pros and cons of interviews for market research

Advantages and Disadvantages of Interview in Research

Approaching the Respondent- according to the Interviewer’s Manual, the introductory tasks of the interviewer are: tell the interviewer is and whom he or she represents; telling him about what the study is, in a way to stimulate his interest. The interviewer has also ensured at this stage that his answers are confidential; tell the respondent how he was chosen; use letters and clippings of surveys in order to show the importance of the study to the respondent. The interviewer must be adaptable, friendly, responsive, and should make the interviewer feel at ease to say anything, even if it is irrelevant.

Dealing with Refusal- there can be plenty of reasons for refusing for an interview, for example, a respondent may feel that surveys are a waste of time, or may express anti-government feeling. It is the interviewer’s job to determine the reason for the refusal of the interview and attempt to overcome it.

Conducting the Interview- the questions should be asked as worded for all respondents in order to avoid misinterpretation of the question. Clarification of the question should also be avoided for the same reason. However, the questions can be repeated in case of misunderstanding. The questions should be asked in the same order as mentioned in the questionnaire, as a particular question might not make sense if the questions before they are skipped. The interviewers must be very careful to be neutral before starting the interview so as not to lead the respondent, hence minimizing bias.

listing out the advantages of interview studies, which are noted below:

• It provides flexibility to the interviewers
• The interview has a better response rate than mailed questions, and the people who cannot read and write can also answer the questions.
• The interviewer can judge the non-verbal behavior of the respondent.
• The interviewer can decide the place for an interview in a private and silent place, unlike the ones conducted through emails which can have a completely different environment.
• The interviewer can control over the order of the question, as in the questionnaire, and can judge the spontaneity of the respondent as well.

There are certain disadvantages of interview studies as well which are:

• Conducting interview studies can be very costly as well as very time-consuming.
• An interview can cause biases. For example, the respondent’s answers can be affected by his reaction to the interviewer’s race, class, age or physical appearance.
• Interview studies provide less anonymity, which is a big concern for many respondents.
• There is a lack of accessibility to respondents (unlike conducting mailed questionnaire study) since the respondents can be in around any corner of the world or country.

INTERVIEW AS SOCIAL INTERACTION

The interview subjects to the same rules and regulations of other instances of social interaction. It is believed that conducting interview studies has possibilities for all sorts of bias, inconsistency, and inaccuracies and hence many researchers are critical of the surveys and interviews. T.R. William says that in certain societies there may be patterns of people saying one thing, but doing another. He also believes that the responses should be interpreted in context and two social contexts should not be compared to each other. Derek L. Phillips says that the survey method itself can manipulate the data, and show the results that actually does not exist in the population in real. Social research becomes very difficult due to the variability in human behavior and attitude. Other errors that can be caused in social research include-

• deliberate lying, because the respondent does not want to give a socially undesirable answer;
• unconscious mistakes, which mostly occurs when the respondent has socially undesirable traits that he does not want to accept;
• when the respondent accidentally misunderstands the question and responds incorrectly;
• when the respondent is unable to remember certain details.

Apart from the errors caused by the responder, there are also certain errors made by the interviewers that may include-

• errors made by altering the questionnaire, through changing some words or omitting certain questions;
• biased, irrelevant, inadequate or unnecessary probing;
• recording errors, or consciously making errors in recording.

Bailey, K. (1994). Interview Studies in Methods of social research. Simonand Schuster, 4th ed. The Free Press, New York NY 10020.Ch8. Pp.173-213.

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How to carry out great interviews in qualitative research.

11 min read An interview is one of the most versatile methods used in qualitative research. Here’s what you need to know about conducting great qualitative interviews.

What is a qualitative research interview?

Qualitative research interviews are a mainstay among q ualitative research techniques, and have been in use for decades either as a primary data collection method or as an adjunct to a wider research process. A qualitative research interview is a one-to-one data collection session between a researcher and a participant. Interviews may be carried out face-to-face, over the phone or via video call using a service like Skype or Zoom.

There are three main types of qualitative research interview – structured, unstructured or semi-structured.

• Structured interviews Structured interviews are based around a schedule of predetermined questions and talking points that the researcher has developed. At their most rigid, structured interviews may have a precise wording and question order, meaning that they can be replicated across many different interviewers and participants with relatively consistent results.
• Unstructured interviews Unstructured interviews have no predetermined format, although that doesn’t mean they’re ad hoc or unplanned. An unstructured interview may outwardly resemble a normal conversation, but the interviewer will in fact be working carefully to make sure the right topics are addressed during the interaction while putting the participant at ease with a natural manner.
• Semi-structured interviews Semi-structured interviews are the most common type of qualitative research interview, combining the informality and rapport of an unstructured interview with the consistency and replicability of a structured interview. The researcher will come prepared with questions and topics, but will not need to stick to precise wording. This blended approach can work well for in-depth interviews.

Free eBook: The qualitative research design handbook

What are the pros and cons of interviews in qualitative research?

As a qualitative research method interviewing is hard to beat, with applications in social research, market research, and even basic and clinical pharmacy. But like any aspect of the research process, it’s not without its limitations. Before choosing qualitative interviewing as your research method, it’s worth weighing up the pros and cons.

Pros of qualitative interviews:

• provide in-depth information and context
• can be used effectively when their are low numbers of participants
• provide an opportunity to discuss and explain questions
• useful for complex topics
• rich in data – in the case of in-person or video interviews , the researcher can observe body language and facial expression as well as the answers to questions

Cons of qualitative interviews:

• can be time-consuming to carry out
• costly when compared to some other research methods
• because of time and cost constraints, they often limit you to a small number of participants
• difficult to standardize your data across different researchers and participants unless the interviews are very tightly structured
• As the Open University of Hong Kong notes, qualitative interviews may take an emotional toll on interviewers

Qualitative interview guides

Semi-structured interviews are based on a qualitative interview guide, which acts as a road map for the researcher. While conducting interviews, the researcher can use the interview guide to help them stay focused on their research questions and make sure they cover all the topics they intend to.

An interview guide may include a list of questions written out in full, or it may be a set of bullet points grouped around particular topics. It can prompt the interviewer to dig deeper and ask probing questions during the interview if appropriate.

Consider writing out the project’s research question at the top of your interview guide, ahead of the interview questions. This may help you steer the interview in the right direction if it threatens to head off on a tangent.

Avoid bias in qualitative research interviews

According to Duke University , bias can create significant problems in your qualitative interview.

• Acquiescence bias is common to many qualitative methods, including focus groups. It occurs when the participant feels obliged to say what they think the researcher wants to hear. This can be especially problematic when there is a perceived power imbalance between participant and interviewer. To counteract this, Duke University’s experts recommend emphasizing the participant’s expertise in the subject being discussed, and the value of their contributions.
• Interviewer bias is when the interviewer’s own feelings about the topic come to light through hand gestures, facial expressions or turns of phrase. Duke’s recommendation is to stick to scripted phrases where this is an issue, and to make sure researchers become very familiar with the interview guide or script before conducting interviews, so that they can hone their delivery.

What kinds of questions should you ask in a qualitative interview?

The interview questions you ask need to be carefully considered both before and during the data collection process. As well as considering the topics you’ll cover, you will need to think carefully about the way you ask questions.

Open-ended interview questions – which cannot be answered with a ‘yes’ ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ – are recommended by many researchers as a way to pursue in depth information.

An example of an open-ended question is “What made you want to move to the East Coast?” This will prompt the participant to consider different factors and select at least one. Having thought about it carefully, they may give you more detailed information about their reasoning.

A closed-ended question , such as “Would you recommend your neighborhood to a friend?” can be answered without too much deliberation, and without giving much information about personal thoughts, opinions and feelings.

Follow-up questions can be used to delve deeper into the research topic and to get more detail from open-ended questions. Examples of follow-up questions include:

• What makes you say that?
• What do you mean by that?
• Can you tell me more about X?
• What did/does that mean to you?

As well as avoiding closed-ended questions, be wary of leading questions. As with other qualitative research techniques such as surveys or focus groups, these can introduce bias in your data. Leading questions presume a certain point of view shared by the interviewer and participant, and may even suggest a foregone conclusion.

An example of a leading question might be: “You moved to New York in 1990, didn’t you?” In answering the question, the participant is much more likely to agree than disagree. This may be down to acquiescence bias or a belief that the interviewer has checked the information and already knows the correct answer.

Other leading questions involve adjectival phrases or other wording that introduces negative or positive connotations about a particular topic. An example of this kind of leading question is: “Many employees dislike wearing masks to work. How do you feel about this?” It presumes a positive opinion and the participant may be swayed by it, or not want to contradict the interviewer.

Harvard University’s guidelines for qualitative interview research add that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask embarrassing questions – “if you don’t ask, they won’t tell.” Bear in mind though that too much probing around sensitive topics may cause the interview participant to withdraw. The Harvard guidelines recommend leaving sensitive questions til the later stages of the interview when a rapport has been established.

More tips for conducting qualitative interviews

Observing a participant’s body language can give you important data about their thoughts and feelings. It can also help you decide when to broach a topic, and whether to use a follow-up question or return to the subject later in the interview.

Be conscious that the participant may regard you as the expert, not themselves. In order to make sure they express their opinions openly, use active listening skills like verbal encouragement and paraphrasing and clarifying their meaning to show how much you value what they are saying.

Remember that part of the goal is to leave the interview participant feeling good about volunteering their time and their thought process to your research. Aim to make them feel empowered , respected and heard.

Unstructured interviews can demand a lot of a researcher, both cognitively and emotionally. Be sure to leave time in between in-depth interviews when scheduling your data collection to make sure you maintain the quality of your data, as well as your own well-being .

Recording and transcribing interviews

Historically, recording qualitative research interviews and then transcribing the conversation manually would have represented a significant part of the cost and time involved in research projects that collect qualitative data.

Fortunately, researchers now have access to digital recording tools, and even speech-to-text technology that can automatically transcribe interview data using AI and machine learning. This type of tool can also be used to capture qualitative data from qualitative research (focus groups,ect.) making this kind of social research or market research much less time consuming.

Data analysis

Qualitative interview data is unstructured, rich in content and difficult to analyze without the appropriate tools. Fortunately, machine learning and AI can once again make things faster and easier when you use qualitative methods like the research interview.

Text analysis tools and natural language processing software can ‘read’ your transcripts and voice data and identify patterns and trends across large volumes of text or speech. They can also perform khttps://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/research/sentiment-analysis/

which assesses overall trends in opinion and provides an unbiased overall summary of how participants are feeling.

Another feature of text analysis tools is their ability to categorize information by topic, sorting it into groupings that help you organize your data according to the topic discussed.

All in all, interviews are a valuable technique for qualitative research in business, yielding rich and detailed unstructured data. Historically, they have only been limited by the human capacity to interpret and communicate results and conclusions, which demands considerable time and skill.

When you combine this data with AI tools that can interpret it quickly and automatically, it becomes easy to analyze and structure, dovetailing perfectly with your other business data. An additional benefit of natural language analysis tools is that they are free of subjective biases, and can replicate the same approach across as much data as you choose. By combining human research skills with machine analysis, qualitative research methods such as interviews are more valuable than ever to your business.

Related resources

Market intelligence 10 min read, marketing insights 11 min read, ethnographic research 11 min read, qualitative vs quantitative research 13 min read, qualitative research questions 11 min read, qualitative research design 12 min read, primary vs secondary research 14 min read, request demo.

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In the last section, we tackled the market research survey —that fixed set of questions you send out to a segment of your market for feedback on some aspect of your business. While surveys do pose qualitative (open-ended) questions, they’re used primarily for quantitative research. That is, they’re great for arriving at a consensus through loads of consumer data… but they won’t necessarily get you the deepest of insights.

Because let’s be honest: No one pours their heart out in a survey—no matter how many lines you offer them to fill in.

Enter the in-depth interview and the focus group for that information. Both market research techniques give you the opportunity to be in two-way communication with consumers—in a form unrestricted by question limits—and to establish a rapport with them. That sets the stage for deep and rewarding insights.

The Advantages of Direct Communication in Primary Market Research

“Direct contact” can mean many things, including conversations mediated by telephone, video conferencing , and chat platforms . Indeed, two great advantages of using these technologies for your market research are their expediency and their cost-effectiveness: You can cover a broad geographic area without anyone having to travel anywhere; and consecutive interviews can be conducted from the comfort of your own office. If you’re working within a budget, telephone interviews can be as insightful as in-person interviews… and the recommendations we offer below are just as applicable to that form of primary research.

Of course, in-person interviews and focus groups have their distinct advantages. In the first place, once you’ve got someone in a room, they can’t “hang up” on you: Both (or all) parties have signaled their commitment by arriving. What’s more, because you’re looking them directly in the eye, you’ll know your interviewees aren’t distracted by anything… and fully present participants are naturally going to give you the most sincere insights.

In the second place, when you get someone from your target market in a room, you have access to additional sources of information: body language, facial expressions, gestures, and so on. These non-verbal cues can sometimes reveal more about interviewees’ sentiments than they’d be willing to admit (or than they can even acknowledge to themselves ).

When the interviewer is adept at reading such non-verbal cues and putting interviewees at ease, these conversations lead to honest insights about emotions, opinions, and attitudes: Why did they really leave your business? How do they really use your product? What were they actually feeling when they moved through your purchasing funnel? What were the real psychic/emotional barriers?

As you can imagine, if you can get past the costs (travel, compensation, venue, moderator payment) and logistics of getting two or more people in a room for an hour or more, it’ll be well worth it. Not only will you get terrific qualitative insights to pair with your quantitative data; you’ll also gain a richer understanding of your customer personas , their journeys, motivations, and the language they use. (Of course, you’ll be looking out for “sticky” messages that you can use for future website or ad copy).

In-depth interviews and focus groups will fill in the emotional context for the numbers your surveys and secondary research give you. But remember that these are supplements —not substitutes —for those more quantitative research methods. While they’ll give you rich insights into unique individuals, be careful about generalizing from the information you get from these conversations. Your interviewees are representative of your target population, but they’re too small a sample size to draw statistical conclusions about your larger target market from. That’s what quantitative research is for.

But for now ? We’re talking quality over quantity.

In-Depth Interviews vs. Focus Groups: Which to Use?

In-depth interviews are often described as “focus groups of one,” and focus groups as “large-scale interviews.” In some ways, these are fair comparisons: Both methodologies revolve around semi-structured discussions whose core questions are designed to go deep , to help the business understand some problem. In both cases, respondents are respectfully treated as “experts” who can “teach” the business about its market’s feelings, perceptions, opinions, and hesitations.

But to state the obvious, dynamics change the moment a party of two becomes a party of three or more: Suddenly there are new interpersonal negotiations, sociocultural categorizings, hierarchies, and contentions. From a business perspective, you’ll have cost, time, and possibly location to account for. These may very well be factors in your decision, but so should the following:

When to use in-depth interviews

In-depth, one-on-one interviews can happen just about anywhere: at your business, at their home, or at a neutral location such as a rented venue. They can happen on the street while people are exiting a physical space—on their way out of a retail establishment, for example. They can happen in “captive audience” situations—during a conference, a workshop, or a public event.

This locational flexibility is one of the reasons in-depth interviews are among the most prevalent forms of primary research. Here are some of the reasons why you’d choose one over a focus group:

• When you’re gathering sensitive feedback . “Sensitive” might mean anything from disclosing personal information (finances or health issues) to more generally uncomfortable topics (birth control or personal hygiene products). If your research concerns topics that people might not feel comfortable discussing in a group, in-depth interviews should be your choice. (What’s more, if you’re looking for critique in a culture that tends to be more “polite” or less prone to debate, you might get more honest responses in a one-on-one inquiry.)
• When participants are competitors . Can you imagine hosting a focus group made up of competitors who are reluctant to share information for fear of losing whatever competitive advantage they might have? Unsurprisingly, these sorts of environments don’t foster open communication. You want participants who are willing to disclose information; so if they’re from the same vertical industry, you’d do best to meet with them separately.
• When you’re concerned about group hierarchy . Any time a focus group might present an inherent imbalance of power (bringing both workers and their supervisors into the same room, for example) you risk making some participants feel less at ease about sharing their views. Choose the one-on-one strategy for these situations.
• When you want feedback on isolated user experiences . Knowing how users perform individual activities, or what their individual experiences with products are, doesn’t require groupthink. Indeed, anytime you want to know anything about individual user experience (usability testing, decision processes, personal responses to ad campaigns, how much progress a client has made toward a goal, etc), one-on-one interviews are your best bet. They’ll get you honest, insightful feedback untainted by other participants’ responses.

When to use focus groups

There are plenty of advantages to getting a number of people (typically 6-10) together in a room so they can discuss a topic relevant to your business. More minds means more insight, information, and ideas. Memories get jogged; comments from one end of the table trigger ideas on the other end; solutions get fully developed through energetic collaboration. And since no one is required to answer every question, participants jump into the conversation spontaneously, when they have something insightful to say on that topic.

Here are some circumstances in which it makes sense to choose a focus group:

• When you need to brainstorm ideas . Focus groups are a terrific strategy for broad, exploratory topics, such as imagining new product features or working through ideas for your next ad campaign. Anytime you’re early on in the exploratory phase of a concept or topic (the what if…? phase), choose a focus group to assist with idea-generation and discovery.
• When you’re about to go live . This might mean just before you launch that ad campaign, or before that concept goes to market, or before you turn that prototype into The Real Deal and release it into the world. This is especially the case if you relied on secondary research to create that ad, concept, or prototype. The numbers might back you up… but you also want subjective, affective “data” describing why those numbers work. Refine before you release.
• When you want multiple perspectives, or to explore disparate views . You might be at a point in your decision-making process where two very different options seem feasible, and you want to hear representatives from your target market debate the pros and cons of each. Let your market generate the arguments for you. They might make a case for something you’d never considered before.
• When you want to better understand the complexities of your target market . While a single interviewee might give you great insights, they won’t be representative of your target market. Granted, focus groups won’t be either … but they will offer a broader range of representation. Collectively, the group can also help you understand the motivations behind more complex behaviors. Did your market say they wanted a product—but now they’re not buying? Focus groups can help you explore the apparent disconnect between declared desire and action.
• When you want to know more about your brand perception . Focus groups are great for brand insights. After all, it’s consumers who create your brand perception through shared experience (what they imagine about your business and how they speak about it); it’s not something your business makes . So go directly to the source for this intelligence.
• When you want to evaluate reactions . Have a new campaign ad to run by consumers? A new food product to test? These aren’t the “isolated user experiences” we discussed above; and the feedback is best collected through group discussion.

If you’re still unsure which method is best for your market research question, ask yourself: “How (or what ) will group dynamics contribute to my findings?”

Preparing for Your In-Depth Interview or Focus Group

Whichever method you choose, the event will take some pre-planning. Here’s what to consider:

Clarify your goal and structure

Never go into market research without a clear idea of your question, and what its answer will mean for your business. A SWOT analysis can help you home in on your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats so you can narrow down your research to a single topic. Remember: You’re going for depth—not breadth—here. What’s the problem you’re gathering information on? The clearer your answer, the more useful your questions will ultimately be.

Your goal will also help you decide whether a structured or unstructured interview will be more effective. Granted, if you’re hosting a focus group, your “interviewer” will be more a moderator than anything: They’re there to get participants discussing amongst themselves, rather than to adhere to a predefined list of questions. Focus groups are, by nature, more unstructured.

With in-depth interviews, however, you’ll make a conscious choice between these two types. In unstructured interviews, the interviewer arrives with a series of well-thought-out issues to address; but the questions take shape during the conversation. Structured interviews, on the other hand, are a bit like verbal surveys. Standardizing the Q&A in this way—asking the same questions in the same order, every time—ensures more consistent data between interviews.

Choose an appropriate location and time

You’ve got a nearly unlimited range of possibilities (including online “locations”) here. Consider your needs: A facility with access to cameras so you can record the interview? One-way mirrors for observers? The location you choose should be easy to get to, easy to park near, and the room should feel intimate and provide as few distractions as possible. If you’re hosting a focus group, all participants should be able to sit facing each other.

Then consider your participants. If you’re a B2B company, you might hold your focus group at a downtown location during work hours, setting the space up board-room style. If you’re hosting consumers, evening may work best, you may choose a more suburban venue, and the setup might look less formal. If your demographic involves consumers of a lower socio-economic status, consider a venue along public transportation routes. Consider religious holidays. You get the point. You know your personas better than we do. Imagine the venue they’d want.

Plan your documentation strategy

Tape recording? Video recording? Note-taking by the moderator or a third-party observer? Each of these strategies will affect the dynamics of the conversation differently, and will give you access to different information after the fact. (For instance, a tape recording won’t help you recall who said what, or what their facial expression was when they said it. But it will get you a full transcript.) Of course, you’ll need all participants’ permission before hitting a “Record” button of any kind.

While we’d recommend digital recording, note-taking is a useful backup plan in case of malfunction, dead batteries, or static on the recording. If your interviewer is your note-taker, ensure that they can take notes and listen simultaneously, and record in a low-key manner. Participants who see moderators jumping to the notebook and writing furiously might be influenced to answer subsequent questions similarly (or very differently!)

Select your interviewer or moderator

Of course, anyone in theory could take on this role: the business owner, an associate, or someone else in your organization. But remember that the best interviewer is an unbiased one; and the more that’s at stake for your interviewer in the outcome, the less impartial they’re likely to be. This will affect group dynamics, and it won’t get you the data you need. The same goes for a moderator who knows the participants: Where there’s an established relationship, participants are less likely to be critical.

That said, you might decide to hire an experienced moderator—for example, someone trained in psychology who can better observe and understand complex behaviors. Trained moderators can quickly create a permissive and nurturing environment and keep an active conversation going for the time allotted (typically 30 minutes to an hour for an in-depth interview, and 1-2 hours for a focus group), with the study’s objectives always at the forefront. Which isn’t quite as easy as it sounds.

Well-seasoned moderators can monitor the conversation and change course on the fly. They can recognize when participants are speaking out of a psychological pressure to respond in a particular way. They’re trained in drawing quieter participants out of their shells, giving time to slower thinkers, tamping down heated discussions, and tactfully curbing participants who are monopolizing the conversation. They can visualize how key pieces of information fit together, clearly identify when a topic has been sufficiently covered, and know when to skip questions that earlier comments have suggested are irrelevant to the person or group at hand. They can interpret body language, gestures, hesitations, and facial expressions. And they can do all this without being an expert on the subject.

If you have this person in your organization, that’s remarkable: Use them ! If not, you can find trained moderators through an online search, referrals, or by posting a query in an industry forum.

Select your participants

Your sample size will be a matter of how clear a picture you want of your target market. Naturally, the more participants you have, the stronger your sense of the segment will be. You’ll probably want to conduct more than one in-depth interview, and you may also want to hold more than one focus group to ensure consistency across gatherings. At some point, you’ll see common themes emerging in responses. That’s when you’ll know you’re moving toward sounder conclusions.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the participants you select should be in a position to answer all of your questions. Remember, they’re the “experts”: maybe because they fit a persona with particular buying habits, or because they have relevant experience with a product (“new mothers in their ’30s who live in Western Massachusetts” or “males between the ages of 18-25 who play at least 15 hours of video games a week”).

Due to their commonality of experience, your focus groups will necessarily have some degree of homogeneity. That said, consider that first example: If you’re looking to target all new mothers, maybe you’d split your groups by income (new mothers who make less than and more than $100k), education (new mothers with and without a college degree), or relationship status (single mothers versus partnered mothers). Different demographics may provide different responses. If you foresee this, split your groups along these lines.

Participants may already be your customers or followers, in which case you can contact them through your CRM or by putting a call out on social media platforms. You can also find them through Facebook groups, advertisements, social events that your target audience attends, or market research companies who can find focus groups that match the target demographic you want to reach.

If you want to ensure that these prospects really do meet your criteria, set up a screening process before you officially invite them as an interviewee or focus group member. Try to ensure that participants aren’t familiar with each other. (Familiarity affects group dynamics.) Finally, recruit more participants than you need: You’ll almost inevitably get “no-shows.”

Standardize your proceedings

There are a few other things you’ll want to determine early on to ensure uniformity across interviews. Decide whether participants will be told who’s sponsoring the study, what the purpose of the interview or focus group is, and how the data will be used to make decisions after the fact. Choosing to offer this information to one group or participant and not to another may lead to different responses and variations in data.

You’ll should also create a guide—or at least a list of questions—that the interviewer or moderator will use to guide the discussion and ensure all topics are covered. (We’ve got some recommendations on the questions and the structure of the interview or focus group in the next section.) If you’re hosting a focus group, establish clear session guidelines in writing. You’ll share these with participants so they know what’s expected of them.

And before The Big Day, you might even consider running a pilot test to ensure your guide is a viable support.

You’ve got your interviewee or focus group in the room… now what? In the next section, we cover best practices for these forms of primary research to follow on the day itself.

Lauren Shufran

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In-Depth Interviews – Advantages & Disadvantages

In-depth interviews are one of the most effective ways to learn more about your consumers. They are a qualitative research method, with the aim to explore each participant’s feelings, perspectives and points of view. They can be used as a standalone research method or in conjunction with others, depending on the type of project.

One to one interviews are ideal for research projects that may cover sensitive or divisive topics, or where it would be logistically difficult to get multiple participants in the same space for a focus group. They are also of great value when we need to truly understand the differences across different customer types on a granular level, which methods like focus groups do not deliver on.

Whether face to face or digitally the most important factor is that the researcher builds a rapport with the participant. The style of the interview itself will depend on the researcher, but the best ones will make sure the participant feels relaxed enough to give honest and open answers. You’d be surprised how open people are once they feel comfortable to share their feelings.

At Spark our team are experts at conducting in-depth interviews, and work with brands across all different industries. We are naturally curious, and maybe a little nosey, which means we love finding out how people interact with brands, products and services, whether that be a bank, a supermarket or a food / drinks outlet.

We have worked with all types of people, from age 6 to 86, across all different backgrounds, to provide insight that can help take your brand to the next level. Find out more about our in-depth interviews here .

The different types of in-depth interviews

Conducting interviews takes a lot of planning, and there are a variety of formats they can be in depending on what your ultimate objectives are.

In- depth interviews are not always one to one. In some instances, there may be the need to conduct a paired depth – such as an interview with a couple or a friendship pair

Sometimes all that we need is just to sit with people for 45-60 minutes to uncover a wealth of information that helps brands grow.  Other types of interviews are:

How we get the best out of our in-depth interviews

Warm up: We always start broad and get our participants in a relaxed and comfortable state of mind before probing on more detailed views. It’s important to build rapport and trust.

Flexible: We use a semi structured guide to keep us on topic, but our expert team know when something ‘off topic’ is worth exploring.

Iterative and Interactive: The iterative process is the practice of building, refining, and improving a project, product, or initiative . We learn and adapt according to our cumulative learnings. Even within each interview we must think two steps ahead to inspire further questions and exploration.

Deep: We have ways of making you talk!! We have lots of what we in the industry call ‘projective or enabling techniques’ that help our participants articulate their feelings. This might be as simple as projecting on to a third person, or object to remove the personal nature of a question.

Fun: This must be an enjoyable process, so where appropriate we will sprinkle in some fun questions or gamify the process a little to keep the energy high.

The advantages of in-depth interviews

There are many reasons why in-depth interviews are an excellent way to find out more about your target market.

Work alongside other methods

In-depth interviews can work well as a pre cursor to measuring opinions. All the information gathered means we can really hone the questionnaire into a more relevant set of questions and test hypothesis emerging from the Qual.

Deeper understanding of participants

Interviewers can gain incredibly deep insights due to the one-on-one nature of interviews. It allows for the exploration of topics that may not be explored in quantitative methods of data collection. It can also help build clear customer segments for our clients, which can then be measured.

Observing the unsaid as well as the said

If taking place face to face (or visually online), the interviewer can pick up on non-verbal cues from the participant and construe their emotions on different topics.

The disadvantages of in-depth interviews

As with every method of data collection, in-depth interviews have their own disadvantages which need to be considered.

Time intensive

In-depth interviews are one of the most time-consuming ways of collecting data, as they require a large amount of preparation beforehand. The interviews themselves take time, in addition to then transcribing them and analysing the results after the fact.

Trained interviewer

To be able to conduct effective research, interviewers need to be well-trained. This will allow them to gather rich and detailed information from each participant. They also need to be able to utilise the latest interview techniques and be personable so they can allow the participants to feel comfortable and give honest answers.

Lack of idea generation

In depths are not as useful when trying to generate new ideas or create new concepts. This is where a focus group format is usually preferred where participants can spark ideas off one another.

What is the purpose of in-depth interviews?

In-depth interviews allow brands to understand their target market, from their likes and dislikes to their behaviours. They can also really bring to light the highs and lows of a customer journey.  This allows brands to make well-informed decisions for things such as marketing strategies, product launches, store placement and customer service.

Businesses can also gain a better understanding of product demand and can design products that have higher potential for being accepted into the market. It’s fair to say that in-depth interviews have both advantages and disadvantages but can be an incredibly useful tool to help you achieve your brand goals.

Spark’s in-depth interviews

In-depth interviews are one of our favourite research methods! We like to keep them informal and friendly and call them ‘Chit Chats’. Time and time again they have proved fertile ground for potential for new marketing campaigns and can take your brand in new and exciting directions.

Our trained research experts are fantastic at diving under the surface and assigning meaning to even the most complex perceptions, behaviours, and experiences. Our focus is always on really moving beyond the ‘reported story’ to uncover the ‘real one’, that sometimes even the participants themselves are surprised at!

Spark Market Research is an award-winning company and we have worked with a variety of prestigious brands in a whole range of industries. Our core value is using innovative ways to gain meaningful consumer insights for our clients. We collaborate with our clients every step of the way in order to gain fruitful results that drive incredible marketing strategies. Find out more about In- Depth Interviews here .

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Market Research Interviews: 7 Strategies for Success

Julia Kolomiiets

Aug 29, 2023

Customers are a valuable source of knowledge for any marketer. To learn what they think, how they feel, and how they behave, we can use Market Research Interviews. This tool of market research can help you collect valuable quantitative or qualitative information about your potential or existing customers.

Market research interviews are helpful for making right marketing decisions on expanding to new markets, launching new products, or changing the way a product or service is promoted.

Marketing research process identifies a set of practices used by a company to study its target market.

Market research process can help you with the following activities:

Study your competitors

Understand your current customers

Identify and study potential customers

Learn about new niches or markets

Keeping up with trends

Developing and introducing new products/services

Rebranding & changing marketing strategies

Altering the existing products/services

Creating or changing your positioning

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Types of market research, primary market research.

A business studies market, its trends, and TA, using surveys, interviews, etc. It requires a large budget, time and dedicated specialists.

Secondary market research 

A business uses existing market research (from several sources) to compile one document. It is usually conducted when the budget for research is tight.

Methods of market research

Roundtables

Focus Groups

Observation

Goals of marketing research process

Make marketing decisions, like launching a new product, targeting a new market, etc.

Identify new opportunities for business

Provide information for potential investors

Mitigate business risks and avoid mistakes

Benefits of marketing research process

Data-driven marketing

Better understanding of your competitors, products, and TA.

The ability to cater your marketing activities to meet the customer needs.

Better planning and ability to improve ROI of marketing activities.

Steps in marketing research process

Outline the subject you’re going to research. For example, we need to study the features that the competing tools provide.

Develop the playbook for your research. It will contain the subject of research and the type of data you need to gather, the methods (e.g., interview), the necessary resources (time, budget), the timeline, and the step-by-step plan.

Approve the plan with top management and allocate the necessary resources.

Implement the research plan and gather the data.

Analyze the data and develop your recommendations for the business.

Present the marketing research to the management.

Market research interview is one of the tools of market research that enables you to learn the feelings, opinions, and behavioral patterns of your chosen target audience.

Types of market research interviews:

Market research interviews are categorized in several ways.

By the level of interviewee’s personal involvement:

Face-to-face 

The interviewee and the interviewer have a face-to-face appointment in real life. It’s a great method as it enables the researcher to build rapport and analyze the non-verbal cues. The main disadvantages is the budget, the location limitations, and general unwillingness of people to go somewhere to participate in an interview.

Online video conferencing

This method has most of the advantages of a face-to-face appointment. However, it’s cheaper. You’re not limited by geography and your participants are more willing as they do not need to spend their time on the trip to your office and back. Similar to the previous method, it’s perfect for open-ended questions and qualitative research.

Telephone interviews are a relatively cheap and fast method. However, the possibilities for building rapport and listening to non-verbal cues are limited. It’s best for close-ended questions.

Form fill-out

The interviewee fills out a questionnaire and submits it to the interviewer. This method requires least time and engagement from the interviewee. It’s the cheapest method. And it’s generally good for quantitative research.

However, there’s no opportunity to build a rapport with the interviewee, and no space for insights. Sometimes this method is categorized as a separate method of market research process.

By the data:

Qualitative - you learn how interviewee feel and what they think (e.g., which services people consider the most important).

Quantitative - you only learn data in numbers (e.g., how many times per week a person uses the application).

Mixed - you learn moth qualitative and quantitative data

By organization:

Structured - all questions are premeditated and close-ended.

Unstructured - questions are open-ended and the interview relies on spontaneity.

Semi-structured - the middle ground between unstructured and structured interviews.

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Pros and cons of market research interviews.

Interview as a method of market research has several benefits:

1. It enables you to obtain in-depth information about your target audience, their feelings, ideas, and behaviors.

2. It can give you unexpected insights into your product/service or separate features, especially if you have one-on-one interviews and use semi-structured or unstructured surveys.

3. You can ask the interviewee to test the product /service right on spot.

4. You can observe non-verbal cues if you conduct face-to-face or video interviews.

5. You can build rapport and turn an occasional customer into a loyal one.

The disadvantages of an interview as a method of market research include:

It provides subjective data

The interviews are self-reporting surveys. And we know from psychological research that the results of a self-reporting survey can change with time and is influenced by multiple factors that researchers cannot control.

To mitigate this risk, try to create a neutral environment for your interviewees and build a rapport with them. If you have a team of researchers, try to find the researcher that fits the target group. For example, ask a teammate with children to conduct interviews if you specifically research parents.

The obtained data might not be relevant to your target group

To obtain correct data, the researchers must form the researched group according to certain rules (e.g., have a certain age representation). To provide a statistically correct result you need at least 100 participants.

Obviously, many business researchers are limited in their resources and 100 participants is an unattainable number. It might happen so that most of the research participants turn out to be uncommon to your TA. 

For example, you want to research the users of XBox consoles. According to this research , most users are 25-44 years old and do not own Playstation 4. However, the participants of your research are predominantly 44 years-old owners of both competing consoles. As you can see, your group is not representative of your target audience unless you want to find out how to make more owners of Playstation 4 buy your console.

To mitigate this risk, analyze your demographics and come up with different incentives for participation. You should also try to word your request differently for every group. 

Interviewer’s bias and interpretation error

Many researchers have their hypotheses and expectations. And sometimes it’s hard to abandon them even if the data proves you’re wrong. When you’re in a position of power, the temptation of breaking rules and tweaking the results is great. To the point when we can do it subconsciously.

This is especially critical for open-ended questions and qualitative research, when the answer is subject to wide interpretation. To minimize the bias we suggest recording and transcribing the interviews. We also suggest asking an opinion of other team members.

Preparation for the market research interview is a critical step in the market research process.

Identifying the market research objectives

This step will create a solid foundation for your market research interview. You will use it for all the next steps in the process. It will impact the format of the interview, the audience, the guide and the tools you will use.

The objective of the research is the answer to one or several questions about your customers, product, service or brand.

For example, a company is launching a new product. They need to understand how to promote it in their target market. The questions can be: “What are the three criteria for choosing the product?” “What do you use this product for” “What associations do you have with this product?”

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Choose the format of your market research interview.

At this stage you choose the type of interview you want to conduct. Will it be one-on-one meeting in real life or an online call or will a survey be enough? What types of questions do you want to ask, close-ended or open-ended?

The format also will depend on the available budget that you have.

Outline the market research target audience

As mentioned above, the target audience (TA) for your research is critical to get a correct result and correct predictions. 

First, identify the demographics of your TA (age, gender, income, geography, etc.). You might have more than one homogeneous group. 

Second, identify how many people you can interview. It will depend on the format of interview you chose. The reply rate for the request to participate in marketing research is quite low.

You need to remember that you’ll have to request at least 10 times as many potential participants. Generate a list of potential participants to whom you will send the request. Compile the request message that you will use to ask people to participate in your market research process.

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Create market research interview guide.

You know how they say that the best improvisation is the one prepared and rehearsed in advance. You might be a natural communicator. Still it’s best to have a clear plan and understand what to say and when. 

That’s why you need a Market Research Interview Guide. Think of it as your playbook for conducting the interview. If you have a truly interesting interlocutor, bright and knowledgeable, the guide will help you not to get carried away and achieve your points. If you have a bad day and your memory plays tricks, it will remind you of the next question. All in all, it’s a must have for a good market researcher.

The Market Research Interview usually consists of four parts:

1. Intro & Warm up

This is the part where you build rapport with your interviewee. Generally, you present yourself, thank them for their time and effort and remind them of the reward. You need to explain shortly how the interview will go. Next, you ask some neutral questions about themselves. This way they will feel valued and seen. The questions will also make them more open up and relax.

2. General Questions

Once you feel that your interviewee feels comfortable and at ease around you, you can start asking questions relative to your market research. Remember these are not the questions that serve your objective. 

Examples of general questions are “Do you know the brand ABC?” “Which brands of this product do you know?” 

We suggest preparing 10-20 of these questions. It’s not necessary to ask all of them. Usually, you’ll be able to ask up to 6. But sometimes you’ll need more to get a person to talk. These questions can be unique to each of the subgroups that you have.

3. Core Questions

The core questions are the questions that serve the objective of your marketing research. It’s critical to ask all of them to each interviewee. The number of core questions should be limited to up to 5. 

It’s important to end the interview on a positive note. Ask them what they think about the topic of the interview. Ask if they have anything else to add to what has already been said. Give them a reward if it is immediately available or explain how the reward will be delivered (ask address or other relative information if necessary).

Thank them for the interview and express hope (e.g., that they will continue to use your product).

Prepare the Tools

Many market researchers omit this step or do not pay enough attention. In the end, lack of good toolkit can harm your market research overall. Let’s take a quick look at the tools that can help you in your work.

General tools for market research interview

First thing first, the reward for participating in the survey is your major interview tool. Many people would only participate in hope of getting something in return. You need to communicate it clearly. You also need to think about the ways to deliver the reward to the participants.

It is also critical to get management’s approval for the award beforehand. Finally, you need to understand if the award is deliverable at all. This is especially critical for IT companies. Marketers love to come up with ideas on how to lure potential customers with freemium. However, in practice the development team is not able to implement all of their ideas.

Next, you will need the printed-out survey for one-on-one interviews and working pens. You will have to prepare at least two copies per person just in case (e.g., a coffee spills over). Remember that some people tend to take the pens they used for writing with them. They do not do it on purpose. But by the end of the day you might find yourself without a critical tool.

You will also need the online communication solutions, if you conduct a survey online. Most likely it will be email. However, you can also reach out to people via LinkedIn or Facebook, or via messengers.

If you plan a mass send out with a request to participate in your marketing research interview, make sure you use appropriate tools. For example, CRMs will spread out your emails in time so that email providers do not mark them as spam.

If you don’t have or do not want to use a CRM, no worries. In 2023, Gmail launched functionality for mass send outs. It enables you to send the same email to multiple people and they won’t see other senders. Gmail will automatically insert their names in the necessary slots in your email.

Quantitative market research

Quantitative market research requires several additional tools:

1. The online survey form. Most quantitative surveys have closed questions with several answer options to choose from. Tools like Google Forms enable you to automate your survey with drop-down lists, check boxes, etc. It will ease the market research process both for your interviewee (easy fill-out) and for you (easy data gathering).

2. The tool for processing the data. Depending on the research it can be Google Sheets / Excel or more complex SAS.

Qualitative market research

The additional tools for quantitative market research are:

1. Recording device and text-to-speech program for offline interviews. You’ll need a recording device to capture the interview information precisely. Simple note-taking can change the meaning of the original speech. As a result, you might come to the wrong conclusions and it can cost a lot for your company.

The text to speech program will help you transcribe your recorded interview. We suggest using it because text format has multiple advantages over audio recording. First, you can easily find any piece of information you like using the search function or just scanning the text with your eyes. Second, you can copy the key phrases to a separate document or highlight them in the text. And you won’t need to return to the audio recording and listen to them over and over. Third, most people perceive visual information better than audio.

2. Video-conferencing tools for online interviews. When choosing a video-conferencing tool, several aspects need to be considered:

The ability to record the call

The limitations (e.g., 40-minute limit in Zoom free version).

The possibility to add a person who isn’t registered in the application (without the necessity to do it).

3. Meeting transcription tool for online surveys. Tools like Noty integrate with video-conferencing tools and enable you to transcribe your interviews in real time. As a result you get a full transcription of your interview with speakers and time-stamps along with all the benefits of a text over audio recording. 

Furthermore, you can pin important parts of your interview and type quick notes right in the Noty widget in Google Meet.

Additionally, they have AI capabilities to summarize the call. You can use custom prompts to get the data you need from the interview in a couple of seconds.

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What is the first step in the marketing research process.

The first step in the marketing research process is outlining the subject of your research.

What type of interview is commonly used for market research?

Most common type of interview used for market research is semi-structures, open-end question online interview.

How do I prepare for a market research interview?

You need to understand the key objective of the research, choose the interview format, outline target audience, create the Market Research Interview Guide, and prepare the tools.

What to expect in a market research interview?

You can expect that your hypothesis might be wrong and you need to accept it. You can expect that an interviewee can be interrupted or the conversation will go into the wrong direction. You need to prepare for these scenarios in order to mitigate the risks.

How can I improve my market research skills?

It depends on the skills you need to improve. Market research process requires strong analytical and strong communication skills as well as a profound knowledge of data analysis tools. Not all people have both. One of the great ways to boost your communication skills is to take theater classes. They teach you how to read non-verbal cues, how to interact with a partner as one, and how to control your body language, facial expressions, and voice. Analytical skills can be boosted through solving logic puzzles and mathematical problems. You can also take courses in marketing analysis. Finally, to get a good grip of data analysis tools you can either take online courses or use YouTube videos.

What are the main questions in a market research interview?

There are three types of questions you will need to ask during the market research interview. Start with icebreaker questions that will help you establish your rapport with the interviewee. Next, ask general questions related to the market, their experience with brands and products, etc. Finally, ask the core questions related to the market research objectives.

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Home • Knowledge hub • Choosing the Right Approach: Qualitative vs. Quantitative Market Research.

Choosing the Right Approach: Qualitative vs. Quantitative Market Research.

Imagine this scenario: you’re the Product Marketing Manager at Stellar Sneakers, a thriving company known for its innovative and stylish footwear. Your team is poised to launch a new line of eco-friendly shoes, but before you do, you want to gather valuable insights to ensure the product’s success. There’s a budget set aside for market research, but you’re faced with a crucial decision: should you go for a qualitative approach, diving into the deep and nuanced attitudes of your target audience? Or should you lean on quantitative research , capturing broad trends and measurable consumer preferences?

These choices are commonplace for marketing professionals. Market research is instrumental in developing successful products and campaigns, helping you understand your target audience, gauge customer preferences, and assess market trends. However, deciding between qualitative and quantitative methodologies can often seem like a labyrinth.

In this article, we will navigate this maze together. We’ll delve into the strengths and weaknesses of both qualitative and quantitative research, providing a practical guide for marketing executives like yourself wrestling with this choice. Our goal is to equip you with a more profound understanding, enabling you to select the most effective research methodology for your marketing objectives. 

Understanding Qualitative Research

Qualitative research can be likened to a deep, exploratory dive. Instead of skimming the ocean’s surface to understand what lies beneath, qualitative research immerses itself in the depths to explore the unseen. In other words, it involves gathering subjective, non-numerical data to uncover your target audience’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations.

Imagine conducting in-depth interviews or focus groups with your prospective customers. You might ask them open-ended questions like, “How important is sustainability in your footwear choices?” or “What would make you choose our new eco-friendly shoes over traditional options?” Such questions do not restrict respondents to choosing from pre-determined answers; instead, they allow them to express their unique thoughts and emotions.

Similarly, other qualitative methods, like observations or ethnography, enable researchers to study people in their natural settings. For instance, observing customers in a retail store can offer valuable insights into shopping habits and behaviors that would be difficult to capture through structured surveys.

In a nutshell, qualitative research is all about understanding the “why” behind consumer behavior. It delves into the intricacies of consumer attitudes, beliefs, and experiences, providing a rich, nuanced understanding of your target audience. But like all methodologies, qualitative research has its strengths and drawbacks.

Pros of Qualitative Research

Now that we understand what qualitative research entails let’s dive into its advantages. For you, as the Product Marketing Manager of Stellar Sneakers, these pros can guide your understanding of what consumers feel and why they behave the way they do.

In-depth Understanding: The primary strength of qualitative research lies in its depth of understanding. By allowing consumers to express their thoughts and feelings in their own words, you can gain a holistic and nuanced understanding of their attitudes, beliefs, and experiences. You might discover, for example, that your target audience highly values sustainable practices not just because of environmental concerns but due to an underlying desire to contribute positively to society. This insight goes beyond basic preferences and can help guide your product development and marketing strategies.

Flexibility: Qualitative research is adaptable, allowing exploring unexpected avenues that emerge during the research process. Let’s say during your focus group discussions, a participant brings up an unanticipated point about the aesthetics of eco-friendly shoes. This can lead the conversation down a new path, offering insights you hadn’t considered initially. This adaptability makes qualitative research a powerful tool for discovery.

Contextual Understanding: This research method provides context to your findings. Instead of just knowing that a certain percentage of your audience prefers eco-friendly shoes, you get to understand why they prefer them. Are they driven by concerns about climate change, peer influence, or simply a desire for unique, innovative products? This contextual understanding can help you craft more effective marketing messages.

Cons of Qualitative Research

While the strengths of qualitative research are many, it has limitations. Understanding these drawbacks is crucial for a balanced approach to your market research.

Limited Generalizability: Qualitative research typically involves smaller, more targeted sample sizes due to the time and resources required for in-depth interviews, focus groups, or observations. This means that while the insights you gather will be rich and detailed, they may not represent the views and experiences of your entire target population. For instance, the customers who participate in your focus groups might have particularly strong feelings about sustainability, which might not be as prevalent in the broader customer base.

Subjectivity: Unlike its quantitative counterpart, qualitative research relies heavily on interpretation and analysis. The findings are often expressed in words and narratives, making them susceptible to researcher bias. For example, two researchers might interpret a participant’s responses in a focus group differently, leading to different conclusions. Therefore, ensuring rigor and objectivity during the analysis phase is critical.

Time and Resource-Intensive: Conducting and analyzing qualitative research can be quite labor-intensive. Transcribing interviews, analyzing focus group discussions, and reviewing observational data require skilled moderators, transcription services, and a significant amount of time. Additionally, the need for specially trained researchers to conduct interviews or focus groups can add to the cost of the research.

These cons do not diminish the value of qualitative research; instead, they highlight the need for careful planning and thoughtful interpretation of the data gathered. By understanding this approach’s strengths and limitations, you can maximize its benefits and make informed decisions. 

Understanding Quantitative Research

As we leave the deep-diving world of qualitative research, we surface to the realm of quantitative research, where the breadth of understanding is the key. Think of it as casting a wide net into the sea, gathering as many fish (or, in our case, data points) as possible to analyze and identify patterns or trends.

In contrast to qualitative research, quantitative research involves gathering measurable, numerical data. This can be accomplished through various methods, such as online surveys , questionnaires, or structured observations. The questions in this type of research are often closed-ended, offering a set of predefined responses for the participants to choose from. For instance, you might ask your customers to rate on a scale of 1-5 how likely they are to buy your new eco-friendly shoes or to select from a list of options their primary reason for purchasing such shoes.

The essence of quantitative research is the ability to quantify consumer behavior and attitudes. Rather than focusing on individual narratives, it provides a statistical representation of a large group’s feelings or behaviors. For instance, it might tell you that 65% of your target market is willing to pay a premium for eco-friendly footwear.

Quantitative research, like its qualitative counterpart, has a unique set of pros and cons, which can significantly impact your research results and, consequently, your business decisions. 

Pros of Quantitative Research

Quantitative research provides a measurable, objective lens to view your market. Here are some of the key advantages it offers:

Generalizability: With its focus on large sample sizes, quantitative research enables you to gather data statistically representative of your target population. For instance, if your survey reveals that a significant percentage of respondents are willing to pay more for eco-friendly shoes, you can confidently infer this trend extends to your broader target market.

Measurable and Objective: Quantitative data can be precisely measured and easily analyzed using statistical methods. The responses you gather can be quantified, compared, and tracked over time, offering you valuable insights. For example, you can measure changes in consumer attitudes toward eco-friendly products over several years.

Efficiency: Given that quantitative research often employs online or paper surveys, you can collect data from a large number of respondents simultaneously. This method can be cost-effective and time-efficient, especially when compared to conducting numerous in-depth interviews or focus groups.

Cons of Quantitative Research

Despite the significant advantages of quantitative research, it’s essential to be mindful of its limitations to ensure a balanced approach to your market research.

Lack of Depth: While quantitative research excels in measuring and quantifying consumer behaviors and attitudes, it often doesn’t capture the nuances and underlying reasons for those behaviors. For example, although you might know from a survey that a substantial percentage of your target market prefers eco-friendly shoes, you won’t necessarily understand the specific motivations, emotions, or experiences behind this preference.

Limited Context: Quantitative research provides statistical data but often lacks the rich, detailed context of qualitative research. It tells you “what” the trends are but often falls short of explaining “why” those trends exist. For instance, your survey might reveal that younger customers are more likely to buy eco-friendly shoes, but without further qualitative investigation, the reasons for this demographic preference may remain unclear.

Potential for Survey Bias: The design of your quantitative surveys can significantly influence the accuracy of your results. Poorly constructed questions, leading prompts, or a lack of diverse response options can introduce bias, resulting in skewed data. For example, if your survey questions are biased towards positive responses about eco-friendly products, you may end up with an inflated perception of your target market’s interest in such products.

By recognizing these limitations, you can take steps to mitigate them, such as supplementing your quantitative data with qualitative insights or ensuring your survey design is as unbiased and inclusive as possible. 

Choosing the Right Approach

At this point, you might wonder: Should I dive deep with qualitative research or cast a wide net with quantitative research? The truth is, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The most effective approach depends on several factors, including your research objectives, the representativeness and size of your sample, and the resources available to you.

Research Objectives: Your first consideration should be the purpose of your research. If you are at an exploratory stage, wanting to understand your target audience’s nuanced perspectives and motivations, qualitative research could be your best bet. On the other hand, quantitative research might be the way to go if you’re looking to test a hypothesis, measure the impact of a previous campaign, or collect data on a large scale.

Sample Size and Representativeness: If generalizability is a priority, and you want your research findings to represent your entire target market, then quantitative research, with its larger sample sizes, is generally more suitable. However, if your focus is on a smaller, more targeted group, qualitative research can offer the in-depth insights you need.

Time and Resource Constraints: Budget, time, and human resources are practical considerations that can impact your research choice. If you’re working within a tight budget or timeframe or have limited access to skilled qualitative researchers, a quantitative approach may be more efficient. Conversely, if you have the resources to conduct thorough interviews, focus groups, or ethnographic studies, qualitative research can yield rich, nuanced data.

Complementary Research: Remember that qualitative and quantitative research aren’t mutually exclusive. They can be effectively combined to offer a comprehensive view of your market. For instance, you could start with a qualitative study to explore consumer attitudes and behaviors and then design a quantitative survey based on those insights to gather data from a larger sample size. Alternatively, you might supplement quantitative data with qualitative research to add depth and context to your findings.

The right research methodology can make a significant difference in your understanding of your market and, consequently, the success of your marketing efforts. By carefully considering the above factors, you can select the most effective approach for your specific needs.

Navigating the world of market research and making these decisions can seem daunting. That’s where expert help can make a real difference. Consider partnering with a seasoned market research agency like Kadence International. With a wealth of experience across various industries and markets, we at Kadence can guide you in selecting the best research methodology tailored to your unique needs, ensuring you gain the insights needed to propel your business forward.

Ready to unlock the power of market research? Reach out to us, and let us guide you toward a better understanding your market and achieving business success.

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The Pros & Cons of Interviewing

• Watching now: Chapter 1: Pros and Cons of Qualitative Interviewing Start time: 00:00:00 End time: 00:04:52

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(2015). The pros & cons of interviewing [Video]. Sage Research Methods. https:// doi. org/10.4135/9781529622164

"The Pros & Cons of Interviewing." In Sage Video . : Leigh Hall, 2015. Video, 00:04:52. https:// doi. org/10.4135/9781529622164.

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Pros and cons of qualitative interviewing, including perspective-taking, data triangulation, scheduling and transcription.

Chapter 1: Pros and Cons of Qualitative Interviewing

• Start time: 00:00:00
• End time: 00:04:52
• Product: Sage Research Methods Video: Qualitative and Mixed Methods
• Type of Content: Tutorial
• Title: The Pros & Cons of Interviewing
• Publisher: Leigh Hall
• Series: How To Design & Conduct Interviews for Qualitative Research
• Publication year: 2015
• Online pub date: December 06, 2022
• Discipline: Sociology , History , Public Health , Criminology and Criminal Justice , Psychology , Health , Anthropology , Social Policy and Public Policy , Social Work , Counseling and Psychotherapy , Geography , Communication and Media Studies , Business and Management , Political Science and International Relations , Nursing , Education
• Methods: Qualitative measures , Qualitative interviewing , Triangulation
• Duration: 00:04:52
• DOI: https:// doi. org/10.4135/9781529622164
• Keywords: interview schedule , interview techniques , qualitative interview , qualitative research , transcription , triangulation Show all Show less
• Online ISBN: 9781529622164 Copyright: Copyright Leigh Hall , 2015 More information Less information

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Methodology

• Structured Interview | Definition, Guide & Examples

Structured Interview | Definition, Guide & Examples

Published on January 27, 2022 by Tegan George and Julia Merkus. Revised on June 22, 2023.

A structured interview is a data collection method that relies on asking questions in a set order to collect data on a topic. It is one of four types of interviews .

In research, structured interviews are often quantitative in nature. They can also be used in qualitative research if the questions are open-ended, but this is less common.

While structured interviews are often associated with job interviews, they are also common in marketing, social science, survey methodology, and other research fields.

• Semi-structured interviews : A few questions are predetermined, whereas the other questions aren’t planned.
• Unstructured interviews : None of the questions are predetermined.
• Focus group interviews : The questions are presented to a group instead of one individual.

Table of contents

What is a structured interview, when to use a structured interview, advantages of structured interviews, disadvantages of structured interviews, structured interview questions, how to conduct a structured interview, how to analyze a structured interview, presenting your results, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about structured interviews.

Structured interviews are the most systematized type of interview. In contrast to semi-structured or unstructured interviews, the interviewer uses predetermined questions in a set order.

Structured interviews are often closed-ended. They can be dichotomous, which means asking participants to answer “yes” or “no” to each question, or multiple-choice. While open-ended structured interviews do exist, they are less common.

Asking set questions in a set order allows you to easily compare responses between participants in a uniform context. This can help you see patterns and highlight areas for further research, and it can be a useful explanatory or exploratory research tool.

Structured interviews are best used when:

• You already have a very clear understanding of your topic, so you possess a baseline for designing strong structured questions.
• You are constrained in terms of time or resources and need to analyze your data efficiently.
• Your research question depends on strong parity between participants, with environmental conditions held constant.

A structured interview is straightforward to conduct and analyze. Asking the same set of questions mitigates potential biases and leads to fewer ambiguities in analysis. It is an undertaking you can likely handle as an individual, provided you remain organized.

Differences between different types of interviews

Make sure to choose the type of interview that suits your research best. This table shows the most important differences between the four types.

Reduced bias

Increased credibility, reliability and validity, simple, cost-effective and efficient, formal in nature, limited flexibility, limited scope.

It can be difficult to write structured interview questions that approximate exactly what you are seeking to measure. Here are a few tips for writing questions that contribute to high internal validity :

• Define exactly what you want to discover prior to drafting your questions. This will help you write questions that really zero in on participant responses.
• Avoid jargon, compound sentences, and complicated constructions.
• Be as clear and concise as possible, so that participants can answer your question immediately.
• Do you think that employers should provide free gym memberships?
• Did any of your previous employers provide free memberships?
• Does your current employer provide a free membership?
• a) 1 time; b) 2 times; c) 3 times; d) 4 or more times
• Do you enjoy going to the gym?

Structured interviews are among the most straightforward research methods to conduct and analyze. Once you’ve determined that they’re the right fit for your research topic , you can proceed with the following steps.

Step 1: Set your goals and objectives

Start with brainstorming some guiding questions to help you conceptualize your research question, such as:

• What are you trying to learn or achieve from a structured interview?
• Why are you choosing a structured interview as opposed to a different type of interview, or another research method?

If you have satisfying reasoning for proceeding with a structured interview, you can move on to designing your questions.

Step 2: Design your questions

Pay special attention to the order and wording of your structured interview questions . Remember that in a structured interview they must remain the same. Stick to closed-ended or very simple open-ended questions.

Step 3: Assemble your participants

Depending on your topic, there are a few sampling methods you can use, such as:

• Voluntary response sampling : For example, posting a flyer on campus and finding participants based on responses
• Convenience sampling of those who are most readily accessible to you, such as fellow students at your university
• Stratified sampling of a particular age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, or other characteristic of interest to you
• Judgment sampling of a specific set of participants that you already know you want to include

Step 4: Decide on your medium

Determine whether you will be conducting your interviews in person or whether your interview will take pen-and-paper format. If conducted live, you need to decide if you prefer to talk with participants in person, over the phone, or via video conferencing.

Step 5: Conduct your interviews

As you conduct your interviews, be very careful that all conditions remain as constant as possible.

• Ask your questions in the same order, and try to moderate your tone of voice and any responses to participants as much as you can.
• Pay special attention to your body language (e.g., nodding, raising eyebrows), as this can bias responses.

After you’re finished conducting your interviews, it’s time to analyze your results.

• Assign each of your participants a number or pseudonym for organizational purposes.
• Transcribe the recordings manually or with the help of transcription software.
• Conduct a content or thematic analysis to look for categories or patterns of responses. In most cases, it’s also possible to conduct a statistical analysis to test your hypotheses .

Transcribing interviews

If you have audio-recorded your interviews, you will likely have to transcribe them prior to conducting your analysis. In some cases, your supervisor might ask you to add the transcriptions in the appendix of your paper.

First, you will have to decide whether to conduct verbatim transcription or intelligent verbatim transcription. Do pauses, laughter, or filler words like “umm” or “like” affect your analysis and research conclusions?

• If so, conduct verbatim transcription and include them.
• If not, conduct intelligent verbatim transcription, which excludes fillers and fixes any grammar issues, and is often easier to analyze.

The transcription process is a great opportunity for you to cleanse your data as well, spotting and resolving any inconsistencies or errors that come up as you listen.

Coding and analyzing structured interviews

After transcribing, it’s time to conduct your thematic or content analysis . This often involves “coding” words, patterns, or themes, separating them into categories for more robust analysis.

Due to the closed-ended nature of many structured interviews, you will most likely be conducting content analysis, rather than thematic analysis.

• You quantify the categories you chose in the coding stage by counting the occurrence of the words, phrases, subjects or concepts you selected.
• After coding, you can organize and summarize the data using descriptive statistics .
• Next, inferential statistics allows you to come to conclusions about your hypotheses and make predictions for future research. 

When conducting content analysis, you can take an inductive or a deductive approach. With an inductive approach, you allow the data to determine your themes. A deductive approach is the opposite, and involves investigating whether your data confirm preconceived themes or ideas.

Content analysis has a systematic procedure that can easily be replicated , yielding high reliability to your results. However, keep in mind that while this approach reduces bias, it doesn’t eliminate it. Be vigilant about remaining objective here, even if your analysis does not confirm your hypotheses .

After your data analysis, the next step is to combine your findings into a research paper .

• Your methodology section describes how you collected the data (in this case, describing your structured interview process) and explains how you justify or conceptualize your analysis.
• Your discussion and results sections usually address each of your coded categories, describing each in turn, as well as how often they occurred.

If you conducted inferential statistics in addition to descriptive statistics, you would generally report the test statistic , p -value , and effect size in your results section. These values explain whether your results justify rejecting your null hypothesis and whether the result is practically significant .

You can then conclude with the main takeaways and avenues for further research.

Example of interview methodology for a research paper

Let’s say you are interested in healthcare on your campus. You attend a large public institution with a lot of international students, and you think there may be a difference in perceptions based on country of origin.

Specifically, you hypothesize that students coming from countries with single-payer or socialized healthcare will find US options less satisfying.

There is a large body of research available on this topic, so you decide to conduct structured interviews of your peers to see if there’s a difference between international students and local students.

You are a member of a large campus club that brings together international students and local students, and you send a message to the club to ask for volunteers.

Here are some questions you could ask:

• Do you find healthcare options on campus to be: excellent; good; fair; average; poor?
• Does your home country have socialized healthcare? Yes/No
• Are you on the campus healthcare plan? Yes/No
• Have you ever worried about your health insurance? Yes/No
• Have you ever had a serious health condition that insurance did not cover? Yes/No
• Have you ever been surprised or shocked by a medical bill? Yes/No

After conducting your interviews and transcribing your data, you can then conduct content analysis, coding responses into different categories. Since you began your research with the theory that international students may find US healthcare lacking, you would use the deductive approach to see if your hypotheses seem to hold true.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Student’s  t -distribution
• Normal distribution
• Null and Alternative Hypotheses
• Chi square tests
• Confidence interval
• Quartiles & Quantiles
• Cluster sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Data cleansing
• Reproducibility vs Replicability
• Peer review
• Prospective cohort study

Research bias

• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Placebo effect
• Hawthorne effect
• Hindsight bias
• Affect heuristic
• Social desirability bias

A structured interview is a data collection method that relies on asking questions in a set order to collect data on a topic. They are often quantitative in nature. Structured interviews are best used when: 

• You already have a very clear understanding of your topic. Perhaps significant research has already been conducted, or you have done some prior research yourself, but you already possess a baseline for designing strong structured questions.
• You are constrained in terms of time or resources and need to analyze your data quickly and efficiently.

More flexible interview options include semi-structured interviews , unstructured interviews , and focus groups .

The four most common types of interviews are:

• Structured interviews : The questions are predetermined in both topic and order. 
• Semi-structured interviews : A few questions are predetermined, but other questions aren’t planned.

The interviewer effect is a type of bias that emerges when a characteristic of an interviewer (race, age, gender identity, etc.) influences the responses given by the interviewee.

There is a risk of an interviewer effect in all types of interviews , but it can be mitigated by writing really high-quality interview questions.

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The Pros and Cons of Face-to-Face Interviews for Market Research

Yet with this in mind, there are advantages and disadvantages of face-to-face interviews that businesses should know before they implement or authorize this market research method. Below is a high-level look at the pros and cons:

Face-to-Face Interview Pro #1: Empathy & Personal Interaction

In face-to-face interviews, a great moderator can make a world of difference, especially when it comes to empathy & personal interaction. While conducting these interviews, moderators can connect with participants by showing that they understand what the participant is feeling. When your participants feel safe and understood, they can more easily let their guard down, open up and share emotions. Online surveys don’t capture emotions nor do they have the ability to adjust based on answers or give the participant any empathetic feedback.

In the case of specific studies such as ethnographies, moderators can actually observe how an individual is performing specific tasks and interact with them about the experience. It also gives the moderator a chance to ask the participant further questions about unexpected results.

Face-to-Face Interview Pro #2: Capturing Non-Verbal Cues

As noted by Psychology Today , body language is “communication without words.” While scientifically designed online and mobile surveys can improve data quality (i.e. certain questions can be asked in a specific order, or with certain response options, to more accurately collect what a respondent is conveying), the fact remains that there are some non-verbal cues that can only be captured in a face-to-face interview.  

By having a moderator there to record emotions and non-verbal cues, face-to-face interviews capture a more holistic answer to a question than an online survey question would. For example, if your market research participants interacts with a product, a moderator could detect confusion, moments of clarity, discuss mental models they’re using to solve a problem and more.

Face-to-Face Interview Pro #3: Experiencing Products in Real Life

When doing market research for products, there is definitely an advantage to seeing them, touching them, feeling them and interacting with them in real life. In a face-to-face interview, participants can see products and play around with them in order to answer your questions or complete necessary tasks. In online surveys, pictures are normally substituted in lieu of the real product and in some cases, the ability to experience a product with your own senses can make a huge difference in depth of feedback.

Face-to-Face Interview Con #1: Relatively Higher Cost

Naturally, face-to-face interviews are going to cost relatively more than online or mobile surveys. This is both because of labor costs (whether in-house or partnering with a market research firm), and overhead costs (interview rooms, administration, possibly paying travel expenses for respondents, etc.).

So while investing in face-to-face interviews does come with more costs, the investment can be well worth it. With the three pros of face-to-face interviews in mind, there are situations where this methodology is the best way to achieve the research outcome. Therefore, if the information gleaned from face-to-face interviews can be very profitable, then this cost is more of an investment rather than an expense.

Face-to-Face Interview Con #2: Data Processing

When beginning face-to-face interviews, you need to start with a plan for data collection and data processing. While the data collection plan might seem obvious, the data processing plan is commonly overlooked but should be thought of early in the planning process. In this processing plan, you should know what information you need to collect (audio, video, notes, etc.) and how you’ll process it for meaningful analysis.

Because there are typically multiple information sources, data processing for face-to-face interviews can be overwhelming and expensive. Plus you can’t simply go back and re-do your market research because your data processing plan wasn’t comprehensive. If you need quotes, you’ll need to record your sessions and invest in transcriptions. If you need visuals, you’ll need to have pictures or video then be able to sort through the footage to find the snippets you want.

Face-to-Face Interview Con #3: Making Analysis Actionable

Face-to-face interviews are a rich qualitative methodology to utilize in market research, but that doesn’t mean you should use a face-to-face interview to base all your decisions upon. Many decision makers will want to marry qualitative data from face-to-face interviews with quantitative findings in order to see a more robust analysis.

Therefore before any action or decisions can take place, you should plan on utilizing another follow-up study to see how representative your face-to-face interactions are.

At Communicate For Research, we are experts on research logistics and recruitment of face-to-face interviews, which supports many top-notch researchers to get the most out of their work. To learn more, contact us today to get feedback on existing research goals or to discuss how we can help you answer new research questions.

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Pros and cons of focus groups vs. interviews: an in-depth review

Our guide to market research can be downloaded free of charge

Last update: March 2020.

In an earlier article we discussed the major differences between focus groups and face-to-face interviews . Today we’d like to compare both methodologies and discuss the pros and cons of focus groups vs. interviews.

If you are interested in market research in general, and qualitative techniques in particular, don’t miss out our step-by-step guide to market research in which we discuss a thorough approach to all types of marketing questions. The guide can be downloaded for free here .

Feel free to watch the video below (undertitled in English) where our founder, Dr. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab, sums the differences, advantages and inconvenients of focus groups vs. qualitative interviews.

Table of contents

• Advantages of focus groups

Advantages of qualitative interviews

Disadvantages of focus groups.

• Disadvantages of qualitative interviews
• Pros and cons of focus groups vs. interviews : an overview

How to choose?

Only for our subscribers: exclusive analyses and marketing advice.

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Advantages of Focus groups

Focus groups are especially suited when you want to confirm your analysis with a wide variety of consumers’ profiles. Focus groups are indeed the best way to exchange viewpoints and discuss disagreements between consumers. This dynamics will not be captured in a face-to-face interview. In addition focus groups may be less expensive than interviews, provided the analytical treatment remains light. Most market research institutes have indeed removed the costly part of the process (i.e. transcriptions and coding ). For more information on the budget part, please read our ultimate guide to market research price .

An interview will allow you to go much deeper, in particular thanks to a longer speaking time. More insights are likely to be collected, which will be useful for a later quantitative phase. We find it easier to analyze individual interviews than focus groups (especially if you decide to code your interview in a software like Maxqda )

Last but not least, the role of the interviewer is usually less important in interviews than in focus groups; the expected bias, if an interviewing guide has been well prepared, will therefore be lower too.

Speaking times: the differences between focus groups and interviews

One aspect that is often overlooked is the speaking times differences between focus groups and interviews. A focus group usually gather around 8 participants for 2 hours. An individual interview is usually around 45-60 minutes. Divide 2 hours (120 minutes) by 8 and you obtain 15 minutes speaking time per participant in a focus group vs. 45 to 60 minutes in a face-to-face individual interview. This is 3 to 4 times less. That’s why individual interviews are usually seen as an exploratory market research technique, whereas focus groups are more confirmatory by nature.

Whereas focus groups are easy to organize with consumers, they are much more challenging in a B2B context. Have you ever tried to get 8 or 10 busy professionals around one table outside of business hours?

Whatever the setting, the role of the moderator is key to make people speak and interact. The risk to fail is considerably higher than when you follow a well-prepared interview guide.

If you want to learn more about moderator’s bias please read this article . We highlight in particular one academic research by  Grønkjær et al. (2011) which state that :

Our analyses identified how interaction can come to a dead-end, including the risk of hierarchical issues. Based on the analyses from this study, the moderator’s ability to pursue the participants’ utterances may be the reason for coming to a dead-end.

Disadvantages of face-to-face interviews

The logistics side of the interviews is complicated, especially if you have to travel meet the interviewees. Writing an interview guide is a process that is also certainly more time-consuming for an individual interview than for a focus group.

Moreover, analyzing all interviews requires skills (and tools) that are neither easy nor cheap to acquire. Finally face-to-face interviews can be especially challenging to organize in a B2B setting (in some cases we even had to refuse B2B market research projects because we thought they were not feasible).

Pros and cons of focus groups vs. interviews: a summary

It may seem challenging to choose between individual interviews and focus groups. Qualitative interviews are best suited if you want to gather specific experiences and opinions that you can explore in more depth with your interviewer. This format allows respondents to feel free to confide in you without judging their answers (feeling of trust and closeness to the interviewer) and avoids bias.

Focus groups will be of particular interest to challenge an idea to different experts, consumers or prospects, on the concept of a brainstorming session. In particular, it will be interesting to invite people with complementary experiences to identify the crucial points you will need to work on in the future.

• Market research methods

18 February 2019

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In-Depth Interviews vs Online Surveys: Which Kind of Research Is Right for Professional Services Firms?

How do clients and prospects view my firm’s brand? What are we known for in the marketplace? Why are we more – or less – visible than the firms we’re competing against?

These are common questions professional services firms ask when evaluating their brand. The answers can come directly from the individuals exposed to your brand every day – your clients, prospects, referral sources, influencers, and even your own internal staff.

However, uncovering their true perspective on your brand is no easy task. If you decide to research your target audience, the type of research you do can affect the insights you get back. The decisions you make early in researching your brand can uncover truths… or they can lead you down the wrong path.

Particularly for professional services firms, there are two common methods to conducting research:   online surveys and in-depth interviews (IDIs). It is essential to understand the benefits and drawbacks to each method so that your firm can determine which one, or combination of the two, is best for your firm.

See also: Brand Research for Professional Services Firms: What Every Executive Needs to Know to Grow Their Brand

Online Surveys—Benefits & Drawbacks

What are the benefits of an online survey.

• They cost less. While they do require some maintenance and monitoring during the data collection period,online surveys allow you to capture a high volume of responses for less money.
• They can save time . Usually, respondents can complete an online survey faster than if they participated in an IDI (typically, a phone interview).  Additionally, finding a time that fits the interviewer’s and respondent’s schedule can be a challenge. Online surveys are flexible and can be accessed at the respondent’s convenience.
• They allow you to sample a larger, more representative population. If your firm has 40,000 clients, interviewing all 40,000 would not be feasible. With an online survey, you have the ability to capture the responses of a more representative sample, if not the entire population.

What are the drawbacks of online surveys?

• They may require incentives. Depending on your circumstances, the audience that you are trying to reach may not be inclined to take your survey out of goodwill. Some respondents may want something in return for taking the time to complete your survey. Incentives might include exclusive access to the results of your research, but you might have to resort to old-fashioned bribery. Gift cards with broad appeal (like Starbucks, iTunes, or Amazon) can be effective incentives.
• Many will go uncompleted. Online survey respondents don’t always answer every question on a survey. Sometimes, they will exit the survey before completing it. There are a number of factors that impact completion rate, soy building a strong questionnaire is important.
• Harder to get detail or explanation. Most survey respondents opt not to type out detailed, explanative responses. Because of this, open-ended questions are difficult to ask in survey format. Instead, closed-ended “select all that apply” questions may be used to keep the respondent engaged and prevent a high drop-off rate. Unfortunately, this practice prevents respondents from using their natural language when answering questions.

Download the Professional Services Guide to Research

In-Depth Interviews (IDIs)—Benefits & Drawbacks

What are the benefits of in-depth interviews.

• You never know what you may uncover. A talented interviewer can dive deep into specific topics and adjust their line of questioning based on the direction of the interview. When done correctly, this sort of probing can uncover perspectives that may have never been considered or addressed by your firm. These unknown perspectives are very difficult to uncover in an online survey, where responses are confined to a predetermined set of questions and answer choices. These surprise insights can be the most valuable things you learn from your research. 
• Your participants can speak candidly about you. Having a third party conduct interviews will make interviewees feel more comfortable expressing their true feelings and opinions. A talented interviewer can make an IDI feel more like a friendly conversation than an interrogation.
• You’re more likely to get a higher response rate. Persistence in scheduling the interview and dealing with potential respondents individually contributes to a higher response rate for IDIs compared to online surveys. This high response rate allows you to more accurately forecast the number of respondents, as well as how long it will take to complete the data collection.

What are the drawbacks of IDIs?

• You’ll need experienced interviewers. The benefits of conducting IDIs hinge on the experience of the interviewer.  An experienced interviewer will know when to probe for more detail, recall answers earlier in the interview that might be applicable to questions further down the line, and take detailed notes for subsequent data processing and coding. All of these skills are essential to get the most from your IDIs.
• It can take time and money. Hiring an experienced interviewer to conduct the interviews has many positive benefits, but it can be an expensive investment. Also, scheduling and completing interviews can be time consuming. Make sure you know when conducting an interview is appropriate, and when other data collection methods are a more suitable alternative.
• Limited sample sizes. Because of the time and costs associated with IDIs, you may have to limit the size of your sample. Depending on your budget and the size of the overall population you are sampling, an IDI may or may not be the right fit.

Which Method Should You Use?

What’s the best data collection method to conduct primary research on your firm’s brand ? That depends on the population you want to examine.

For example, if the population is smaller, highly targeted, and needs to meet specific criteria, then IDIs are likely to be the best route to understand that population.

On the other hand, an online survey may be more suitable if you want to sample a larger population—such as your total client base or hundreds of your firm’s employees.

By the way, it can be valuable to get a sense of how internal staff views the firm’s brand. This can lay the groundwork for uncovering gaps in perception between your internal staff and clients, prospects, and referral sources.

It’s not uncommon for clients to view one aspect of a firm favorably, while your staff completely fail to appreciate it. Connecting these dots can unify your brand message and highlight what clients truly value in working with your firm.

An Integrated Approach

These two data collection instruments aren’t mutually exclusive. Using a hybrid of these two approaches can be effective. For instance, pairing IDIs of external audiences (clients, prospects, lost prospects) with an online survey of your internal population (employees, senior management, key stakeholders) can yield the qualitative and quantitative insights you need to produce valuable, actionable results.

Another integrated method uses a two-phase approach. In phase one,the “discovery” phase, a limited number of IDIs (say 3-6) are conducted with members of your  external audience to uncover salient trends, topics, or viewpoints. In phase two, the “validation phase”, the IDI responses are used to construct a survey that validates the findings from phase one using a much larger and statistically representative sample. Two-phase approaches are a great way to uncover and validate viewpoints of your brand or industry, but this approach can be expensive and time consuming. Generally, a two-phase approach is used when conducting research on your industry.* 

It is important to keep in mind how decisions made early on in the research process can have a profound impact on results—and ultimately your firm’s brand strategy.

Think of research like the foundation of a house. If poorly constructed, your house may only be sturdy for a short while. If done properly, it can have an enduring impact on your firm’s success.

*This sort of research can have a valuable double life. You can repurpose it as “ research as content ” to build visibility and credibility with your target audience.

Free Resource

The Professional Services Guide to Research

How Hinge Can Help

Brand research gets to the core of what will resonate with those audiences—and is an integral part of what Hinge does for clients. Learn more about our research services or contact us to learn whether research makes sense for your professional services firm.

Additional Resources

• Our Professional Services Guide to Research  will show you how to use research to build a smarter, more competitive firm.
• To understand how your buyers think and why they choose one professional services firm over another, check out our full-length book,  Inside the Buyer’s Brain: How to Turn Buyers into Believers.
• Bring data-driven marketing to your firm with  Hinge University’s  step-by-step, in-depth courses.

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CAPI, CATI, and CAWI Research Methods

Roxana elliott | apr. 20, 2021 | 4 min. read, what are capi, cati, and cawi.

Three common research methodologies are CAPI, CATI, and CAWI , which stand for Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing , Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing , and Computer Assisted Web Interviewing . While these three methods have similar names and are often mentioned together, in practice they are very different methods, and each has unique characteristics which should be taken into account when deciding on a data collection method. Below we outline the major differences of CATI, CAPI, and CAWI, along with pros and cons of each method.

Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI)

Because CAPI is an in-person research mode, it can reach anyone, even populations who do not have internet or phone access, which makes it a good solution for gathering data from low-income populations. However, CAPI requires interviewers to be trained in survey administration and for them to travel to each household they will interview. In emerging regions and rural areas where houses can be dispersed over a large area, this can make administering CAPI surveys time-consuming.

Pros of Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing:  

• Can reach any household or respondent, even those without internet or phone access
• Allows for interviewers to collect detailed data through follow-up questions and probing
• Improves on paper and pen survey administration by reducing the chance of interviewer error or data loss

Cons of Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing:  

• Requires interviewers to be recruited and trained in survey administration
• Can be time-consuming for interviewers to travel from household to household, especially in rural areas
• Can be costly due to the need for trained interviewers and the length of time it takes to collect data  

Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI)

Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing or CATI is a voice call interview method in which trained interviewers call respondents’ phone numbers, usually working from a central call center. CATI interviews are similar to CAPI interviews in that they are interviewer-administered, so interviewers can conduct similar probing and clarification of survey questions, and CATI software also allows interviewers to securely record responses and save data. CATI interviews support both qualitative and quantitative survey questions and can utilize audio aids as part of a questionnaire design.

Pros of Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing:

• Securely stores data and enables simple survey administration through CATI software
• Reaches wide segments of the population without having to overcome logistical hurdles associated with in-person research
• Interviews can be administered at the respondent’s convenience by scheduling a call-back time

Cons of Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing:

• May not reach the lowest-income populations who do not have access to a mobile phone or landline

Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI)

CAWI surveys are useful for gathering quick insights from large sample sizes as they do not require interviewers to be trained and can be distributed very widely, but they are limited to populations who have internet access and are comfortable using computers or internet-enabled phones or tablets. CAWI surveys are also self-administered, meaning you rely on the respondent to fill in a survey accurately without the guidance of an interviewer, and that questionnaires generally need to be shorter for respondents to complete them.    

Pros of Computer Assisted Web Interviewing

• Simple to set-up and administer to large sample sizes
• Do not require the hiring and training of interviewers
• Can be a fast and low-cost method of data collection

Cons of Computer Assisted Web Interviewing

• Only reach literate populations and those with access to the internet and a computer or mobile device
• Qualitative data collection can be more limited than with interviewer-administered modes
• Questionnaires should be shorter to encourage higher completion rates

Choosing between CAPI, CATI, and CAWI

As outlined above, there are significant differences between CAPI, CATI, and CAWI survey modes. Generally, if you are looking to get the most representative survey possible, CAPI and CATI are the best options, but CAWI can be useful for quickly gathering insights on a consumer population or in countries which have high levels of internet access. When choosing a research mode , you must take into account the population you are trying to reach, questionnaire length and complexity, budget, and timeline. Use GeoPoll’s interactive research mode picker to get a quick view of what modes may be feasible for the project you are working on.

Depending on the country you are looking to research in, some modes may be more feasible than others, and talking to a research expert can help you narrow down your mode options. In addition to the three research modes mentioned here, there are other options such as SMS and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) which some research firms, such as GeoPoll, offer in addition to CAPI, CATI, and CAWI.

To speak to the GeoPoll team about which research mode is right for you, please contact us today .

Related Posts

CATI Surveys in Market Research | Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing

Interactive Voice Response vs Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing for Survey Research

Market Research Methods

• Tags computer assisted personal interviewing , computer assisted telephone interview , computer assisted web interviewing , mobile survey modes , Mobile Web

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Market Research: 8 Pros and Cons (Plus Definition and Methods)

Many businesses, especially small ones, frequently struggle with a lack of funding and personnel. Budgets for research are frequently the first to suffer from the need to make cuts. But these days, a lack of resources and expertise is no longer an acceptable justification for subpar market research. Tools for conducting your own market research at home are more common and accessible. It implies that even small businesses can now carry out independent research. Everything is automated and accessible online, including survey templates and visual data reports. Let’s examine the benefits and drawbacks of doing your own market research in more detail.

There’s no need to pay for research firms, hire them, and then wait months for the results. With online research platforms, all tools are at your fingertips. All you require is time and patience to learn them and conduct your own research. Additionally, since only you will be accountable for the outcomes, you will have complete control over the research’s caliber and timeline.

On the one hand, limited budgets constrain the company’s development. However, it encourages teams to look for more original solutions. DIY market research is inexpensive and offers a ton of creative freedom. So, just conduct your own research, and you might be pleasantly surprised by the caliber of your findings.

You already have a better understanding of your company, its requirements, and its priorities than any external research firm. By conducting your own research, you can experiment with any method and use any tool or technology that is available, including biometric technologies (like eye tracking, EEG, emotion measurement, and implicit tests). Even a small startup can increase its capacity and competence while discovering new avenues for growth by learning how to use the DIY research platform to obtain in-depth and priceless insights from customers.

DIY market research is for you if you’re willing to put in the time to learn and practice new, exciting skills that will help your business. DIY neuromarketing research will be useful if you want to start your own research department, are passionate about new technology, or want to diversify the tools you use to test websites and design layouts. Of course, the choice is entirely yours, but if you asked us, we’d say without a doubt that doing your own research is worthwhile. For our part, we’ll make sure that your entry into the field of neuromarketing is both easy and exciting.

Market research pros

Here are the advantages of conducting market research:

1. Managing risks

The first significant benefit of market research is that it will help you to develop a better risk management plan. Understanding consumer behavior patterns will help you determine the likelihood that your goods and services will be successful with your target market. You can decide on future investments more effectively if you know how your key customers are likely to interact with new goods and services. You can conduct research to get the basic information you need to make wise business decisions. When preparing to grow your business, market research gives you the information you need to make decisions while minimizing your risks.

2. Increasing sales

Effective market research frequently serves as the basis for growing your company’s sales. You can learn more about the needs and preferences of your target market thanks to market research. You can more effectively plan and implement services that satisfy your customers’ needs when you are aware of what they anticipate from an exceptional customer service experience. Researching your target market can help you spot emerging trends so you can put strategies in place to take advantage of these opportunities. You can create business strategies that boost your sales by being aware of both general consumer trends and the specific patterns of buying behaviors of your target customers.

3. Improving brand recognition

Enhancing brand recognition is another use for market research. Your marketing and advertising strategy can be improved by researching your target market. You can create advertising strategies that connect with your key market by being aware of the channels your target customers use the most. Knowing which social media platforms your customers use the most, for instance, can help you create a marketing plan to promote your products on those networks. You can use more targeted advertising tactics when you know what types of marketing materials are most effective for grabbing your target audience’s attention.

4. Measuring brand reputation

Finally, market research can give you understanding of the public perception of your brand. Having a good reputation can assist you in retaining current clients and attracting new ones. When people have a positive opinion of your company, you might get more customers and be able to get the attention of important customers. Market research enables you to comprehend how the public currently feels about your company and how to enhance its reputation. Understanding your reputation and your areas for development will help you create strategies for successful public outreach that raise brand awareness and favorability.

What is market research?

A company conducts market research to learn crucial information about its target market and consumer behavior. It entails a number of steps, including formulating a research plan, selecting a target market for analysis, carrying it out, collecting data, processing and interpreting it, and reporting it. Businesses can learn about specific markets, the likelihood that a service or product will succeed, and patterns of consumer behavior that may help them achieve their sales objectives by conducting market research. Businesses use research findings to guide their strategic planning.

Market research cons

Following are some drawbacks of market research and ideas for overcoming them:

1. Can be expensive

It can be expensive to implement a market research strategy, especially for smaller businesses. Employing an outside firm to conduct research on behalf of a business can be very resource-intensive due to the lengthy process. Market research can be expensive for businesses up front, but it has a big impact on growing sales and making money. You might think about limiting your research to the most important market issues in order to save money. For instance, to save money on a more expensive research study, you might focus your research on customer marketing strategies.

2. Requires significant time investment

Along with financial costs, market research frequently takes time to complete. Finding the most crucial research questions to ask, creating a plan to collect data for each, and then processing the data to find results can all be time-consuming steps in the research process. Businesses might not see an immediate benefit from putting a research strategy in place because it can take time to conduct this research.

Concentrating on one aspect at a time can help market researchers produce results more quickly. It may be quicker to start with a single area of interest rather than conducting a comprehensive study. You can more quickly implement strategies to start enhancing your sales strategies based on the findings of this smaller study.

3. May only target a small population

How accurately it can represent your target customers is another potential drawback of market research. Accessing sample populations that fairly reflect the majority of a target market is a challenge for researchers frequently. For instance, researchers are likely to only receive responses from a small sample of participants if they send surveys to a large portion of your current customers. Although this criticism can be useful, it might not accurately reflect the opinions of your clients. Consider any potential biases in the sample respondents as a way to get around this These participants’ feedback can suggest additional areas for future research.

4. Need personnel to conduct research

Businesses must also hire qualified individuals to conduct market research. Many businesses opt to employ outside firms to carry out their research for them, but some larger businesses may have their own internal research team. Both options can be costly for businesses, so knowing how much money you have to spend on hiring experts can help you decide which is best for your requirements. Finding out what kind of market research is most advantageous to your company is a good first step toward figuring out your needs for research personnel. Some companies might require a larger research department than others.

Market research methods

Here are four common methods of market research:

Surveys are a common method for consumer research. Businesses regularly distribute surveys to gain insight into customer satisfaction. Customers may be polled at crucial points during their interactions with the business, such as when browsing its website or right after making a purchase. It’s typical for surveys to include a number of quick questions asking the respondent to rate their overall experience on a numbered scale as well as open-ended inquiries asking for written feedback. Consumer demographic data may also be gathered through surveys so that companies can create useful profiles of their typical customers. Direct customer feedback can give businesses quick, actionable insight.

Surveys are a great way to gather information from many participants quickly. Despite the fact that surveys only allow for general inquiries and may not be able to detect nonverbal cues, they are frequently crucial to market research. You can reach a wide audience and get immediate feedback by regularly sending electronic surveys to customers who interact with your business.

2. Interviews

Individual interviews with important clients are another research technique. An in-person interview with a customer can be a great way to learn more about their intentions, behaviors, and attitudes toward your business. A personal interview may yield more in-depth insight than a survey because it allows you to observe the subject’s verbal and nonverbal cues. Compared to a more generalized survey, you can ask more inquisitive questions and conduct a more thorough analysis of the respondents’ responses when conducting an in-person interview.

Although interviews are a great way to learn about a subject’s attitudes toward a company, it may be challenging to generalize the findings. Individual interviews take time to complete, and it can be more difficult to locate participants for a formal interview than for a more casual survey. Interviews can be excellent for niche or small businesses with a relatively small customer base despite these drawbacks. Since these customers are more likely to have common interests and objectives, conducting individual interviews could provide insightful information about the strengths and weaknesses of your company.

3. Focus groups

Focus groups are conducted to gather information about your target market’s experiences with your company. Participants are chosen from among those who represent your target market. This can be a great way to get opinions from a group of people who are similar to your main target market. Compared to a general survey, having a face-to-face meeting with a group of participants lets you ask more in-depth questions that reveal deeper insights into customer opinions.

The participants in this type of research should be carefully chosen, and the conversation should be framed by neutral questions. A participant with a more dominant personality may sway the opinions of the group in some focus group dynamics, which can bias your results. Similarly, it’s crucial to craft your inquiries in a way that reduces the likelihood of skewed responses. Focus groups can be an excellent way to learn more about the requirements of your core customers by inviting a balanced group of participants and using questions that produce unbiased insights.

4. Observations

An excellent way to comprehend your customers’ interactions with various aspects of your business is through observational studies. For instance, you could invite real customers to take part in an observational study where you watch and record them using your website in order to understand how users interact with it. You can infer from this observation which elements of your site’s design are most functional and which you can improve.

Observational research is crucial for gaining a thorough understanding of how your customers interact with your business, but incorporating it into your research process can be time-consuming and expensive. You must invite subjects to participate in your study and create official structures to conduct it in order to conduct observational research successfully. For instance, you might set up a series of tasks that visitors to your site must complete. You could devise a method for keeping track of how long it takes each participant to finish the tasks, and you could also conduct a follow-up interview.

Primary Research Data Explained: The Pros & Cons of Marketing Research

What are the advantages and disadvantages of market research?

• Managing risks. …
• Increasing sales. …
• Improving brand recognition. …
• Measuring brand reputation. …
• Can be expensive. …
• Requires significant time investment. …
• May only target a small population. …
• Need personnel to conduct research.

What is the disadvantage of market research?

The time needed to conduct the research, complete questionnaires, and conduct interviews is another drawback of market research. Costs and time are directly correlated, with longer research periods potentially costing the company more money.

What are the pros and cons of methods of marketing research?

By conducting market research, you can target the preferences and problems of your customers more precisely. It’s a win-win for your customers and your business. Using a segmentation-targeting-positioning (STP) model in your market research is one of the best ways to focus on the needs of your customers.

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Integrated Primary & Secondary Research

2 Pros and Cons of Research

Advantages and Disadvantages of Primary Research

If enough information cannot be found through internal or external secondary data to solve the NPO’s problem, the organization will then proceed to design a study wherein they will collect Primary Data ;  information collected for a particular research question or project.

Primary research often is richer and more directly useful, but it also has its downsides. The term primary research is widely used in Academic Research , Market Research, and Competitive Intelligence.  Primary research aids organizations with obtaining information directly from sources themselves, instead of relying on the research of others.

Displayed in the table below is a detailed pro and cons list on Primary Research. It lists several advantages and disadvantages and provides brief information on each component.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Secondary Research

Like primary research, secondary research offers pros and cons. Similar to the table provided above, lays a table below displaying detailed pros and cons list on Secondary Research. It lists several advantages and disadvantages and provides brief information on each component.

Attribution

This page contains material taken from:

Learning, L. (2020). Introduction to Sociology. Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/research-methods/

Primary Market Research. (2020). Retrieved July 23, 2020, from http://kolibri.teacherinabox.org.au/modules/enboundless/www.boundless.com/business/concepts/primary-market-research-0-8219/index.html

Sagepub (2006). Research in Nonprofit Organizations. Retrieved from https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/9066_WymerCh3.pdf

Types of Data. (2020). Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/advertising-campaigns-start-to-finish/s08-01-types-of-data.html

New information the organization gathers directly from respondents they interact with, surveys, or alternative research methods.

An Open Guide to Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Copyright © by Andrea Niosi and KPU Marketing 4201 Class of Summer 2020 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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More From Forbes

15 questions to ask your cmo about integrating ai in marketing.

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With artificial intelligence gaining more and more popularity in business, it can be easy for companies to quickly jump on the AI bandwagon without first considering the pros and cons of making such a move. This is especially true for marketing—a department that specializes in creating the company’s brand voice and messaging in such a way that will connect with consumers. Would implementing AI compromise that specialty?

This is just one of the many questions CEOs should discuss with their company’s chief marketing officer to determine if integrating AI into their marketing efforts is the right move. Below, the marketing experts of Forbes Communications Council explore 15 other questions CEOs should ask their CMOs, and why doing so is crucial to their success.

1. 'Can we trust it?'

This is the question that should be asked first, followed by, "Is it worth the risk to our brand?" There is still so much unknown and not vetted about AI that it may not be the smartest move to run out and be a frontiersman right away. There is wisdom in sitting back a little and looking smarter for allowing other brands to experience the early errors instead of yours. - Kathleen Stockham , South College

2. 'How will we be different?'

The advent of AI will lead to more marketing clutter and make it more difficult for a company's message to break through. So, it will be vital for a brand to present a unique message that resonates with customers. Whether this is done with AI or by doubling down on a handcrafted approach, a company must offer a compelling brand personality in order to win business. - Robert Neely , Lima One Capital

3. 'What is the risk?'

While AI can provide numerous benefits, it can also place the organization in jeopardy if it is used without guardrails. A CEO should understand what processes are in place to combat AI’s tendency to mimic biases in the data it analyzes, to safeguard customer privacy and to ensure that an AI vendor’s cybersecurity practices are in line with their own as a means of protecting IP. - Joe Garber , Axiad

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Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024, 4. 'is it saving time or bringing value'.

Ask, “Are you using AI to save time or bring value, and do you know the difference?” For example, one of our brand pillars is subtle luxury. It doesn’t align well with massive amounts of AI-generated content. A better use case that aligns with our values is using AI for forecasting. In this case, a CEO can ask, “Are you using AI to ensure campaign success and better understand pipeline contribution?” - Courtney Austermehle , Constructor

5. 'What data-driven insights will it provide to help us market to customers?'

AI should help brands better understand their customers, which empowers their marketing to evolve and revolve around the customer. Marketing AI's purpose is to help tailor marketing strategies, improve personalization and, ultimately, drive more effective customer engagement. - Pini Yakuel , Optimove

6. 'How should we position our AI use in customer messaging?'

Much of the AI focus in marketing has been on driving productivity in research, ideation or creation. Companies need to do better in positioning and messaging how their product uses AI to customers. The claim to be "AI-driven" is astronomical and empty. CEOs should ask their CMOs, "How should we be positioning our use of AI in our product portfolio and then messaging this to our customers?" - Rekha Thomas , Path Forward Marketing LLC

7. 'How will it help make marketing operations more efficient?'

CEOs should be asking their CMOs how integrating AI in marketing will help to make marketing operations more efficient. Boosting marketing ROI by lowering marketing costs is something that CEOs (and CFOs) are often focused on. In a time when marketing resources are increasingly under pressure, CMOs need to demonstrate how integrating AI can maximize the return on marketing investment. - Kerry-Ann Betton Stimpson , JMMB Group

8. 'How does this reflect our readiness to embrace innovation while managing risks?'

CEOs need to probe their CMOs on how their approach to AI in marketing reflects their readiness to embrace innovation while managing potential risks. It's crucial to ensure that AI's adoption is not just about jumping on a bandwagon but instead about making informed decisions that align with the company's growth trajectory and brand integrity over varying time frames. - Kurt Uhlir , Ethereal Innovations, Inc.

Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?

9. 'Is our AI usage under control?'

AI can be a huge efficiency booster, but it can also get out of control and lead to embarrassing situations, with rogue content slipping out the door. Any good marketing organization experiments with new technologies, but policies and controls need to be put in place to make sure any use of AI in work products is reviewed, quality-checked and approved before release. - Tom Treanor , Snipp Interactive

10. 'What is the impact on the business and on the customer?'

AI use needs to help the customer. Can we give the information to the customer faster and in a more timely manner, as well as help them interact with the brand and get everything they need? From the business side, does it help achieve the business objectives of customer satisfaction, growth, profitability and more? - Gaurav Bhatia , PenFed Credit Union

11. 'How is the marketing department excelling, and what are its opportunities for improvement?'

CEOs and CMOs can use the answer to drill down on how automation and AI might be able to bridge the gap between “operational” and “outstanding." For AI to be practical, leaders must approach it with a problem-first mindset. Otherwise, their AI applications will be impractical and may impede success. - Brett Hansen , Semarchy

12. 'How can we use AI to deliver better and faster?'

The AI-led marketing gains—be it insightful research, content creation, hyper-segmentation, analytics or anything else—should serve the customer better and responsibly. Delivering enhanced functionality shouldn’t come at the cost of compromising safety in the value chain. CEOs should ask their CMOs, “How can we deliver better and faster with AI to serve our customers in alignment with our core values?” - Seema Kalra , The Right Thing Marketing Communications

13. 'How can AI help us improve personalized experiences?'

Ask, "How will integrating AI in marketing enhance our understanding of customer behavior and improve personalized experiences?" This question is crucial because AI can revolutionize marketing by providing deeper insights into customer preferences and behaviors, enabling tailored and impactful campaigns that drive engagement and loyalty. - Antony Robinson , Novalnet AG

14. 'How can we use AI while still retaining our brand voice?'

CEOs should talk to their CMOs about using AI to make their marketing efforts more efficient while retaining their voice and brand identity. It is no surprise that a lot of AI writing sounds the same, and while AI can give you a lot of efficiency in bulk writing, marketers have to go back and edit to make sure every AI piece meets brand standards. - Sarah Lero , A.L. Huber

15. 'Does it improve our output, and at what cost?'

There's a balance between leveraging AI to save resources and still meeting company objectives. Particularly in content marketing, there's a lot of time and energy to be saved if teams can use AI effectively. However, if it doesn't improve the overall quality and output of content efforts, it's not the right use of the technology. - Maggie Mistovich , TextUs

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