Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is perhaps the easiest type of research to field. All you need is 4-6 people and you are ready to go. (“Quantitative surveys” on the other hand require almost 50 people. And frankly, it’s hard to fit all those folks in one room.)

Qualitative is great, because you see people’s reactions right away. When we ask people “who liked this ad? Raise your hand!” you see the reaction instantly. And believe us, having four-out-of-six like you is much better than three-out-of-six.

We like to bond with our respondents throughout the sessions, as it gets people to be more “real.” So our moderators do tricks like starting to cry if the group doesn’t like the ad. It gets people thinking “why don’t I like the ad? Is the ad bad, or am I bad?”

Another key is feeding respondents constantly through the session with big dinners (steaks, pork chops, lamb chops, etc.) People love food as a general rule. And when people’s mouths are full, it gives them more time to really think about what we are telling them.

We also have techniques to keep respondents engaged throughout our 4-5 hour sessions. One of our moderators is a former high school gym teacher. He had great success by pretending to punch sleepy respondents, then say “made you flinch” when they flinch, then punch then anyway (cause they flinched).

Plus, a lot of places have these mirrors where we can see through one side, but they can’t see us. So when the time is right, you can totally flip these people “the bird.” (As a joke of course... we love our customers).