Editor's note: Daisy Spier is a moderator and head of Spier Research Group, Larchmont, New York.

Advertisers and advertising agencies are always on the lookout for consumer trends. Marketing research helps them identify these trends. But interestingly, the trends we rarely think about are the trends within marketing research, and specifically advertising research.

One of the trends that is apparent today is the move to increased qualitative research due to budget and time constraints. Whereas qualitative research used to be used solely for developing hypotheses and options, now in many cases it has become the entire research process. If there is no quantitative follow-up, then it is the responsibility of the moderator to get more out of the qualitative research, to add to the educated intuition of marketing and creative people.

What sets great advertising research apart from mediocre research? How can we optimize qualitative strategic and diagnostic research?

Of course, the first step is to consider the objectives of the project, the nature of the product or service, and the target to whom the advertising will be addressed.

But equally important (and often overlooked), the moderator has to think like a creative person. Just as a moderator puts herself in the shoes of the respondents, she should understand the mindset of the writer and art director assigned to the project in question. That means you've got to appreciate what their job is, and how they do it.

In strategic development research, the moderator should ask herself, what does the creative person need to know and how will that information be used? How can I best learn and then communicate to the creatives what the consumer is all about? What his mindset is? How and why he uses the product? How his sense of self is tied to the product? What sets the product apart from other products in the category?

In advertising evaluation and diagnostic research, when presented with advertising to test, the moderator has to appreciate that the creative person has digested a great deal of background information and miniaturized it into a 30 second commercial or a print ad--quite a feat when you think about it! What creatives really need is the hot button that moves people, that emotionally connects them to the product by creating positive feelings about the product and/or by what it can do for them or their self-image. What they don't need from researchers is long-winded rhetoric and a laundry list of consumer responses without accompanying analysis.

To accomplish this the following conditions should be met:

1. Select a moderator who understands the creative process--how strategy is developed, and a campaign is developed. Ideally someone with agency experience will understand the needs of the creative staff. The moderator should be able to identify the mindset of the respondents and communicate it to the advertiser and agency. Not only what the reaction to campaigns or concepts is, but what is behind those reactions and why. Not only what works and doesn't work, but why, and what is more likely to work. A moderator who has been involved with the creative process firsthand will know what the creatives are interested in.

2. The moderator should take time before and between interviews or groups to talk with the creative team. While the marketing and marketing research staff usually clearly communicate the needs of the creative people, there is no substitute for hearing it in their own words. Talk about what they have seen and heard, and what they are interested in probing further.

3. The moderator must remember that in advertising you are not looking for mediocrity. No creative person wants to create strategically correct but forgettable advertising. The researcher's goal is to help create (by providing background learning), or identify and explain breakthrough advertising. The moderator should identify the core beliefs about a brand and help explain how far you can take those beliefs and stretch them before it destroys the credibility of the product or service. What every creative is striving for is excellence. The researcher must do the same.

4. Select a moderator who can establish a rapport with the creative people so that they have confidence in the research. If the creative people don't feel the moderator is on their team, they will resist incorporating learning from research into the creative development. "I'm one of those oddball creatives who really love research," says Judy Teller, creative group head, Ally & Gargano advertising, "the qualitative kind, because that's how you find those sensitive, little-understood places in the consumer's mind or psyche that are just pure gold for enhancing the emotional value of your brand, refining the power of your ads. But, I've got to feel that the moderator understands what I'm trying to accomplish."

5. The moderator should be flexible in research design. She should be open to new creative ideas that occur in the back room while research is in progress. Isn't that what advertising research is for? Why not spend a few minutes exploring a new idea? It may be right on, and if it's not, at least everyone will have learned something.

6. The moderator should remember that every word in an advertisement is precious. She should be sensitive to word nuances. She should keep in mind that the headline in a print ad must have the power to draw the consumer into the advertisement and that there are only so many words that can be included in a 30-second TV commercial.

7. The moderator should give time to the art and the overall tone and mood of the advertising, in addition to the copy. Remember that creatives work as a team (art and copy) and that the whole ad is greater than its parts. If the ad is humorous, does the humor work? Why does it work?

8. The moderator should use the power of focus group interviews to help you understand the possibilities for your brand. Focus groups are ideal for providing insights for product positioning and advertising strategy.

9. The moderator must create an atmosphere that empowers each respondent to speak freely and must sense if this is not happening and sort out the responses. The moderator must have a sixth sense about people and whether or not they are being honest.

10. The moderator should always consider the individuals as well as the group as a whole when she is analyzing findings. The warm-up period serves a very real purpose and even though it takes up some time which could have been spent talking about your advertising, it does have value to you. It allows people to establish themselves as individuals, to relax, to feel comfortable with their fellow respondents and to alleviate the anxiety that comes with fear of the unknown. It allows those in the back viewing room and the moderator to understand where that person is coming from and why he is saying what he is saying. It provides the context in which the information should be analyzed.

11. The moderator should read non-verbal as well as verbal cues from respondents. "Body language is important in focus groups. You can learn how a product is tied to somebody's self-esteem," says Eileen Friend, research director, Reader's Digest.

12. The moderator must respect the materials she is exposing to respondents and the creatives should respect the moderator and respondents by providing the highest quality of materials they can. If you expect her to read storyboards or concept boards to respondents, the moderator must do so in a way that is acceptable to the creative people without bias to any campaign. The storyboards or rough ads should be as detailed and clear as possible for the sake of the respondent and the moderator. The less the moderator has to explain the better so that each person receives the same stimulus.

13. Don't cut all the depth out of one-on-ones. Allow as much time as budgets permit. The lack of emotion that is frequently seen in one-on-ones is due to the fact that they tend to be shorter, the interview is more structured, the respondent has only the interviewer to "connect" with, and there is no group energy. There is little time for a warm-up as in focus groups. Very often after brief one-on-one interviews respondents ask, "Is that all?" and I realize that they are telling me that they have just gotten over their anxiety and are now completely at ease. What kind of information could we have gotten if we had five or ten more minutes of interviewing time?

14. Use one-on-ones when you want to expose people to advertising or positionings and get their comprehension without group influence. "Focus groups are wonderful up front but I would never, never ever voluntarily use focus groups for exposing advertising," says Ally & Gargano's Judy Teller.
"One-on-ones are very useful to confirm understanding of direct mail brochures. For example, if you want to see if people can find the ordering instructions in a brochure and you want to be absolutely sure that people haven't learned from each other," says Reader's Digest's Eileen Friend.

15. It is the responsibility of the moderator to be absolutely fresh with each respondent no matter how many have come before. Allow the moderator to set the schedule that she can work best with. Since sample sizes are so small, each respondent and his opinions must be given the respect they deserve. Peter Gassiraro, vice president, account supervisor, Weiss/Watson Inc. advertising, says, "The key to one-on-ones is a great interviewer; the problem is, it's exhausting work."

16. Finally, don't be a slave to methodological myths such as:

"If one person hates the campaign then everyone in a focus group will say so and it will be killed."

"People are embarrassed to express their true feelings in a group, you never know what you're getting."

"There's always a leader who influences the group."

"One-on-ones are dull, boring, and lacking affect."

"There's no group influence in an individual interview so you get a true response."

"One-on-ones are too expensive per interview."

"I can tell right away how many liked a campaign and how many did not in an individual interview. Groups are more ambiguous."

"It's easier to reach conclusions right then and there. You don't have to wait for the moderator's report."

Taken individually each of these comments are valid, but as an aggregate they paint a picture that could be misleading, and lead to decisions about methodology that may not be the optimal choice. Remember that there are always special situations that require special solutions. Walk like a researcher, think like a creative person as you seek research solutions.

Barbara Levy, a San Francisco area moderator, suggests that "one-on-ones may be required when the people you need to interview are not concentrated in one area, and therefore you cannot recruit a full group to come to a single location." She has encountered this in projects she has conducted with professionals in high-tech fields. "Sometimes the respondents are so scattered and difficult to reach that I've conducted one-on-one interviews by telephone."

Certain categories and subjects may lend themselves better to individual interviews than to groups. "In high-tech, the end users don't know or care about certain things and are embarrassed to say they don't know. Similarly, high level people don't want to show their technical ignorance, so one-on-ones allow them to be more honest," Levy says.

In image-based advertising, such as is often used in service industries, I have found a combination of focus groups and one-on-ones to be very successful. For example, if you have a series of executions and you want to understand what they communicate, do some brief one-on-ones to establish whether or not the strategy is being communicated. Then, as a second step within the same project, follow these one-on-ones with a focus group. Here the objective is not communication, but whether or not the advertising is evoking the emotions and brand personality (imagery) you are seeking. The group will add dimension which does not always come through in individual interviews. "If the advertising is primarily image-oriented, as in the case of beer or cigarettes, then focus groups tend to draw out those emotions," says Weiss/Watson's Peter Gassiraro.

Occasionally, a client does not have the time, resources or inclination to conduct strategic research apart from execution research, so you have to get as much as you can from the research you are doing. You have to be creative in research design. When sequential research is not an option, a combination of focus groups and one-on-ones can provide the range of information you need.