What do Pokémon Go and the Women’s March have in common? And what do these have to do with qualitative market research? The phenomenon Pokémon Go as well as the Women’s March in January 2017 are two examples of topics and events that spread across the globe, demonstrating today’s world connectivity. Within a few days […]

Towards the end of 2015, two of my QRCA colleagues—Susan Abbott from Canada and Ilka Kuhagen from Germany—presented a creativity workshop to qualitative researchers in South Africa. At the Johannesburg session, one of the attendees mentioned that some of the techniques covered may not work well among lower economic segments of our population due to […]

Forming a deep understanding of the end-to-end customer experience is a powerful tool for developing a stronger competitive position. We live in an experience economy. Competitive advantage is difficult to come by. The low-hanging-fruit of innovation has been exploited already. Journey Mapping can help you dive deep and find new territory for innovation. Journey Mapping […]

When you launch in the marketplace, how will your competitors react? A facilitated war game is a way to (ethically) get inside the minds of your competitors and determine their most likely actions. It will energize your middle managers, it will improve your launch strategy, and you can do it in a one-day session with […]

Just as seasonings enhance the flavours of food, hybrid research designs can enhance the value and richness of insights. Hybrid research approaches also build validation of the insights, and reduce the risk of not hearing the consumer correctly. There are as many ways of building a hybrid design as there are ways of seasoning food! […]

There’s no cure-all method to remedy company crises, but there are things we can do as market researchers to help clients uncover and manage their key brand assets and protect themselves against damage done during a PR brand crisis. Every organization is vulnerable to crises. The days of playing ostrich are gone. If you don’t […]

Customer experience or CX is not just a buzzword, it’s an approach that can win new customers, slash churn and turn customers into evangelists. Companies that don’t utilize the customer experience perspective may be putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage. In a nutshell, companies that adopt the customer experience perspective look closely at the different […]

A conference panel can either be the highlight of the day, or a yawn-fest with a room full of people checking their handhelds. What a shame that so often these bright and accomplished individuals are not showcased better. From my point of view, it’s all about the moderation. I’ve had some success moderating panels, and […]

When you are doing multi-country qualitative research in other English-speaking countries, you need to decide if you want to use a local moderator or have the home-country moderator do the work in the other countries.

As a Canadian-based researcher, I am often asked for referrals to good Canadian field services by researchers based in the UK or USA who are planning to travel here to conduct the research. Or they may be planning to do the research online from their home location, the no-travel option.

There are pros and cons to both approaches. Here’s our take on the issue.

Behavioral economics came about as a response to traditional economics, which assumed that, if a person had all the relevant information, they would make the rational decision. As market researchers, we know that’s not the case. Behavioral economics proves the point for us, providing scientific support to the concept that people are not necessarily rational.