being further developed. One of the examples of psychology theory developed specifically for use in marketing research is morphological psychology.