each one unique
We’ve being doing research for quite a long time and can confirm one thing: no two people are alike (it’s back to the ‘different people/ different mindsets’ thing again). If this is true of the people we research, it is equally true of the companies we work for: no two clients and no two projects are alike.
Really it would be so much easier if they were all the same - but they’re not. There are similarities of course and approaches which have worked for one project can often be useful for another. But the only way to do things properly is to start from scratch. We think about the client, their needs, their customers and the context in which they operate - and we develop a programme of research based on this. Truly, each one unique.
We draw on a wide range of techniques:
The traditional way of thinking about market research has been to divide techniques into ‘Qual’ and ‘Quant’. ‘Qual’ tends to mean narrow but deep while ‘Quant’ means wide but shallow. ‘Qual’ is useful for understanding underlying thinking and behaviour; ‘Quant’ is used to quantify with reasonable levels of statistical confidence (for example, market share or likely product take-up). In practice, we use a mix of both:
'qual'
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Focus groups, forums and workshops - in a variety of forms
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Online groups and communities
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Depth interviews
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Accompanied shops
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Tele-depths
'quant'
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Online
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Telephone
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On-Street and Mobile
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Hall-Tests
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In-Home